Objective
To consolidate fundamental areas of research, in field investigations and modelling that are necessary for quantifying and understanding desertification processes at selected sites
across southern Europe.
A programme of field measurements and process investigations will be carried out at field
stations in Almeria (Spain), Spata (Greece) and Sardinia (Italy), to establish long term trends in
desertification, investigate key processes of desertification and soil erosion and contribute
towards establishing a European and International data and information base. In Spain additional
measurements will be made i) to assess the response of the vegetation, runoff and sediment yield
to climate variability; ii) to model the influence of the spatial dynamics of patchy vegetation on
runoff and sediment and iii) maintain and update
the Rambla Honda field site at the patch and hillslope scale. In Sardinia data on climate, surface
runoff, sediment yield, vegetation and soil moisture in experimental plots with different land use
conditions will be measured. In Greece data will be collected to establish relations between soil
erosion and loss in plant productivity of rain-fed cereals and to quantifying the effect of land
abandonment.
In Spain, specific studies are being undertaken of: the adaption of natural vegetation under stress
and environmental change; of soil faunal activity; soil moisture vegetation relations under stress;
the influence of plant roots on infiltration; and the management of stony soils. In Sardinia, land
degradation description indicators and grazing impacts are being studied.
Modelling activities, associated with the MEDRUSH land degradation model and its application
in the target areas are being developed, expanded and consolidated. This covers
ecological, land degradation and large basin and landslide modelling. For the ecological
modelling a tree model, a model which allows competition between life forms, a generic fire
model and a grazing model for inclusion in the vegetation model will be developed. The land
degradation modelling will cover the validation of the MEDRUSH model for the Agri and other
target areas; the development of a grazing component, the integration of socio-economic models with MEDRUSH and the development of sub-MEDRUSH model for
areas of 100 km2. The large basin modelling consist of an implementation of MEDRUSH in the
Agri and Guadalentin basins and the identification and use of a database to validate the SHETRAN landslide component.
The MEDRUSH model, produced during Medalus II is being developed and applied as a
management tool in the target areas of the Guadalentin (Spain), Agri (Italy) and Gerje (Hungary)
rivers. The Agri modelling involves scaling and spatial variability analyses of water transport
processes, model sensitivity analysis and relevant parameter definition; model validation and
testing; comparison of model results from other target areas and evaluation of model performance and output reliability.
In the Judean desert (Israel) and in Canada, international partners are undertaking research, that
is integrated into the Medalus programme, under conditions that are more extreme than
in Europe.
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.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences soil sciences soil management
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Funding Scheme
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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.
Coordinator
1018 VZ Amsterdam
Netherlands
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.