Session B6 - International collaboration and data-sharing

Climate change fundamentally alters the assumptions on which urban drainage infrastructure are designed and operated. We can no longer assume that the future will look like the past and therefore our infrastructure must be adapted to future conditions. Despite this urgency, the urban water management research community has not fully engaged on this issue. There is no dedicated research group on climate change adaptation, and conventional approaches and models currently used to design new or rehabilitate existing urban water infrastructure are increasingly unsuitable under a changed climate. Although climate change is a highly complex phenomena, development of new approaches and knowledge that will enable urban populations to live well in the future is vital. To understand how researchers in this community relate to climate change issues, we conducted 24 semi-structured interviews of about an hour, focusing on their understanding and use of climate-related data in current research. The study results revealed that climate change has long been considered a very important topic by all participants, but that many barriers prevent its integration, both in research organization and in the research itself. A few ideas and suggestions also emerged, such as making the relevant (climatic) data available and developing nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, and will be presented.

Building on Schilling’s (1999) reflection on the European Junior Scientists Workshop (EJSW) first 13 editions, this paper traces the workshop’s transformation over nearly four decades, highlighting its impact across 27 editions to date. It examines how EJSWs adapted to the changing academic and societal landscapes which are marked by digitalization, interdisciplinarity, and increased pressures on young researchers, while preserving its core mission of peer learning and mutual support. The paper also discusses the growing educational role of the workshop and its contribution to the professional development of young researchers. It also outlines challenges and proposes pathways to ensure the workshop’s continuity and long-term sustainability. Additionally, it raises some questions and ideas concerning the future directions and changes necessary for the continued success of these workshops.

Urbanization reshapes ecosystems and threatens human, animal, and environmental health notably through the accumulation of pollutants and wastes derived from anthropogenic activities. Among the resulting urban compartments, urban anthrosols (UA) remain particularly understudied, even though they can strongly influence other hydric compartments. Our results from Lyon (France) show that UA act as reservoirs of hazardous substances and microbial contaminants, including fecal bacteria and pathogens. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) strongly structured the UA microbiome, reinforcing fungal–bacterial cohesion and selecting cross-domain interactions of hydrocarbon degraders and pathogens that serve as indicators of environmental health hazards. Yet, a formal conceptual framework and large-scale ecological understanding of UA are still lacking. We present a Pan-European initiative targeting cities across different bioclimatic zones to characterize UA through integrative pollutant profiling, multi-domain eDNA metabarcoding, and pathogen quantification. Experimental microcosms will assess pathogen resilience and ecological memory under UHI scenarios. This initiative aims to build a European UA database, an operational framework, and predictive microbiological risk-assessment tools to identify priority urban areas requiring tailored management, while inviting cities and research teams to collaborate in this project dedicated to urban environmental health.

Nature-Based Solutions (NBSsw) are increasingly deployed in European cities to manage stormwater, reduce flood risk, and support climate adaptation. Yet, comparable hydrological observations across different NBSsw types and climatic conditions remain scarce. To address this gap, we compiled a Pan-European dataset of high-resolution hydrological monitoring from 12 sites hosting seven types of stormwater NBSsw (green roofs, raingardens, roadside biofilters, infiltration swales, vegetated detention basins, green parking lots, and stormwater trees). The dataset integrates harmonized measurements of rainfall, inflow, water levels, soil moisture, outflow, and meteorological variables, complemented by site-level metadata and standardized quality-control procedures. These observations capture full rainfall-runoff responses of NBSsw under real operational conditions across diverse climates and designs. By providing consistent, openly accessible time series, this dataset establishes the first European benchmark for NBSsw hydrology, enabling cross-site comparisons, model development, and evidence-based evaluation of NBSsw performance. All data and documentation are available through site-level DOIs in the GreenStorm community on Zenodo platform.