Objective
The project aims to integrate physical and socio-economic models to evaluate
the impact of climate change on soils, crop production and agricultural land
use distribution in Europe at the regional scale.
The project will develop a model, named IMPEL (Integrated Model to Predict
European Land use), integrating the physical as well as socio-economic aspects
of land use systems based on a modular approach. The modules will comprise:
a soil and crop model to evaluate the soil water balance and crop development
and yields for a range of strategic European crops;
a land degradation module to evaluate the impact of soil erosion and diminishing soil organic matter contents on crop productivity; a socio-economic module to evaluate optimal land use allocation and management
requirements (including machinery, labour and fertiliser use); a climate module to down-scale (both temporally and spatially) climate change
datasets.
The model will be demonstrated in a range of contrasting European regions by
using spatial physical datasets (e.g. soil, climate, topography) in combination with local socio-economic data (e.g. farm structure, demography).
The issue of spatial scale will be a major component of the project, including
the problems of linking spatial data at different scales, changing scale, and
error propagation through the spatially-distributed model. The regional demonstrations will also be used to evaluate management adaptations to climate
change, and to assess the potential impacts of changes in the socio-economic
baseline on land use systems.
Fields of science
- social sciencessociologydemography
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetary geology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencessoil sciencesland-based treatment
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
MK45 4DT SILSOE,BEDFORD
United Kingdom