The DICCA project supports the EU climate and environment policy goals

All European cities with intensively used urban green spaces face similar challenges: climate change, growing user numbers and other environmental pressures can severely disrupt the balance of inner-city ecosystems.

The LIFE DICCA project aims to support the implementation of European Union climate policy by introducing targeted measures to counteract the negative impact of climate change on the Danube Island. The project also supports other European Union environment policy goals.

The LIFE-Programme of the European Union

The LIFE Programme is the European Union's funding instrument for environmental, nature conservation and climate action projects. The LIFE DICCA project has received funding under the climate action sub-programme for the programming period 2014 to 2020.

The climate action sub-programme focuses on the following priority areas:

• Climate change mitigation: reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Climate change adaptation: increasing resilience to climate change
• Climate change governance and information: increasing awareness, communication, cooperation and dissemination on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

• LIFE-Programme - European Commission
• LIFE-Programme - Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management

The EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change

In 2013 the European Commission adopted an EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change, which aims to make Europe more climate resilient. The EU Adaptation Strategy is an important supplement to the climate action measures.

EU-Adaption Strategy

The European Union environmental objectives

The environmental objectives of the European Union are set forth in Directives and have to be implemented by the EU Member States.

The LIFE DICCA project complies with these Directives by implementing a series of ecological, species conservation and resource-efficient landscape maintenance measures on the Danube Island:

• Water Framework Directive: e.g. revitalization of bays and ponds
  • The EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) - Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management
  • The EU Water Framework Directive - European Commission
• EU Flora and Fauna Habitats Directive: e.g. measures to improve habitats for protected species
  • Flora and Fauna Habitats Directive - Environment Agency Austria (German)
  • Natural habitats (Natura 2000) - summary of the EU legislation (German)
• EU Strategy for Green Infrastructure: e.g. regeneration of ecosystems and building of ecological links on the Danube Island
  • o Building a Green Infrastructure for Europe: 3,3 MB PDF
• LIFE-Programme - Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management