In spite of their great importance, ponds are largely neglected in water- and nature-related national and EU policies and strategies2, including the EU-Water Framework Directive. A key question is how the abundance, density and ecological quality of ponds in a landscape feeds back to exacerbate or ameliorate local and regional CC impacts. The few reported measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) dynamics in ponds suggest that warming may enhance emissions, but how biodiversity and ecological status of ponds interact with temperature to affect these emissions and other ES is not well understood

By generating and integrating biodiversity, ecosystem, social, economic and policy knowledge, PONDERFUL will be able to tackle the knowledge gaps in the policy context and social perception of ponds, quantifying the relations between biodiversity, ecosystem state, ES and CC, developing scenarios for climate mitigation and adaptation using pondscapes, and testing the implemented pondscape-based solutions using demonstration sites (DEMO sites) co-developed with stakeholders to, ultimately, develop practical tools for creating and managing pondscape NBS.

PONDERFUL will foster the design and implementation of NBS using networks of ponds ("pondscapes") for mitigation and adaptation to CC, where both the quantity and quality of ponds in landscapes leads to enhanced biodiversity conservation and enhanced delivery of ES.