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Water and water-related services are major components of the human wellbeing, and as such are major factors of socio-economic development in Europe; yet freshwater systems are under threat by a variety of stressors (organic and inorganic pollution, geomorphological alterations, land cover change, water abstraction, invasive species and pathogens. Some stressors, such as water scarcity, can be a stressor on its own because of its structural character, and drive the effects of other stressors. The relevance of water scarcity as a stressor is more important in semi-arid regions, such as the Mediterranean basin, which are characterized by highly variable river flows and the occurrence of low flows. This has resulted in increases in frequency and magnitude of extreme flow events. Furthermore, in other European regions such as eastern Germany, western Poland and England, water demand exceeds water availability and water scarcity has become an important management issue. Water scarcity is most commonly associated with inappropriate water management, with resulting river flow reductions. It has become one of the most important drivers of change in freshwater ecosystems. Conjoint occurrence of a myriad of stressors (chemical, geomorphological, biological) under water scarcity will produce novel and unfamiliar synergies and most likely very pronounced effects. Within this context, GLOBAQUA has assembled a multidisciplinary team of leading scientists in the fields of hydrology, chemistry, ecology, ecotoxicology, economy, sociology, engineering and modeling in order to study the interaction of multiple stressors within the frame of strong pressure on water resources. The aim is to achieve a better understanding how current management practices and policies could be improved by identifying the main drawbacks and alternatives.
Massive economic and population growth and urbanisation are expected to lead to a tripling of anthropogenic emissions in southern West Africa (SWA) between 2000 and 2030, the impacts of which on human health, ecosystems, food security and the regional climate are largely unknown. An assessment of these impacts is complicated by (a) a superposition with effects of global climate change, (b) the strong dependence of SWA on the sensitive West African monsoon, (c) incomplete scientific understanding of interactions between emissions, clouds, radiation, precipitation and regional circulations and (d) by a lack of observations to advance our understanding and improve predictions. The DACCIWA project will conduct extensive fieldwork in SWA to collect high-quality observations, spanning the entire process chain from surface-based natural and anthropogenic emissions to impacts on health, ecosystems and climate. Combining the resulting benchmark dataset with a wide range of modelling activities will allow (a) to assess all relevant physical and chemical processes, (b) to improve the monitoring of climate and compositional parameters from space and (c) to develop the next generation of weather and climate models capable of representing coupled cloud-aerosol interactions, which will ultimately lead to reduced uncertainties in climate predictions. SWA with its rich mix of emissions and diverse clouds is ideal for such a study and many findings and technical developments will be applicable to other monsoon regions. Using a targeted dissemination strategy, DACCIWA will deliver a comprehensive scientific assessment and actively guide sustainable future planning and policy-making for West Africa and beyond. The interdisciplinary and experienced DACCIWA team will build on the scientific and logistical foundations established by AMMA (EU FP6) and collaborate closely with operational centres, international programs (e.g. WCRP, IGBP), policy-makers and users to maximise impact.
IMPRESSIONS will provide empirically-grounded, transformative science that quantifies and explains the consequences of high-end climate scenarios for both decision-makers and society. IMPRESSIONS will develop and apply a novel participatory methodology that explicitly deals with uncertainties and strong non-linear changes focussing on high-end climate change, but also including intermediate warming levels. This new methodology will build on the representative concentration pathways (RCPs) and shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) to create a coherent set of high-end climate and socio-economic scenarios covering multiple scales. These scenarios will be applied to a range of impact, adaptation and vulnerability models that build on theories of complex systems and address tipping elements as key characteristics of such systems. The models will be embedded within an innovative multi-scale integrated assessment approach to improve analysis of cross-scale interactions and cross-sectoral benefits, conflicts and trade-offs. Model results will inform the development of time- and path-dependent transition pathways. These will include mechanisms to foster synergies between adaptation and mitigation and will aim to build resilience in the face of uncertainty. Methods will be applied within five linked multi-sectoral case studies at global, European and regional/local scales. Stakeholders within these case studies will be fully engaged in the research process through a series of in-depth professionally facilitated workshops which maximise their active participation in defining high-end scenarios and adaptation and mitigation pathways, and in analysing the inherent risks and opportunities of new policy strategies. This will build the capacity of stakeholders to understand the risks, opportunities, costs and benefits associated with different adaptation and mitigation pathways under high-end scenarios, and how they might be effectively embedded within decision-making processes.
RECREATE ist ein Forschungsnetzwerk mit dem Zweck, die europäische Forschungspolitik zu unterstützen, indem es ex ante Bewertungen von EU-finanzierter Forschung durchführt. Es sammelt strategische Informationen bezüglich mittel- und langfristiger Forschungs- und Innovationstrends in den Bereichen Klimawandel, Ressourceneffizienz und Rohstoffe. Neben der Untersuchung von Forschungs- und Innovationsprogrammen wird das Projekt auch Politik-, Technologie- und Marktentwicklungen analysieren. Im Fokus der Analyse stehen dabei Länder der EU und relevante Drittstaaten. RECREATE tritt mit dem Ziel an, Fragmentierungen in der EU-Forschungslandschaft zu überwinden. Das bedeutet konkret, dass RECREATE eine Forschungsagenda für das neue EU-Rahmenprogramm für Forschung und Innovation 'Horizon 2020' formuliert, die den Herausforderungen der Ressourceneffizienz und des Klimawandels sowie die einer nachhaltigen Rohstoff-Versorgung unter Beachtung der planetarischen Leitplanken gerecht wird. RECREATE untersucht dabei insbesondere Synergien und Zielkonflikte von Forschungsprogrammen. RECREATE ist entlang der folgenden Aufgaben organisiert: 1. Entwicklung, Einführung und Pflege eines Netzwerks von relevanten Akteuren aus Industrie, Wissenschaft und Politik zur Unterstützung von Forschung und Innovation 2. Entwicklung und Abbildung von Kennzahlen sowie einer Scoreboard-Struktur zur Folgenabschätzung ausgewählter Forschungs- und Innovations-Kooperationen in ökologischer und sozioökonomischer Hinsicht 3. Sammlung von strategischen mittel- und langfristigen Forschungs- und Innovationstrends sowie Analyse von Technologie- und Politik-Trends als Basis für zukunftsorientierte Forschung 4. Erstellung quantitativer und qualitativer Kurzberichte zu Forschungs- und Innovations-Trends und strategischen Optionen für relevante Akteure in Forschung und Politik der EU. RECREATE beginnt im Juli 2013 und ist eine fünfjährige Koordinierungs- und Unterstützungsmaßnahme, die durch die Europäische Kommission finanziert wird. Es besteht aus einem Verbund von 15 Projektpartnern, die jeweils Hauptakteure in den Bereichen Klimawandel, Ressourceneffizienz und Rohstoffe sind. Das Wuppertal Institut wird das Arbeitspaket zu Indikatoren für Folgenabschätzungen leiten und ist darüber hinaus in die anderen Arbeitspakete involviert.
Although there is a large body of knowledge available on soil threats in Europe, this knowledge is fragmented and incomplete, in particular regarding the complexity and functioning of soil systems and their interaction with human activities. The main aim of RECARE is to develop effective prevention, remediation and restoration measures using an innovative trans-disciplinary approach, actively integrating and advancing knowledge of stakeholders and scientists in 17 Case Studies, covering a range of soil threats in different bio-physical and socio-economic environments across Europe. Within these Case Study sites, i) the current state of degradation and conservation will be assessed using a new methodology, based on the WOCAT mapping procedure, ii) impacts of degradation and conservation on soil functions and ecosystem services will be quantified in a harmonized, spatially explicit way, accounting for costs and benefits, and possible trade-offs, iii) prevention, remediation and restoration measures selected and implemented by stakeholders in a participatory process will be evaluated regarding efficacy, and iv) the applicability and impact of these measures at the European level will be assessed using a new integrated bio-physical and socio-economic model, accounting for land use dynamics as a result of for instance economic development and policies. Existing national and EU policies will be reviewed and compared to identify potential incoherence, contradictions and synergies. Policy messages will be formulated based on the Case Study results and their integration at European level. A comprehensive dissemination and communication strategy, including the development of a web-based Dissemination and Communication Hub, will accompany the other activities to ensure that project results are disseminated to a variety of stakeholders at the right time and in the appropriate formats to stimulate renewed care for European soils.
Assessing individual exposure to environmental stressors and predicting health outcomes implies that both environmental exposures and epi/genetic variations are reliably measured simultaneously. HEALS (Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large population Surveys) brings together in an innovative approach a comprehensive array of novel technologies, data analysis and modeling tools that support efficiently exposome studies. The general objective of HEALS is the refinement of an integrated methodology and the application of the corresponding analytical and computational tools for performing environment-wide association studies in support of EU-wide environment and health assessments. The exposome represents the totality of exposures from conception onwards, simultaneously identifying, characterizing and quantifying the exogenous and endogenous exposures and modifiable risk factors that predispose to and predict diseases throughout a person's life span. The HEALS approach brings together and organizes environmental, socio-economic, exposure, biomarker and health effect data; in addition, it includes all the procedures and computational sequences necessary for applying advanced bioinformatics coupling thus effective data mining, biological and exposure modeling so as to ensure that environmental exposure-health associations are studied comprehensively. The overall approach will be verified and refined in a series of population studies across Europe including twin cohorts, tackling different levels of environmental exposure, age windows of exposure, and socio-economic and genetic variability. The HEALS approach will be applied in a pilot environment and health examination survey of children including singletons and sets of twins with matched singletons (each twins pair having also a matched singleton) covering ten EU Member States (the EXHES Study). The lessons learned will be translated into scientific advice towards the development of protocols and guidelines for the setting up of a larger European environment and health examination survey.
Objective: The recycling business is traditionally dominated by SMEs. In the last 5 years a general trend in the electronics recycling sector to bigger companies is very visible. Multinational, multi-sector companies are buying several smaller recyclers every year. Hence the previous project HydroWEEE (03/200902/2012) dealt with the recovery of rare and precious metals from WEEE. The idea has been to develop a mobile plant using hydrometallurgical processes to extract metals like yttrium, indium, lithium, cobalt, zinc, copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, tin in a high purity. By making this plant mobile several SMEs can benefit from the same plant. By making the processes universal several fractions (lamps, CRTs, LCDs, printed circuit boards and Li-batteries) can be treated in the same mobile plant in batches. This reduces the minimum quantities and necessary investments. In addition these innovative HydroWEEE processes produce pure enough materials that can be directly used for electroplating and other applications. The objective of HydroWEEE Demo is to build 2 industrial, real-life demonstration plants (1 stationary and 1 mobile) in order to test the performance and prove the viability of the processes from an integrated point of view (technical, economical, operational, social) including the assessment of its risks (incl. health) and benefits to the society and the environment as well as remove the barriers for a wide market uptake. Finally the previously developed processes of extracting yttrium, indium, lithium, cobalt, zinc, copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, tin will be improved and new processes to recover additional metals which are still in this fractions (Cerium, Platinum, Palladium, Europium, Lanthanum, Terbium, ) as well as the integrated treatment of solid and liquid wastes will be developed. Summarized HydroWEEE Demo will boost European competitiveness by applying novel processes for improved resource efficiency by extracting rare and precious metals.
Objective: The poor condition of sanitation and wastewater management in India (as in many Asian countries) is well documented and has recently led the Asian Development Bank to call for a revolution in wastewater management across Asia. Conventional, centralized approaches have failed in many areas and will hardly be able to solve potential problems in rural, hilly and rapidly developing urban areas in India. Instead, innovative, decentralised systems aiming at various benefits are needed. A main benefit in the context of SARASWATI is the reuse of treated wastewater for different purposes. Other benefits include reuse of energy and nutrients, which are also important. Despite the overall poor condition of wastewater treatment across South Asia, India has already considerable experience with such decentralised approaches. Over the last decade, hundreds of decentralised wastewater treatment plants of different technology types have been installed all over India. However, not all are functioning well and several also failed, due to various reasons. Also, there is no consolidated evaluation and review of all those existing plants available. As a result there is only very limited knowledge on the performance of those existing technologies available and a review and evaluation of those plants is very timely in order to derive sound conclusions and recommendations for future wastewater management strategies in India. SARASWATI will perform such a comprehensive and independent evaluation and hence provide key suggestions for the improvement of existing technologies. In addition, SARASWATI aims at deploying selected proven EU technologies with a potential for solving grave water challenges in India (water pollution due to discharge of untreated wastewater and storm-water, water scarcity and groundwater depletion, unhygienic sludge handling practices due to lack of suitable technologies). Water challenged sites have been identified in 5 Indian States comprising almost all regions.
The aim of IMPRINTS is to contribute to reduce loss of life and economic damage through the improvement of the preparedness and the operational risk management for Flash Flood and Debris Flow (FF/DF) generating events, as well as to contribute to sustainable development through reducing damages to the environment. To achieve this ultimate objective the project is oriented to produce methods and tools to be used by emergency agencies and utility companies responsible for the management of FF/DF risks and associated effects. Impacts of future changes, including climatic, land use and socioeconomic will be analyzed in order to provide guidelines for mitigation and adaptation measures. Specifically, the consortium will develop an integrated probabilistic forecasting FF/ DF system as well as a probabilistic early warning and a rule-based probabilistic forecasting system adapted to the operational use by practitioners. These systems will be tested on five selected flash flood prone areas, two located in mountainous catchments in the Alps, and three in Mediterranean catchments. The IMPRINTS practitioner partners, risk management authorities and utility company managers in duty of emergency management in these areas, will supervise these tests. The development of such systems will be carried out using and capitalizing the results of previous and ongoing research on FF/DF forecasting and warning systems, in which several of the partners have played a prominent role. One major result of the project will be a operational prototype including the tools and methodologies developed under the project. This prototype will be designed under the premise of its ultimate commercialization and use worldwide. The consortium, covering all the actors involved in the complex chain of FF & DF forecasting, has been carefully selected to ensure the achievement of this. Specific actions to exploit and protect the results and the intellectual property of the partners have been also defined.
Urban regions in the EU face increasing but uncertain flood risks due to urbanization and the effects of climate change. In European (a.o. the Flood Risk Directive) and in national and regional policies, attempts are made to diversify and align different Flood Risk Strategies (FRSs). In our proposal, five such strategies are distinguished: risk prevention; flood defense; mitigation; preparation; and recovery. We assume that vulnerable urban agglomerations will be more resilient if multiple FRSs are applied simultaneously, linked together and aligned. At the same time, the application of a diverse cluster of FRSs has to be appropriate, i.e. attuned to the physical and social context. The latter asks for innovative Flood Risk Governance Arrangements (FRGAs). In the proposed program, insights from governance and legal scholars will be integrated and combined, leading to policy design principles for FRGAs as well as concrete recommendations for policy and law at the level of the EU, its member states, regional authorities, and public-private partnerships. Across different EU countries and regions, we expect to identify different mixes of FRSs. We will analyze, explain and evaluate the emergence and dominance of the FRGAs through which these FRSs are institutionally embedded. For this, a comparative analysis of FRGAs in six EU member states will be carried out. This analysis will reveal good practices, provide understanding of the resilience of FRSs as well as their appropriateness in different physical, social and legal contexts. The design principles thus derived, will be brought together in a design-oriented framework for ex-ante evaluation of FRGAs. As part of the program, various target group specific knowledge dissemination activities will be carried out, aimed at regional stakeholders, high level policymakers and EU officers. To this end, Grontmij, a consultancy company, and CEPRI (The European centre for flood risk prevention) have been included in the consortium, apart from universities in the six EU member states.'
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