Das Projekt "Architecture and roadmap to manage multiple pressures on lagoons (ARCH)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Stiftelsen Norges Geotekniske Institutt durchgeführt. Objective: The ARCH research project Architecture and roadmap to manage multiple pressures on lagoons aims to develop participative methodologies in collaboration with policy makers, local authorities and stakeholders to manage the multiple problems affecting lagoons (estuarine coastal areas). These areas represent ecosystems that are very vulnerable for climate change, increasing urbanisation and industrialisation. A central feature of ARCH is to provide realistic solutions to manage these pressures and establish a better connection (the arch) between science and policy. This is accomplished by facilitating the transition (i) from segregated disciplinary scientific results to well integrated and usable scientific knowledge, (ii) from government and sectoral policies towards governance and sustainable management; and (iii) from an unaware and uninformed lagoon community towards an involved and well-informed community. ARCH will work with 10 case study lagoons and estuaries having a geographical distribution covering all major seas surrounding Europe. A participatory workshop methodology will be used at the lagoon sites to develop a decision framework to choose strategies, interventions and measures to manage the existing and future problems in the lagoon. This is accomplished using an integrated planning approach, considering ecosystem services to assess the social, economic and ecological state of the lagoon and linking this to spatial planning methodology. The final products of ARCH are roadmaps for implementation of realistic solutions at the lagoon scale, a management guide for coastal managers and policy makers in Europe and the European Lagoon Management Handbook. The project will actively disseminate products and experiences via newsletters, multiplier seminars, a website and specific web-tool for discussion, and a final conference. The legacy beyond the lifetime of the project is ensured by the connection to international networks, like the UNESCO HELP-program.
Das Projekt "Raising the alert about critical feedbacks between climate and long-term land use change in the Amazon (AMAZALERT)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek durchgeführt. AMAZALERT will enable raising the alert about critical feedbacks between climate, society, land-use change, vegetation change, water availability and policies in Amazonia. We will: 1) analyze and improve coupled models of global climate and Amazon, land use, vegetation and socio-economic drivers to quantify anthropogenic and climate induced land-use and land cover change and non-linear, irreversible feedbacks among these components 2) assess the role of regional and global policies and societal responses in the Amazon region for altering the trajectory of land-use change in the face of climate change and other anthropogenic factors and finally 3) propose i) an Early Warning System for detecting any imminent irreversible loss of Amazon ecosystem services, ii) policy response strategies to prevent such loss. We first prioritise the functions of Amazonia and threats to these. We then will analyse uncertainties in biogeochemistry, land cover (vegetation), land-use change and regional hydrology, as well as nonlinear responses and feedbacks using existing and new simulations from state of the art models in which land surface is coupled to global climate. The way in which policies and possible future response strategies of policy makers, trade and economy will affect land-use change will be modelled. This will lead to (A) understanding the impact on and effectiveness of a range of international and regional policy options, including REDD+; and (B) identification of both biophysical and socio-economic indicators of irreversible change. AMAZALERT integrates the multidisciplinary knowledge and research of world-renowned, highly influential climate, land cover, land use change scientists and also policy analysts from 14 European and South-American institutions that have been collaborating for 10 to 30 years. Thus, this project can achieve maximum impact on EU (2020 climate goals), international and South-American strategies, including REDD
Das Projekt "Integrated water resources and coastal zone management in European lagoons in the context of climate change (LAGOONS)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universidade de Aveiro, Campus de Santiago durchgeführt. Issue: The environmental issue of concern of the LAGOONS project is the anthropogenic deterioration and climate change impacts - especially the effects of extreme weather events- on surface water and lagoons ecosystems. Objectives: The main objective of the LAGOONS project is to contribute to a science-based seamless strategy - in an integrated and coordinated fashion - of the management of lagoons seen under the land-sea and science-policy-stakeholder interface; i.e., the project seek to underpin the integration of the EU Water Framework Directive, Habitat Directive, the EU s ICZM Recommendation, and the EU Marine Strategy Directive. Methodology: Four case study lagoons have been selected to represent a set of 'hotspot' coastal lagoons with a wide and balanced geographical distribution and different characteristics. The lagoons included are: Vistula Lagoon in Baltic Sea (transboundary Poland/Russia); Tylygulskyi Lagoon in Black Sea (Ukraine); Ria de Aveiro Lagoon in Atlantic Ocean (Portugal), and Mar Menor in the Mediterranean Sea (Spain). By means of elaborating integrated strategies for sustainable development of the case study lagoons in the climate change context, the LAGOONS project will contribute to the goals of the Call showing that it is possible to enhance connectivity between research and policy-making in a lagoons context using a proactive approach to water issues, which assures more efficient use of existing research results. Impact: In management terms, LAGOONS will contribute to the decision-support methodologies for a coordinated approach to the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Directive. In addition, LAGOONS will propose actions to tackle bottlenecks in the context of climate change, i.e., LAGOONS will propose actions foreseen in the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy - A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Das Projekt "European Union Basin-scale Analysis, Synthesis and Integration (EURO-BASIN)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Danmarks Tekniske Universitet durchgeführt. Objective: EURO-BASIN is designed to advance our understanding on the variability, potential impacts, and feedbacks of global change and anthropogenic forcing on the structure, function and dynamics of the North Atlantic and associated shelf sea ecosystems as well as the key species influencing carbon sequestering and ecosystem functioning. The ultimate goal of the program is to further our capacity to manage these systems in a sustainable manner following the ecosystem approach. Given the scope and the international significance, EURO-BASIN is part of a multidisciplinary international effort linked with similar activities in the US and Canada. EURO-BASIN focuses on a number of key groups characterizing food web types, e.g. diatoms versus microbial loop players; key species copepods of the genus Calanus; pelagic fish, herring (Clupea harengus), mackerel (Scomber scombrus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) which represent some of the largest fish stocks on the planet; piscivorous pelagic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) and albacore (Thunnus alalunga) all of which serve to structure the ecosystem and thereby influence the flux of carbon from the euphotic zone via the biological carbon pump. In order to establish relationships between these key players, the project identifies and accesses relevant international databases and develops methods to integrate long term observations. These data will be used to perform retrospective analyses on ecosystem and key species/group dynamics, which are augmented by new data from laboratory experiments, mesocosm studies and field programs. These activities serve to advance modelling and predictive capacities based on an ensemble approach where modelling approaches such as size spectrum; mass balance; coupled NPZD; fisheries; and ?end to end? models and as well as ecosystem indicators are combined to develop understanding of the past, present and future dynamics of North Atlantic and shelf sea ecosystems and their living marine resources.
Das Projekt "Atmospheric Composition Change: the European Network-Policy Support and Science (ACCENT-PLUS)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche durchgeführt. Objective: Fragmentation of research efforts, lack of a shared scientific vision and insufficient availability of research tools, shared databases, etc., is a major limitation for the understanding of atmospheric composition change over Europe under a changing climate, and the consequent inadequate transfer of prospects to the decision makers for future policies. The ACCENT-Plus project builds on the successful efforts of the Network of Excellence ACCENT which, over the past six years, has brought together the atmospheric science community engaged in global change and air pollution studies. The integration efforts within the ACCENT Network have produced a stronger cohesion of the community, including research groups from the new EU Member States and have facilitated the engagement of a new generation of scientists who have started their career in the collaborative environment promoted by ACCENT. ACCENT-Plus aims at extending the breath of the previous ACCENT phase to reach out to the policy community, facilitating the transfer of research results into policy/decision making. A prerequisite to reach this goal is to continue fostering the coordination and integration of the European science community, associating with this new effort all partners and associates of the previous ACCENT phase. Joint research programming, contribution to the international research agenda, access to information, training/mobility activities and facilitation in the use of research infrastructures will be key elements of ACCENT-Plus to preserve and enhance the excellence of European research in an ERA context, to produce integrated assessment and synthesis of scientific results and to connect science and policy making by transferring to the decision makers the important links between air quality and climate change and the prospects and benefits of co-control policies.
Das Projekt "People for Ecosystem Based Governance in Assessing Sustainable Development of Ocean and Coast (PEGASO)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona durchgeführt. Objective: Many efforts have been deployed for developing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Both basins have, and continue to suffer severe environmental degradation. In many areas this has led to unsustainable trends, which have impacted, on economic activities and human well-being. An important progress has been made with the launch of the ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean Sea in January 2008. The ICZM Protocol offers, for the first time in the Mediterranean, an opportunity to work in a new way, and a model that can be used as a basis for solving similar problems elsewhere, such as in the Back Sea. The aim of PEGASO is to build on existing capacities and develop common novel approaches to support integrated policies for the coastal, marine and maritime realms of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins in ways that are consistent with and relevant to the implementation of the ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean. PEGASO will use the model of the existing ICZM Protocol for the Mediterranean and adjust it to the needs of the Black Sea through three innovative actions: -Constructing an ICZM governance platform as a bridge between scientist and end-user communities, going far beyond a conventional bridging. The building of a shared scientific and end users platform is at the heart of our proposal linked with new models of governance. -Refining and further developing efficient and easy to use tools for making sustainability assessments in the coastal zone (indicators, accounting methods and models, scenarios, socio-economic valuations, etc). They will be tested and validated in 10 sites (CASES) and by the ICZM Platform, using a multi-scale approach for integrated regional assessment. -Implementing a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), following INSPIRE Directive, to organize local geonodes and standardize spatial data to support information sharing on an interactive visor, to make it available to the ICZM Platform, and to disseminate all results of the project to all interested parties and beyond. -Enhancing regional networks of scientists and stakeholders in ICPC countries, supported by capacity building, to implement the PEGASO tools and lessons learned, to assess the state and trends for coast and sea in both basins, identifying present and future main threats agreeing on responses to be done at different scales in an integrated approach, including transdisciplinary and transbondary long-term collaborations.
Das Projekt "Integration of European marine research networks of excellence - Euromarine (EUROMARINE)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Göteborgs Universitet durchgeführt. Objective: EuroMarine is a coordination action that seeks to develop and implement an agreed framework for the long-lasting and durable co-operation between research institutions that were partners in FP6 marine Networks of Excellence in order to achieve further integration of marine research in Europe. Particular areas for cooperation will be: research programming, joint development and use of data bases, training and mobility of researchers, joint programming and use of research infrastructures. The objective is to provide an agreed frame for strong institutional commitment to this durable collaboration. The ultimate aim will be the sustainable integration of marine research and a significant contribution to the structure of the ERA.
Das Projekt "New biocide dry toilet with improved hygienic functionalities (DRYCLOSET)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Ecosphere Technologies Sarl durchgeführt. Water is essential for life. This element supposes also a determinant factor in the economy and ecology of the different regions. But water not only has influence in the human life, humans also affect to water cycle. The human activity is responsible of the climate change by which the Mediterranean region is being affected by drought and water shortage. Water shortage in Mediterranea countries is becoming an essential question. The domestic sector accounted for about 24 percent of total water withdrawn in Europe in 2000, which is about 7,320,00ML. In fact, toilet flushing supposes 30Prozent of the domestic use of urban water. The consume of such amount of water could be avoided using dry toilets, it is calculated saving of 50L/cap/day. In addition, it is estimated more than 20 million citizens without access to a safe sanitation in Europe. This situation is critical in rural areas of eastern European, where the most common system in these areas usually consist of pit latrines and septic tanks. Dry toilets are common in Nordic countries but their rustic technology makes them unacceptable in urban or large communities. At present dry toilets implies several factors, such as unpleasant odours and the manual manipulation of the latrine waste, which makes them unviable in most of urban environments. Also, there are other problems of drytoilets such as struvite formation on pipe connections. But this situation can be changed by applying the technical innovations that will be developed in this project. In adittion, the project?s success will allow the possibility to save important drinking water (1,875L/cap/year). This will be of essential importance in the Mediterranean countries, where the drought menace is each time more obvious. The use of dry toilets in rural areas with poor infrastructure will have safe sanitation systems to citizens DRYCLOSET project will develop a new dry toilet with a biocide toilet, low bad odours emissions and low maintenance.
Das Projekt "Coordination of national environment and health research programmes - environment and health ERA-NET (ERA-ENVHEALTH)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Agence Francaise de Securite Sanitaire de L'environnement et du Travail durchgeführt. Objective: It is estimated that around 20Prozent of the burden of disease in industrialized countries can be attributed to environmental factors, and the magnitude of the problem is perceived by the majority of Europeans. The assessment of health impacts is based mostly on scarce exposure data and limited information on the relationship between exposure and health. There is, therefore, a need to strengthen research in this area and to develop methods and tools which will improve the comparability of data. Member States have developed skills and expertise using different mechanisms to fund environment and health research. The scientific boundaries created by the remits of different funding organisations have frequently acted as a disincentive to collaborative working. Although aims are towards relevance and efficiency, the results remain dispersed and not of actual support for policy-making. Therefore, results of the studies in ERA-ENVHEALTH will lead to the proposal of a coherent set of proposed priorities, implementation of joint activities, and common calls. ERA-ENVHEALTH, by bringing together 16 participants from 10 countries, will contribute to establish collaboration among the different funding organisations of environmental and public health research communities.
Das Projekt "Supporting SME driven olive industry to comply with EU directives directives by turining olive oil waste water into energy through innovative bioreactor biotechnology, and extraction of olive oil industry by-products (EN-X-OLIVE)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Tecnologias Avanzadas Inspiralia SL durchgeführt. Technical scenario: Olive production is a significant economic sector in southern Member States, especially in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal. However, the extraction process involved in olive oil production generates non biodegradable phytotoxic waste, and is therefore a significant source of pollution. Despite the introduction in the 90s of improved separation systems such as 2-phase centrifugation system, that reduce both water use and the quantities of liquid residues produced, the problems of waste toxicity, high energy consumption and the disposal of final residues remain. Olive oil production gives a final waste consisting in a solid and very humid by-product called alperujo (AL) or Olive wet cake. The problem of AL disposal has not been fully resolved and research into new technological procedures that permit its profitable use is needed. In addition, these wastes also contain valuable resources such as phenolic compounds, (approximately 53Prozent in olive oil mill waste waters), characterised by different biological activity properties which could be of interest in industry (i.e. their strong antioxidant activity). Current extraction of these compounds is not available from olive oil waste water, since technology is not fully developed and optimised to get large scale prototyping such as Pilot plant stage. Proposed solution: We propose a method focused on both treatment of olive waste waters with by anaerobic digestion transforming biomass into biogas, basically Methane, and extraction from liquid fraction of valuable products, such as polyphenols. vSynergy between these technologies will allow overcome technical barriers such as polyphenol inactivation of the digestion process, making more efficient the process and letting a higher purity of the waste water product.
