The project aims at achieving a better understanding of the processes that drive or limit the response of grassland systems in a world of increasing atmospheric pCO2. We will test the hypothesis that the previously shown increase in below-ground allocation of C under elevated pCO2 provides the necessary energy excess and will stimulate free-living N2 fixers in a low N grassland environment. The project thus aims at assessing the occurrence and importance of free-living N2 fixers under elevated pCO2 and identify the associated microbial communities involved in order to better understand ecosystems response and sustainability of grassland systems. This project had the last opportunity to obtain soil samples from a grassland ecosystem adapted to long-term (10 year) elevated atmospheric pCO2 as the Swiss FACE experiment. The project aims to identify the relevant components of free-living diazotrophs of the microbial community using 15N stable isotope - DNA probing.
The overall goal of the GEOMON project is to sustain and analyze European ground-based observations of atmospheric composition, complementary with satellite measurements, in order to quantify and understand the ongoing changes. GEOMON is a first step to build a future integrated pan-European Atmospheric Observing System dealing with systematic observations of long-lived greenhouse gases, reactive gases, aerosols, and stratospheric ozone. This will lay the foundations for a European contribution to GEOSS and optimize the European strategy of environmental monitoring in the field of atmospheric composition observations. Specifically, we will unify and harmonize the main Europeans networks of surface and aircraft-based measurements of atmospheric composition parameters and integrate these measurements with those of satellites. The access to data and data-products will be coordinated at a common data centre for more efficient use. GEOMon will support data gathering at existing networks if necessary, rescue and compile existing ground-based data, and develop new methodologies to use these data for satellite validation and interpretation.. In addition, GEOMON will enable innovative ground-based measurements complementary to satellites, made by upward looking ground based remote sensing instruments Max-DOAS, FTIR, and LIDAR and by systematic measurement programmes of upper-tropospheric composition using passenger aircrafts CARIBIC and MOZAIC. These data will serve to reduce biases and random errors in satellite observations and facilitate interpretation of the columnar measurements in combination with surface data. This will result in a significant improvement in the use of existing and future satellite data. Common techniques and modelling tools will be used in order to add value to the GEOMON data observations, to facilitate their use in satellite validation and help design an optimal network. Prime Contractor: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA); Paris; France.
MAI-TAI deals with integrated water resources management. It is designed as a coordination action of leading research and innovation operators, aiming at developing a coherent set of innovative, relevant and cooperative policy options and management strategies. Regionally it works with partners from China and India, and the work will focus around two lead river basins: The Hai river basin in North-East China and the Yamuna river basin in North India, both in arid and/or semi arid regions. The proposal features the following core coordination activities: 1. Enabling a dialogue between researchers and practitioners promoting state of the art and indigenous technologies and practices: The consortium believes that modern systems alone are not capable of solving the water needs of the people in many developing countries, and there is a strong need of generating innovative options through cross fertilization between both worlds. This cross-fertilization will be enabled by methods and rich experiences of user innovations research. 2. Based on (1), innovative policy options and management strategies will be compiled. Then, a multi-stakeholder interaction in order to evaluate these options and strategies will be carried out, supported by intelligent knowledge management tools: In the presence of a variety of actors (institutions, organisations, individuals) each with specific forms of knowledge with respect to scale, topic, reasoning processes, and a large number of information expected to be generated through the multi-stakeholder interaction, the issue of learning and knowledge management is of paramount importance. A strong impact of the coordination action is ensured by a highly inter- and transdisciplinary team, encompassing internationally reputable scientific institutions as well as strong governmental partners and NGOs. The latter two will considerable facilitate a wide and in particular meaningful stakeholder dialogue throughout the project.
Global air traffic is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 4.5 to 5 percent in the next 20 years. Engines are the main contributors to CO2 and NOx emissions from aircraft and are a large contributor of noise. Radically innovative engine structures and architectures need consequently to be investigated in order to achieve a more significant reduction of noise and pollution. To take the necessary steps the EU project VITAL (Environmentally Friendly Aero Engine, Contract no.: AIP4-CT-2004-012271) was started. This project will provide a breakthrough in low noise and low emission engine architectures. VITAL will achieve this breakthrough by bringing together 53 actors from the European engine industry made up of the leading engine manufactures, the engine-industry supply chain and key European research institutes. For the VITAL-project we are currently adapting a test facility for a low-pressure turbine with a section for acoustic measurements. Various laser techniques, an infrared camera system and standard diagnostic techniques are used for flow and vibration diagnostics.
Intention of the study is to compare conventional systems for flow control in combined sewer systems with control systems based on fuzzy logic. The objective of both control strategies is to reduce the combined sewer overflow volume by an optimization of the utilized storage capacities of combined sewer overflow tanks. Conventional real time control of flow in urban drainage systems based on rules is in common use. The Effluent of combined overflow basins, for example, can be adjusted as a function of the water level in the storage tank. Additionally, the hydraulic conditions at other significant points in a sewer system or at the waste water treatment plant can be considered. Therefore, control systems are based on a large number of rules. Instead of conventional control systems it is possible to use control strategies based on fuzzy logic. Fuzzy control combines the simple rules of an expert system with a flexible specification of output parameters. Especially for the control of complex sewer systems, demanding an extensive matrix of different rules, it can be favourable to use fuzzy control. Fuzzy control enables to integrate available operating experiences in an intelligible rule base and avoids abrupt changes of the controlled parameters. In waste water treatment fuzzy control was successfully implemented to improve treatment processes during operation. The possibility to integrate operating experiences of technical staff into the rule base of a fuzzy controller and the flexible reaction of fuzzy logic on dif-ferent combinations of input parameters, led to positive results. So far, fuzzy control has only rarely been used for flow control in sewer systems. ITWH Hannover tested the application of fuzzy control for two differently structured combined sewer systems in order to minimize the storm water overflow volume. The comparison of the studies were solely based on the simulation of uncontrolled and fuzzy - controlled sewer systems for single storm events. In both cases the overflow volume could be re-duced significantly by the use of fuzzy control. The interest of the studies was focused on the initial state in comparison with the state affected by fuzzy control. The objective of the investigation reported here, has been the comparison of a conventional rule based flow control with a fuzzy based flow control. In spite of a similar rule base fuzzy control obviously enables a more flexible sizing of the outflow. The use of fuzzy logic to control several basins in a complex sewer systems helps to avoid sudden and intense changes of the controlled effluents. This leads to steady and proportionate conditions and reduces the overflow volume. In the combined sewer system investigated, a conventional rule based and a fuzzy logic system is generated to control three combined sewer overflow tanks. The control process intends a better utilization of storage capacity to reduce overflow volume
Differenzierung der Quellen- und Senkenfunktion des Bodens unter Berücksichtigung der Nutzungsgeschichte. Im Rahmen des CARBOEUROFLUX-Projekts wurden im Hainich (Thüringen) Kohlenstoff (C)- Speicherungsraten festgestellt, die der Vorstellung der Kohlendioxid-Neutralität von alten Wäldern widersprechen und die Frage nach deren Kyoto-Relevanz aufwerfen. Im Rahmen europäischer Projekte lässt sich allerdings nicht klären, wie diese hohen Speicherraten entstehen und wo C im System verbleibt. Wir vermuten, dass durch historischen C-Export, z.B. infolge von Streunutzung, die Böden im Hainich verarmten und die entleerten Speicher jetzt wieder aufgefüllt werden. Um das Ausmaß des nutzungsbedingten C-Exports abschätzen zu können, werden aus Schriftquellen Art und Umfang der Biomassenutzung in ihrer zeitlichen und örtlichen Entwicklung rekonstruiert. Zudem untersuchen wir, welche Anteile des C-Eintrages veratmet, gespeichert und über den Wasserpfad exportiert werden. Hierzu werden 13C und 14C- Isotopenverhältnisse an Bodengasen sowie gelöstem und festem Boden- C bestimmt. Unsere Untersuchungen zielen auf ein grundlegendes Verständnis der C-Speicherung im Jahresverlauf ab. Die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kompetenzzentrum 'Dynamik Komplexer Geosysteme' und dem europäischen CARBOEUROPE Cluster wird die Doppelerhebung von Daten verhindern und deren gegenseitige Verfügbarkeit sicherstellen. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, den historischen Kohlenstoffexport insbesondere unter Berücksichtigung der forstlichen Nebennutzung abzuschätzen. Hierzu soll anhand von Literaturdaten einerseits die Vegetationsgeschichte geklärt werden. Andererseits soll der im Untersuchungsgebiet im Zuge der forstlichen und landwirtschaftlichen Nutzungen erfolgte Biomasseentzug nach Art und Umfang dokumentiert werden. Diese Arbeiten sind notwendig, um den Einfluss der Nutzungsgeschichte auf die Kohlenstoffspeicherung im Untersuchungsstandort abzuschätzen. Im Rahmen des Gesamtprojektes sollen zunächst Daten zur Entwicklung der Biomasse im Untersuchungsgebiet zusammengestellt werden. Eine weitere Aufgabe besteht darin, auf der Basis von Literaturstudien einen möglichen Vergleichsstandort mit unterschiedlicher Nutzungsgeschichte zu identifizieren.
In contrast to their advances in other areas, weather forecast models have not been successful in improving the Quantitative Precipitation Forecast during the last 16 years. One reason for this stagnation is the lack of comprehensive, high-quality data sets usable for model validation as well as for data assimilation, thus leading to improved initial fields in numerical models. Theoretical analyses have identified the requirements measured data have to meet in order to close the gaps in process understanding. In field campaigns, it has been shown that the newest generation of remote sensing systems has the potential to yield data sets of the required quality. It is therefore time to combine the most powerful remote sensing instruments with proven ground-based and airborne measurement techniques in an Intensive Observations Period (IOP). Its goal is to serve as a backbone for the SPP 1167 by producing the demanded data sets of unachieved accuracy and resolution. This requires a sophisticated scientific preparation and a careful coordination between the efforts of the institutions involved. For the first time, the pre-convective environment, the formation of clouds and the onset and development of precipitation as well as its intensity will be observed in four dimensions simultaneously in a region of sufficient size. This shall be achieved by combining the IOP with international programs and by collaboration between leading scientists in Europe, US and other countries. Thus, the IOP is a unique opportunity to make Germany the setting of an international field campaign featuring the newest generation of measurement systems such as scanning radar and lidar and leading to outstanding advances in atmospheric sciences.
Recent events such as the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the European heat waves of 2003 reveal the vulnerability of societies to extreme events. The goal of this project is to strengthen prevention, mitigation and preparedness strategies in order to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of extreme events on communities. The objectives of the MICRODIS project are to strengthen the scientific and empirical foundation on the relationship between extreme events and their impacts; to develop and integrate knowledge, concepts, methods and databases towards a common global approach and to improve human resources and coping capacity in Asia and Europe through training and knowledge sharing. This integrated project involves 19 partners from Asia and Europe, including research, policy and ground roots institutions. The outputs will include an evidence-base on impacts, field methodologies and tools for data compilation, impact models, and integrated vulnerability assessments. It will also strengthen standardised data collection of extreme events and their impacts at local, regional and global levels. Prime Contractor: Université Catholique de Louvain; Louvain-la-neuve; Belgium.
Despite the advantages of solar membrane distillation (MD) systems very few experimental systems have been developed as opposed to the mature technologies solar PV-driven RO and solar distillation. Therefore, main objective of MEDESOL Project is the development of an environmentally friendly improved-cost desalination technology to fresh water supply in arid and semi-arid regions in EU and Third Countries based on solar MD. The layout involves the innovative concept of multistage MD in order to minimize specific energy and membrane area required and also to substantially reduce the brine generation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing potable water from seawater by integrating several membrane distillation modules (Multi-step Membrane Distillation System). The aim is to develop systems for a capacity ranging from 0.5 to 50 m3/day. Technical simplicity, long maintenance-free operation periods and high-quality potable water output are the very important aims which will enable successful application of the systems that are based in membrane distillation. The heat source will proceed from an advanced compound parabolic solar concentrator, developed to the specific concentration ratio to achieve the specific needed range of temperatures (90ºC) and the seawater heater will include the development of an advanced non-fouling surface coatings to avoid the deposit formation (i.e. scaling) at such temperature. Laboratory tests under defined testing conditions of all components are very important for the preparation of successful field tests under real conditions. Prime Contractor: Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Ciemat, Madrid, Spain.
Context: With increasing global change pressures, and due to existing limitations, and un-sustainability factors and risks of conventional urban water management (UWM), cities experience difficulties in efficiently managing the ever scarcer water resources, their uses/services, and their after-use disposal, without creating environmental, social and/or economic damage. In order to meet these challenges, SWITCH calls for a paradigm shift in UWM. There is a need to convert adhoc actions (problem/incident driven) into a coherent and consolidated approach (sustainability driven). This calls for an IP Approach. Research conceptSWITCH therefore proposes an action research project which has as a main objective: The development, application and demonstration of a range of tested scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions and approaches that contribute to the achievement of sustainable and effective UWM schemes in 'The City of the future'.The project will be implemented by different combinations of consortium partners, along the lines of seven complementary and interactive themes. The research approach is innovative for the combination of: action research: address problems through innovation based upon involvement of users.learning alliances: to link up stakeholders to interact productively and to create win-win solutions along the water chain; multiple-way learning: European cities learn from each other and from developing countries, and vice versa.multiple-level or integrated approach: to consider the urban water system and its components (city level) in relation to its impacts on, and dependency of, the natural environment in the river basin (river basin level), and in relation to Global Change pressures (global level).Instruments and scopeAn IP with 30 partners, their resources, and a total budget of 25,191,396 EURO including budget for demonstration activities in 9 Cities in Europe and developing countries. Prime Contractor: UNESCO - Institute for Water Education, Delf, Netherlands.
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