MUDCAP

Interreg NW Europe 2026 – 2029 Data & Research February 1, 2026
MUDCAP

MUDCAP – Strengthening resilience to muddy floods in North-West Europe

Pluvial muddy floods (PMF) — intense rainfall events that flush sediment-laden water across fields and into villages — are becoming more frequent and destructive across the loess belt of North-West Europe. Yet they remain poorly documented, difficult to predict, and costly to mitigate.

MUDCAP (MUDdy flood mitigation through transnational action-oriented CAPacity building) is a three-year Interreg North-West Europe project running from 2026 to 2029. This transnational project addresses the growing challenge of pluvial muddy floods (PMFs), which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, causing soil erosion, runoff, damage to infrastructure, agricultural land and local communities across North-West Europe.

Bringing together researchers, public authorities, water management organisations and local stakeholders from Belgium, France and Germany, MUDCAP develops practical and scalable solutions adapted to territorial realities to improve muddy flood prevention, runoff management and soil erosion mitigation. Through pilot sites, digital tools, field actions and local governance approaches, MUDCAP supports the practical implementation of these solutions.

MUDCAP pursues three main objectives, implemented through three work packages:

  1. WP1: Enhance PMF risk prediction and decision-support for regional and municipal authorities under present and future climatic conditions, by developing PMF registration and documentation protocols, along with digital tools (databases, risk maps, prioritization schemes).
  2. WP2: Strengthen local co-governance of PMF management in NWE and support scalable dissemination across varied national and regional contexts, by developing co-design tools, methods, and policy recommendations through transdisciplinary pilot actions in small runoff sub-watersheds
  3. WP3: Facilitate transnational knowledge exchange at NWE level, assess common challenges and opportunities in PMF risk management, and ensure the effective transfer, uptake, and long-term use of project outcomes – tools, data, and governance models – through joint benchmarking, open-access resources, and targeted communication and training activities

The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg North-West Europe programme, with a total budget of €5,976,031 (EU contribution: €3,585,619). UCLouvain (Belgium) leads the consortium; ADSCIAN is one of five Belgian partners, alongside:

ADSCIAN's contribution

We lead the compilation of a transnational database of pluvial muddy flood events across the three partner countries. This harmonised dataset — integrating field records, historical archives, and supporting spatial data on soils, land use, and terrain — forms the empirical backbone for MUDCAP’s predictive modelling and management tools.
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