Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUROPE-LAND (Towards Sustainable Land-use Strategies in the Context of Climate Change and Biodiversity Challenges in Europe)
Période du rapport: 2023-06-01 au 2024-11-30
Europe-LAND’s main objective: “identify, develop, test and implement integrated tools to improve the understanding of factors behind land-use (LU) decisions and the stakeholders’ awareness and engagement in terms of CC (CC) and biodiversity challenges in Europe.” We strive to increase the knowledge base on how such decisions can lead towards the efficient and socially responsible pursuit of multiple policy objectives to gain a national, regional and pan-European vision supporting LU strategies, mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity conservation. To explain what drives the behavior of LU stakeholders and their awareness of global challenges, Europe-LAND will interact with multiple stakeholders on multiple levels, utilising appropriate participatory approaches (as for example, the Living Lab approach).
The project has five specific objectives:
* 1: Foster a wide understanding of the key motivations and drivers behind land-use related decisions in Europe.
Agriculture accounts for more than 10% of total EU Greenhouse Gas emissions. Despite decades of economic ´one size fits all´ incentives to green the sector, its GHG contribution is projected to increase. We need to understand: What drives agriculture to steer the sector towards and through the green transition?
* 2: Identify the awareness of key actors about CCCC and biodiversity challenges in respect to LU and their willingness to contribute addressing them.
The agricultural stakeholders’ perceptions, attitudes and awareness related to environmental challenges are important factors that influence LU decisions and give support to the environmental policies. A deeper understanding of decision-making behind their revealed behaviour is required: What factors influence decision-making? What is the role of climate and biodiversity challenges? To what extent are policy incentives and instruments in LU decisions being used the EU? What are the conditions influencing local land-use decision-making, and how is the governance of CCCC adaptation performed in relevant European case study regions?* 3: Characterise future expected LU patterns consistent with long-term objectives and with a focus on climate and biodiversity in comparison with current and past situations.
Intensive LU changes are also influenced by CCCC, but patterns of changes have not been coherently studied in the EU. We will compare modelling tools and describe and calibrate a transition model, develop a set of LU/LC indicators, study driving forces and LU/LC changes for 2050 under different scenarios of CC and human pressure.
* 4: Support CC mitigation and adaptation efforts and biodiversity policy design and implementation by constructing and testing a conceptual telecoupling framework to analyse LU strategies.
The extensive and continuing land degradation throughout the world indicates the need to identify and provide more sustainable land-use causes. How can telecoupling address current limitations and future challenges for land-use in the EU context, as well as create targeted policies and improve its management? Telecoupling needs to be further operationalised for quantitative and qualitative analyses (e.g. paying closer attention to the location-based and flow-based human-environment interactions and to the deeper understanding of local, regional and global processes and their interconnectedness via various material and immaterial flows).
* 5: Gather and consolidate LU experiences by means of a dynamic toolbox of instruments to be used by key actors at various levels to visualise spatial and temporal changes in LU, based on different planned actions.
Even though the interconnectivity of LU and CC has been identified and depicted globally, there is a lack of means which may cater for a visualisation of this interrelationship. Visualising the spatial and temporal changes in LU based on different planned actions and by connecting them to CC scenarios can support sustainable decision-making of stakeholders. How can Europe-LAND’s stakeholders gain a deeper understanding of the effects of their alteration in LU to potentially motivate a behavioural change?
Spatial scope: Primary focus of assessments and outputs, respectively, are first and foremost related to agricultural land, wetlands, and forests. Europe-LAND does not address urban areas, cities, villages or industrial areas as some other HE projects do. The spatial levels of assessment will vary.
Geographical scope: 12 EU countries (DE, GR, DK, PT, ET, IT, RO, PL, LV, SV, AT, CZ)
The project has five specific objectives:
* 1: Foster a wide understanding of the key motivations and drivers behind land-use related decisions in Europe.
Agriculture accounts for more than 10% of total EU Greenhouse Gas emissions. Despite decades of economic ´one size fits all´ incentives to green the sector, its GHG contribution is projected to increase. We need to understand: What drives agriculture to steer the sector towards and through the green transition?
* 2: Identify the awareness of key actors about CCCC and biodiversity challenges in respect to LU and their willingness to contribute addressing them.
The agricultural stakeholders’ perceptions, attitudes and awareness related to environmental challenges are important factors that influence LU decisions and give support to the environmental policies. A deeper understanding of decision-making behind their revealed behaviour is required: What factors influence decision-making? What is the role of climate and biodiversity challenges? To what extent are policy incentives and instruments in LU decisions being used the EU? What are the conditions influencing local land-use decision-making, and how is the governance of CCCC adaptation performed in relevant European case study regions?* 3: Characterise future expected LU patterns consistent with long-term objectives and with a focus on climate and biodiversity in comparison with current and past situations.
Intensive LU changes are also influenced by CCCC, but patterns of changes have not been coherently studied in the EU. We will compare modelling tools and describe and calibrate a transition model, develop a set of LU/LC indicators, study driving forces and LU/LC changes for 2050 under different scenarios of CC and human pressure.
* 4: Support CC mitigation and adaptation efforts and biodiversity policy design and implementation by constructing and testing a conceptual telecoupling framework to analyse LU strategies.
The extensive and continuing land degradation throughout the world indicates the need to identify and provide more sustainable land-use causes. How can telecoupling address current limitations and future challenges for land-use in the EU context, as well as create targeted policies and improve its management? Telecoupling needs to be further operationalised for quantitative and qualitative analyses (e.g. paying closer attention to the location-based and flow-based human-environment interactions and to the deeper understanding of local, regional and global processes and their interconnectedness via various material and immaterial flows).
* 5: Gather and consolidate LU experiences by means of a dynamic toolbox of instruments to be used by key actors at various levels to visualise spatial and temporal changes in LU, based on different planned actions.
Even though the interconnectivity of LU and CC has been identified and depicted globally, there is a lack of means which may cater for a visualisation of this interrelationship. Visualising the spatial and temporal changes in LU based on different planned actions and by connecting them to CC scenarios can support sustainable decision-making of stakeholders. How can Europe-LAND’s stakeholders gain a deeper understanding of the effects of their alteration in LU to potentially motivate a behavioural change?
Spatial scope: Primary focus of assessments and outputs, respectively, are first and foremost related to agricultural land, wetlands, and forests. Europe-LAND does not address urban areas, cities, villages or industrial areas as some other HE projects do. The spatial levels of assessment will vary.
Geographical scope: 12 EU countries (DE, GR, DK, PT, ET, IT, RO, PL, LV, SV, AT, CZ)
After setting up relevant management structures, establishing appropriate working procedures and a kickoff meeting on Month 1, work was initiated immediately. The partners delivered a novel geodatabase with harmonised EU agricultural data (IACS) which is publicly accessible and started establishing an improved geodatabase depicting the latest state of EU organic wetlands (peatlands).
A Living Lab Framework for understanding the awareness of CC and biodiversity challenges was developed. Case Study partners started engaging in participatory actions, an EU-wide stakeholder mapping was conducted, national-level stakeholder events were organised. An assessment of policy incentives and instruments related to LU decisions is ongoing.
An extensive literature analysis identified e.g. current methods and tools applied in forecasting LU/LC changes and identification of recent changes, factors and trajectories of forest cover and agricultural land changes. LU/LC modeling strategies have been developed, serving as foundation for the entire modelling process and ensuring a clear understanding of the problem, alignment with stakeholder expectations, and a structured plan for effective model development.
A systematic literature review of the telecoupling concept is publicly available, and the Europe-LAND conceptual framework for understanding LU change in various socio-spatial structures is being designed.
As the technical development of the Europe-LAND toolbox proceededproceeded, a pilot GIS platform was set up. The developers continuously add further repositories e.g. Copernicus layers (Corine Land Cover), Eurostat’s NUTS classification, etc., as well as user-friendly functionalities.
Comprehensive communication and dissemination actions (webinars, science-policy dialogue, social media, conference presentations, publications, networking) render the project visible to the public.
All results termed public are accessible via www.europe-land.eu and via an open-access ZENODO repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/europeland/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)).
A Living Lab Framework for understanding the awareness of CC and biodiversity challenges was developed. Case Study partners started engaging in participatory actions, an EU-wide stakeholder mapping was conducted, national-level stakeholder events were organised. An assessment of policy incentives and instruments related to LU decisions is ongoing.
An extensive literature analysis identified e.g. current methods and tools applied in forecasting LU/LC changes and identification of recent changes, factors and trajectories of forest cover and agricultural land changes. LU/LC modeling strategies have been developed, serving as foundation for the entire modelling process and ensuring a clear understanding of the problem, alignment with stakeholder expectations, and a structured plan for effective model development.
A systematic literature review of the telecoupling concept is publicly available, and the Europe-LAND conceptual framework for understanding LU change in various socio-spatial structures is being designed.
As the technical development of the Europe-LAND toolbox proceededproceeded, a pilot GIS platform was set up. The developers continuously add further repositories e.g. Copernicus layers (Corine Land Cover), Eurostat’s NUTS classification, etc., as well as user-friendly functionalities.
Comprehensive communication and dissemination actions (webinars, science-policy dialogue, social media, conference presentations, publications, networking) render the project visible to the public.
All results termed public are accessible via www.europe-land.eu and via an open-access ZENODO repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/europeland/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)).
A highlight is the novel IACS geodatabase, featuring a temporal and thematic depth, not provided elsewhere. Furthermore, there is continuous enrichment of the IACS database following the annual release of data by the respective agencies. Moreover, the evolving web GIS platform gains features and capabilities, aspiring to the unique interactive platform where users can interact and compare diverse data layers: features like visual aids (e.g. superposition) or direct qualitative and quantitative comparison between data, including LU/LC, help investigate, identify and quantify potential correlations/interlinkages of various interrelated data.