The Network of Excellence, ECATS, will be a durable and long lasting means of cooperation and communication within Europe, made up of a number of leading Research Establishments and Universities who have expertise in the field of aeronautics and the environment. ECATS's vision is to contribute to the environmental goals of the Vision 2020 for Aeronautics and the Strategic Research Agenda. The overall goals of ECATS are to create a European Virtual Institute for research of environmental compatible air transport; to develop and maintain durable means for cooperation and communication within Europe and to strengthen Europe's excellence and its role of the influence in the international community. The Joint Research Programme will take into account engine technology, alternative fuels, aviations impact on air quality, operational aspects of aviation, and the development of scenarios. Lasting integration will be achieved by joint management and working structures, joint-decision making processes and will be supported through specific integration activities as a common web-based information and communication system, common education, training and exchange programmes, coordinated use of facilities and equipment, dissemination and joint management of innovation. The excellence and commitment of the ECATS partners, many of whom are already linked through their participation in AERONET, will guarantee an effective and durable integration. Support by community funding will be applied for a period of 5 years. FZK is concentrating on activities in the area of airport air quality.
Das Anschlussprojekt hat das Ziel, die wissenschaftlichen Kompetenzen des UfU in den Feldern Partizipation und Umweltbildung zu stärken. Die Ansätze der ersten beiden Jahre sollen erfolgreich fortgeführt und nachhaltig ausgerichtet werden. Hierbei soll auch das in den ersten beiden Projektjahren restrukturierte Fachgebiet 'Ressourcenschutz und Landschaftsökologie' einbezogen werden. Insgesamt soll die wissenschaftliche Kompetenz des UfU, insbesondere im Bereich der sozialökologischen Forschung durch verschiedene Aktivitäten in den Themenfeldern Partizipation und Bildung bei Jugendlichen gesteigert werden. Der nutzerorientierte Ausbau des Internetauftritts des UfU ordnet sich hierbei ebenso ein wie ein verstärktes Auftreten des UfU auf internationalen Konferenzen. Der wissenschaftliche Beirat des UfU soll bei allen Aktivitäten unterstützend tätig werden. Zudem wird das Netzwerk verstetigt. Die Hauptaktivitäten des Anschlussprojekts sind die Ausrichtung einer internationalen Tagung zum Thema Bildung, Kommunikation und Partizipation im Bereich Klimaschutz und Klimawandel sowie die Erstellung einer Studie zu diesem Themenkomplex. Diese Studie soll die Situation der Klimaschutzbildung und Partizipationsmöglichkeiten im Bereich Klimaschutz in unterschiedlichen Staaten vergleichend analysieren. Hierfür werden zusammen mit Partnerorganisationen aus den jeweiligen Ländern qualitative Interviews und Literaturrecherchen durchgeführt. Die Studie, in die sowohl die Ergebnisse der qualitativen Erhebungen und Recherchen als auch die Resultate der Tagung einfließen, wird abschließend als UfU-Paper veröffentlicht.
In addition to recognizing natural selection as a universal mechanism in evolution, Darwin also saw the importance of sexual selection, yet the two have been traditionally treated largely in isolation. Here I propose to apply experimental evolution (exposing experimental populations to controlled specific selective pressures over many generations in the laboratory) to the ideally suited model system Tribolium castaneum to explore how these evolutionary forces interact and impact on the key processes underlying biodiversity. Understanding how these fundamental forces, singly and in conjunction, influence species divergence remains a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Participation of sexual selection in driving speciation is supported by substantial theoretical evidence. Theory further suggests that evolutionary conflicts (such as between the sexes or between host and parasite) might also accelerate extinction. Additional complexity is introduced by including the environmental context, linking back to natural selection. Direct experimental tests of the above concepts are essentially lacking. I will explicitly target this gap by exploiting powerful experimental evolution, incorporating the interplay between sexual selection intensity, host-parasite conflict, and adaptation to increasing temperature. Projects will assess how selection under evolutionary conflict and environmental change affects both adaptation and extinction rates, aiming to elucidate underlying mechanisms. Additionally, building on clear phenotypic divergence in key traits across experimental evolution lines, I will significantly expand on previous work by assessing patterns of divergence in gene expression, concentrating on target genes associated with reproduction, immunity and heat shock. This research will be of particular interest to scientists working in the fields of evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology, but also to ecologists, reproductive biologists, and conservation biologists. As Tribolium beetles are widespread agricultural pests, results will also be relevant to more applied researchers.
The interest to study impacts of climate change on the terrestrial biosphere, particularly on forests, has been ever increasing over the last decades, since forests are an integral part of the global climate system and at the same time provide many ecosystem services, i.e., direct and indirect benefits for people. However, rather recently the need to quantify a whole suite of greenhouse gases (GHG), namely H2O, CO2, CH4 and N2O, was recognized. In a European effort to establish a unique network of top-level ecosystem GHG flux sites (ESFRI project ICOS; International Carbon Observation System), the main interest for the Swiss participation is focusing on the role of high mountain ecosystems in the continental GHG budget. To maximize synergies with already existing infrastructure and long-term research efforts in the subalpine zone of Switzerland, we propose to extend the on-going CO2, CH4 and H2O vapor flux measurements at Davos, Switzerland and participate in this European effort to establish the ICOS network. Our goal is to establish cutting-edge eddy covariance flux measurements of climatically relevant GHGs. With the R'Equip proposal, we will be able to add a research site to ICOS which is unique in three aspects, in its high elevation location (at 1670 m), in its flux measurement history (since 1997) and in its broad range of on-going auxiliary measurements (soil, vegetation, air pollutants). The study site Davos is a long-term site (since 1997) of the Grassland Sciences group at ETH as well as the designated Swiss primary ecosystem site of ICOS, supported by WSL and EMPA as well as FOEN and SBF. Our research is embedded in the Swiss efforts to assess GHG fluxes and land surface-atmosphere feedbacks (e.g., SwissFluxNet, C2SM, NCCR Climate, CCES-Maiolica) as well as in international efforts (e.g., CarboEurope IP, GHG-Europe, Carbo-Extreme, ICOS, FluxNet), providing relevant background information on GHG budgets of different land use types and thus the basis for post-Kyoto negotiations and sustainable land use. Thus, our objectives are to quantify CO2, H2O vapor, CH4 and N2O fluxes at the ecosystem level continuously using state-of-the art infra-red laser absorption spectrometers, enabling us (1) to test hypotheses on the magnitude of such fluxes of a forest (rarely tested for CH4 and N2O despite first reports on such fluxes and soil N2O sink capacity), (2) to determine forest responses to climatic (extreme) events, and (3) to better understand soil and ecosystem CO2 fluxes for the long-term GHG balance of a subalpine forest to ensure sustainable use of natural resources for climate protection AND wood production.
*The Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides a European policy basis at the river basin scale. The river basin management and planning process prescribed in the WFD focuses on integrated management, involving all physical domains in water management, sectors of water use, socio-economics and stakeholder participation. As such, the WFD poses new challenges to water resources managers. In practise, the preparation of WFD river basin management plans is influenced by uncertainties in the underlying data and modelling results. The preparation of integrated water management plans for the WFD will require making a large number of decisions by operational agencies in Europe. A decision maker has to make decisions based on available information. In most cases this information is deficient, incomplete and uncertain. How should this affect the decision making. Therefore, there is a clear and urgent need for developing new methodologies and tools that can be used to assist in implementing the WFD. In order to support such research and development, it is necessary to have a network of representative river basins with datasets suitable for this purpose. This implies that the datasets, in addition to covering the diversity in terms of ecological regimes and socio-economic conditions found across Europe, must have built-in information on the uncertainties in the data. HarmoniRiB is a research and technological development (RTD) project funded by the European Commission (contract number EVK1-CT-2002-00109) that was initiated in October 2002 and will be completed in March 2006. The overall goal of HarmoniRiB is to develop methodologies for quantifying uncertainty and its propagation from the raw data to concise management information. Thus, the HarmoniRiB project aims to support the WFD implementation, by addressing issues of uncertainty in data and modelling, and by developing a 'virtual laboratory for modelling studies'. This virtual laboratory will comprise of a set of river basins, of which data relevant to modelling and the WFD implementation are readily available for the scientific community. The data can be used for comparison and demonstration of methodologies and models relevant to the WFD. HarmoniRiB is implemented by a Consortium of ten partners from eight European countries. It consists of three universities (UVA, TUC, UCLM), five public research institutes (GEUS, RIZA, CNR-IRSA, UFZ, CEH) one private sector research and consulting company (DHI) and one river basin authority (PM). The British partner of the Consortium is the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). CEH role in the project is to develop a database design for data required to support river basin management,to populate the database with a dataset from the Kennet river basin, and to conduct a demonstratition case study on that basin.
ATLAS brings together the expertise of the leading European research, education and training institutions in the area of land use and sustainability impact assessment, combining innovative research efforts and practical experiences, enabling an educational breakthrough required to meet the ambitions of the Sub-priority. The fragmented nature of education and training provision in sustainability impact assessment for land use planning is a major barrier to the management of rapid land use change that is now occurring in Europe. As a result the Commission wishes to: - take stock of what educational resources exist, - assess their adequacy; and, - stimulate the development of appropriate strategies and initiatives for the future. ATLAS will enable the coordination and dissemination of educational practice and the development of future training initiatives for policy and practice in this area throughout Europe. It will result in: - A baseline description (on-line data base) of the status of educational provision at practitioner's, professional, undergraduate and Master's levels, within Europe; - A SWOT-analysis of the extent to which this provision meets current needs, with clear recommendations for improvement; and, - A 'road-map' for training in land use sustainability assessment providing better European organisation of the educational provision leading to appropriate professional qualifications. ATLAS will permit the Commission to achieve the mentioned requirements, by bringing together the three leading international networks concerned with sustainable land use management in Europe, namely LANDSCAPE EUROPE, ECLAS and Landscape Tomorrow. These networks have differing focuses within this area but together have a complete coverage of the subject. They moreover benefit from direct participation in relevant IP's, such as SENSOR and SEAMLESS. Improved co-ordination of their efforts on education and training will have great benefits for the effectiveness of the policies currently developed. Prime Contractor: Tallinna Ulikool; Tallinn; Estonia.
The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility a REDD+ project aiming at a reduction / avoidance of the currently ongoing deforestation in the Mt. Cameroon area. The ecologically valuable region is under serious threat of deforestation, caused by local villagers through the establishment of cash crops, mainly for cocoa-plantations. Deforestation shall be avoided by the development and implementation of a REDD+ project. This project shall be inherently conected to the newly established Mt. Cameroon National Park. The REDD+ project shall finance both the administration of the National Park as well as compensation measures in the surrounding villages. This compensation measures shall not only ensure the interest of local population in the participation in the REDD+ project, it shall also cover the REDD+ projects need for leakage management activities ensuring that the project impact (in terms of carbon conservation) is not compensated by deforestation activities outside the park area. This shall ensure the REDD+ projects overall success. The study evaluated the threat of permanent deforestation in the Mt. Cameroon region, identified drivers of deforesation, screened appropriate mitigation strategies and developed a baseline scenario. In May 2009, GFA ENVEST visited the project site, investigated the legal project structure and discussed project setup with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and the Ministry for Environment and Nature Protection. As the national park was established in spring 2010, the REDD+ project development is envisaged to start in autumn 2010. Services provided: GFA ENVEST provides the following services: Assessment of carbon stocks of intact forests for the main forest strata; Assessment of carbon stocks of degraded forests sites (i.e. cocoa plantations) for the main forest strata; Evaluation of forest protection measures and related abatement costs; Assessment of leakage management and leakage monitoring options and related costs; Design of a monitoring system based on remote sensing. This system shall allow for the verification of the overall success of forest protection measures. Calculation of the projects emission reductions under the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) considering VCS security buffer approach for non-permanence; Assessment of carbon revenues and the overall financial feasibility of REDD+ measures; Evaluation of carbon rights ownership and an appropriate REDD+ project structure managing carbon funds and project costs.
Wie Studien im Bereich der Innovationsforschung zeigen, haben NutzerInnen (das können sowohl Einzelpersonen, als auch Firmen sein) oft eine wichtige Funktion bei der Entwicklung und Diffusion von Technologien - und zwar nicht nur im Rahmen der (passiven) Akzeptanz oder der Nachfrage nach diesen Produkten. Vielmehr ist auch die aktive Aneignung der Produkte durch NutzerInnen von großer Bedeutung für den Erfolg einer Innovation, d.h. deren Integration in die Praxis des Alltags sowie deren Besetzung mit Bedeutung und Sinn. Auch spielen AnwenderInnen vielfach eine aktive Rolle in der Verbesserung und Gestaltung neuer Technologien. Es gibt guten Grund zur Annahme, dass dies unter spezifischen Rahmenbedingungen auch für die Entwicklung und Verbreitung ökologisch nachhaltiger Techniken gilt und einen wichtigen Faktor für den Erfolg solcher Produkte darstellt. Im Vordergrund dieses Projekts steht die Frage nach der Rolle von NutzerInnen im Rahmen der Entwicklung und Verbreitung von technischen Innovationen, die zu einer ökologisch nachhaltigen Entwicklung unserer Gesellschaft beitragen. Dies wird in Fallstudien zu drei Technologiefeldern untersucht, in denen Österreich eine Rolle im internationalen Spitzenfeld einnimmt: thermische Solaranlagen, moderne Biomasseheizanlagen sowie ökologisches Bauen. In allen drei Feldern gibt es wichtige Anstöße und Beiträge von EndanwenderInnen für die technische Entwicklung - besonders prägnant bei Solaranlagen (und mit Einschränkungen bei Biomasseanlagen), wo Selbstbaubewegungen zu einer massiven Verbreitung beigetragen und den Boden für die Entstehung exportorientierter Firmen gelegt haben. Doch stellt sich zu Recht die Frage, inwieweit der Beitrag von NutzerInnen von sehr spezifischen sozialen und technischen Bedingungen abhängt. Mit dem Projekt soll ein Beitrag zu einem besseren sozialwissenschaftlichen Verständnis solcher Innovationen geleistet und eine breitere Basis für technologiepolitische Handlungsmöglichkeiten zur Förderung nachhaltiger Technologien geschaffen werden.
The aim of the research project is to further develop and compare the acceptability and technical performance of fluoride removal filters and to explore ways of sustainably implementing these in rural Ethiopia. According to estimates of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources more than 14 million people in Ethiopia rely on drinking water contaminated by fluoride in the Rift Valley region. Over 40Prozent of deep and shallow wells are contaminated and concentrations, up to 26 mg/L, are significantly higher than the present international WHO guideline value of 1.5 mg/L. The main source of fluoride are the basaltic rocks in the Rift Valley. Over 80Prozent of children suffer from different degrees of dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis is increasing, mainly among older people. The mitigation of this health problem has been hampered mainly by the lack of a suitable, inexpensive removal method. A switch to treated surface waters for drinking is being discussed, but it is accepted that fluoride removal systems for rural communities are required. To date there has been no successful implementation of such a system in Ethiopia. This project aims to combine technical and social research at both Eawag and University of Addis Ababa, including field work together with NGOs to find a solution to the mitigation of fluorosis. Not only the suggested removal techniques but also the inter- and transdisciplinary research approach is innovative. Intensive interaction of engineering and social sciences is indispensable in this project, because even the best technical solution is useless when it is not accepted by the population. This collaborative project also has an important goal of capacity and human resource development in Ethiopia. It aims at strengthening the knowledge and research capacity of the Ethiopian university and the participation of NGOs will consolidate the ties between research and implementation. Furthermore, the results will be applicable not only to Ethiopia but also for other fluorosis-affected developing countries. Two fluoride removal systems that can cope with the elevated fluoride concentrations will be further developed and tested in the field. The first, based on filtration with aluminium (Al) oxide, has been developed in the Chemistry Department of Addis Ababa University. Laboratory tests have shown a very high removal capacity, but still further laboratory and field testing is required. The second filter material is based on a calcium hydroxyapatite, including bone char, that is successfully being developed and currently implemented by the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru (CDN) in Kenya. Preliminary implementation studies with bone char filtration in Ethiopia, carried out by the NGO consortium Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS) / Oromo Self-Help Organisation (OSHO) in collaboration with CDN and Eawag have shown that the water composition, the high fluoride concentrations,
Objective: Developing countries are reluctant to make any binding commitment as their per capita emissions are low and climate abatement measures conflict with their main priorities on socio-economic development. The question is if there is a way to simultaneously provide sufficient energy (which is also the main source of GHG emissions), to support poverty alleviation and economic growth and achieve sufficient emission reductions. Finding an answer is the main aim of this project. It may be possible with a combination of policies and measures encompassing from international level to national level supported by committed international cooperation to achieve both the goals together. The main focus of the study is on India and China. The primary objective is to develop a portfolio of policy options including both international and national policies as well as institutional frameworks for international cooperation for these two emerging economies to engage them in climate protection measures under a post-2012 regime. By applying an integrated modeling framework, the study will explore possible multiple pathways which may exist for these countries to contribute into international climate initiatives without compromising their national development priorities. Specific objectives are: - developing country-specific integrated modeling framework to analyse policies and identify multiple pathways to achieve socio-economic and climate targets - identifying/designing international climate polices in post-Kyoto regime for future commitments and participations of emerging economies (India and China) - designing national polices (in socio-economic sectors, energy and environment) compatible with the global climate targets - designing and quantifying as much as possible the international co-operations needed to make the participation in a post-2012 regime acceptable at least in economic terms - disseminating the results to potential users for use in future negotiations.
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