NENUPHAR

New governance models to enhance nutrient pollution handling and nutrients recycling

NENUPHAR aims to solve nutrient pollution from Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) by developing new governance and value chain solutions addressing three waste streams widely present in Europe: manure, sewage sludges and dairy wastewaters.

The project aims to address four main innovations:

1. a methodology for estimating N/P emissions from the application of a fertilizer on soil
2. new governance models based on a network governance approach
3. innovative economic and financial incentives for public and private entities
4. enabling technologies to treat manure, sludges and dairy wastewaters to recover the nutrient loads

NENUPHAR approach is demonstrated in three different regional clusters from geographically diverse river basins: the Ebro River basin (Spain), the Lielupe River basin (Latvia-Lithuania), and the Danube River basin (Hungary-Slovakia branch) and it will be replicated in two insular systems: Cyprus and Bornholm (Denmark). All the regions involved gather a population of 5,4 M people and an area of 109,000 km2. This demonstration allows the direct recovery of 273 ton of N and 72 ton of P, while the involved regions show an overall potential of 38.3 Mton of manure, 252 kton of dry sludges and 4.3 m3 of dairy wastewater that can be treated.

NENUPHAR employs a multi-stakeholder approach, gathering 21 entities representing farmers and irrigators, waste managers, research experts in circularity and agronomics, social science experts, environmental organisations and public administrations.

Within the project DRAXIS is responsible for the development of the monitoring framework by creating a longlist of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure state and change in governance dynamics as well as the technical and the environmental parameters for the demonstration stage of each demo-site. Also, DRAXIS is assessing the sustainability (Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)) of the demo-sites in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts.

Finally, DRAXIS is responsible for the development of an online Geospatial Intelligence Platform which aims to support the identification of synergies between the generation of waste and areas with need of N/P input, facilitating the exploitation and/or disposal pathways of these wastes.