News
– This project will analyse how payments for systemic services (PES) can improve water quality, protect water resources and support climate change adaptation through an equitable approach across different organisational contexts
– The knowledge generated will be translated into strategic recommendations and decision-support tools for key stakeholders in water management
Against a backdrop of accelerating urbanisation and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, ensuring an equitable, resilient and sustainable urban water supply poses a challenge for contemporary environmental governance. To address this challenge, PES4URBANWATER has been launched as an international research project that will assess the feasibility of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes as financial and structural tools for protecting water resources and strengthening the resilience of cities.
PES4URBANWATER focuses on Barcelona and Melbourne as case studies—two cities with distinct and pioneering water governance models. Barcelona is characterised by a centralised water management model, whereas Melbourne operates under a decentralised, multi-level governance system.
Through this unprecedented comparison, the initiative will provide insight into how a city’s institutional and organisational structure influences the design, acceptance and success of economic incentives aimed at conserving riverine and urban ecosystems.
The project, coordinated by Cetaqua–Water Technology Centre in collaboration with the Australian university RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), integrates environmental and economic evaluations with public policy analysis. Central to this approach is the deployment of Water-Oriented Living Labs (WOOLs)—collaborative innovation spaces where public institutions, industry partners, researchers, and local communities co-develop solutions alongside innovative regulatory sandboxes.
The knowledge generated will be translated into strategic recommendations and decision support tools for policymakers, water authorities, water utility companies and other key stakeholders. This suite of tools will be designed to be transferable, enabling it to effectively guide urban planners, managers and policymakers in any major city worldwide.
In this way, PES4URBANWATER will help to build a shared vision of more effective, inclusive and evidence-based water governance models, strengthening the capacity of cities to address the challenges of climate change and move towards more sustainable urban water management.
Unlike previous studies that analyse the economic or environmental feasibility of PES in isolation, PES4URBANWATER places distributive justice at the heart of its analysis, examining how the costs and benefits of water management models are shared.
Dr. Cecilia Higa Gonzales Morilla, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow, explains: “A water management model is only truly viable if its burdens and benefits are distributed fairly and transparently. By comparing contexts such as Barcelona and Melbourne, our aim is to demonstrate that environmental protection, financial viability and social justice are three deeply interconnected dimensions that must be managed together.”
In this way, the PES4URBANWATER initiative, which is co-funded by the European Union through the AuSpire Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) of Horizon Europe, seeks to align with and directly support major global agendas, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the European Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
More information about PES4URBANWATER:
https://www.cetaqua.com/proyectos/pes4urbanwater/
Co-funded by the European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 101177949 (AuSpire). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the Research Executive Agency can be held responsible for them.
