Context
Conservation teams needed a transparent way to compare potential interventions across freshwater systems in Europe and to plan beyond The Nature Conservancy’s existing geographies.
Confluvio’s role
Confluvio built a custom decision-support web app, the TNC Europe Freshwater Outcomes Prioritization Tool (TEFOP), to identify priority catchments in Europe for freshwater conservation interventions. The work ran from 2022 to 2024 for The Nature Conservancy Europe (Freshwater Team).
Methods and data
The tool uses the HydroSHEDS framework with 50 curated data layers covering freshwater biodiversity, ecosystem diversity, enabling conditions, state of natural systems, climate change and human development. A weighted overlay with user-set weights (0-3 stars) follows four steps: explore, filter, prioritize and analyze. Results are provided for Europe at HydroBASINS level 10 catchments, with statistics by catchment, river basin and country.
Results
TNC used TEFOP to plan beyond its existing geographies. TNC’s 2024 report on Nature-based Solutions for water security in Croatia used TEFOP to select basins for flood, drought, water-quality and biodiversity interventions. The tool was featured in TNC’s Geospatial Conservation Annual Report 2022.