Project description
Understanding freshwater and its role in earth system functions
Freshwater plays a vital role in regulating and sustaining Earth’s ecosystems and contributes to the planet’s energy balance. Regrettably, human activities have disrupted this crucial role, leading to significant damage. Additionally, a lack of understanding about freshwater’s function has hindered efforts to protect it and grasp the extent of the harm caused. To address this knowledge gap, the EU-funded AQUAGUARD project provides quantifiable assessments of human disturbances to freshwater functions. It aims to offer new insights into the complex interactions between various drivers and modifications to the water cycle, and their resulting impacts. Ultimately, the project seeks to identify solutions for safeguarding the essential functions of freshwater.
Objective
Freshwater has a fundamental role in regulating the state of the Earth system. Various human actions modify the water cycle, disturbing the Earth system functions it provides, such as mediating the planets energy balance and sustaining ecosystems. Humanitys impact on these functions has not been quantified comprehensively, nor do we know what human actions drive water cycle modifications (WCMs) in different parts of the world. This knowledge gap has made it impossible to acknowledge freshwater's crucial Earth system functions in decision-making. As human pressures on the water cycle continue to increase, there is an urgent need for bridging the gap between Earth system science and water management and governance, to safeguard freshwaters life-supporting Earth system functions.
AQUAGUARD rises to this challenge by 1) providing quantifications of the full extent of humanity's disturbance of the Earth system functions of freshwater, globally and in a spatially explicit manner, using novel indicators and spatial delineations; 2) using novel computational methods that will provide new insights into the complex driver interactions behind WCMs; 3) quantifying crucial Earth system impacts of WCMs, using modelling and meta-analysis, and 4) identifying feasible and just opportunities to safeguard freshwaters Earth system functions, using AQUAGUARDs quantifications combined with novel indicators of feasibility and equity aspects of freshwater change at scales that are appropriate for water management and governance.
AQUAGUARD addresses fundamental knowledge gaps at the intersection of hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry, and provides various new methods and ground-breaking scientific results that will illustrate water as an integral part of the Earth system. By doing so, the project opens up new research avenues within and across these fields and expands perspectives in water management and governance from predominantly local to local-to-global.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences hydrology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry biogeochemistry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
70211 KUOPIO
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.