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.
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.
With a focus on transport, the project intends to increase the understanding among relevant actors of the benefits of environmental technologies for a wider application of these technologies. It will build on the ETAP actions on targeted training and awareness raising. Pursuing this aim, the following support activities will be undertaken: 1) conceptualising and organising of 3 workshops with relevant stakeholders for stock taking, identifying obstacles and possible solutions as well as best practice examples; 2) organising a concluding conference on the basis of experiences made in the course of the project (to produce recommendations); intended for senior executives within the sector in order to ensure that the learning from the project is communicated at a level that can help to ensure as broad a take-up and dissemination as possible. 3) Producing Background Notes and Policy Briefs on training needs and awareness raising. The Background Notes will serve as a basis for the Conference discussions; the Policy Briefs will disseminate the projects findings and recommendations beyond the project to a wider public. 4) Specifying a low-cost, easily disseminated e-learning solution that addresses the overall objective of the project: increasing awareness amongst those working in this sector of underlying issues and dilemmas as well as of solutions and good practice. This activity also includes recommendations for routines to maintain the awareness and competence in order to ascertain continuous, long-term effects of the efforts.
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.
*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.
Coastal ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic perturbation, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem stability and resilience. Shallow water sediments and their associated biota represent a reservoir for biodiversity, hosting resting and reproductive stages of planktonic organisms, and regulating carbon and nutrient biogeochemical cycles. However, the relationship between tightly coupled biological and geochemical processes in this environment is poorly defined with respect to their temporal and spatial variability. The overall objective of COBO is to integrate emerging and innovative technologies from different disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, imagery) to provide in situ monitoring of sediment habitats, a key component of coastal marine ecosystems, in order to understand complex interactions between the biota (function and diversity) and their chemical environment. Existing technologies have limited spatial and temporal sampling resolutions and this has hampered progress in determining key parameters and in explaining biogeochemical patterns / processes and in modeling ecosystem dynamics. Improved in situ technologies are required to provide rigorous scientific information on processes regulating this unique and fragile habitat and for assessing, controlling and minimising human impact on European coastal waters thus addressing societal need. Organism-sediment processes, with both enhancing and mediating effects, are still poorly understood in shallow water sediments that receive the bulk of anthropogenic disturbance. The combination of innovative instruments from the different disciplines will provide powerful tools to significantly advance our understanding of organism sediment relations under dynamic coastal conditions and enhance predictive capability. COBO represents a major step towards the development of permanently operating benthic observatories for coastal management. Prime Contractor: Scottish Association for Marine Science; Dunberg Oban; United Kingdom.
Objective: New process route for lightweight, unbreakable and economically feasible solar panels on the basis of amorphous silicon. Results: From a number of canditates enamel-coated steel sheet as substrate and an organic barrier as protective layer was chosen as an alternative to the dual glass panels. Criteria were vacuum compatibility, surface rougness and insulating properties. This concept requires that the production order of the thin film solar cell is reversed into back electrode, active stack, front transparent electrode. Inverted processes and low temperature processes were investigated in parallel. Protection against damage due to permeating water was reduced with an improved organic barrier coating. Also, less vulnerable back electrode materials were studied. Fluorine doped tin oxide, tin-doped indiumoxide and aluminium-doped zinc oxide were studied. However, the best and most economical results were optained with ITO. For monolithic integration mechanical masking and laser scribing were investigated. Mechanical masking failed due to the uneveness of the enamel surface. Laser scribing is possible due to the diminished power need with each consecutive layer. Some concepts for better light capture (texturing, optical coatings) were investigated. Based on the inverted process route small scale and full scale panels were manufactured and tested. Ultimately, the full scale failed due to the built-up of stress which caused delamination and could not sufficiently be reduced. The panel costs of the new route proved very similar to the existing product, but required an additional investment in vacuum deposition equipment. Surprisingly, ITO with recycling proved to be the most cost effective transparent electrode material.
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