Down scaling of climate change scenarii to river basin level: A transdisciplinary methodology applied to Evrotas river basin, Greece

Water footprint of irrigated rice in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 2019/2020 crop

Agricultural production is the practice that uses the most water on the planet, especially the irrigated agriculture, which represents a large part of this demand. As well as the quantitative issue, adequate quality is essential to meet the demands of the crop and its return to the water sources, in a way that does not cause damage to the environment. To measure this consumption, the expression "water footprint" emerged. The water footprint seeks to quantify the demand for water incorporated into products. This paper aims to determine the amount of water used to produce irrigated rice in six rice growing regions in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), in the 2019/2020 crop. The mentioned regions are represented the municipalities of Uruguaiana (West Border), Dom Pedrito (Campanha), Santa Maria (Central Region), Camaquã (Internal Coastal Plain), Porto Alegre (External Coastal Plain), and Rio Grande (South Zone). Climate data from the analyzed regions, during the plant cycle, and productivity values in the crop in question were used. Values of 1187 m3 t-1 were found for WB, 1347 m3 t-1 for CA, 1058 m3 t-1 for CR, 783 m3 t-1 for ICP, 1115 m3 t-1 for ECP, and 1066 m3 t-1 for SZ. For the state of Rio Grande do Sul, an average water footprint was obtained in the 2019/2020 crop of 1093 m3 t-1.

Regionally extended shared socioeconomic pathways for the offshore wind industry in Finland

Offshore wind energy is increasingly becoming an important part of European and global low-emission power systems. The aims of this paper are to create a shared understanding on the major drivers of offshore wind development in Finland and to explore how these drivers, and opportunities for the entire industry, may develop over the twenty-first century, under different global futures. This research develops extended shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) narratives for the offshore wind industry by using a virtual participatory workshop with expert stakeholders. According to our results, the five key drivers shaping the prospects of offshore wind development are public acceptability of offshore energy, global and national demand for low-emission energy, technological development and relative competitiveness of offshore energy, availability of space and wind resources, and energy markets and transmission infrastructure. Nationally extended SSP narratives, building on these key drivers, describe a wide range of alternative future risks and opportunities for developing offshore energy. Under sustainable development (SSP1), offshore wind is likely to soon become a major source of energy in the area, if developed in a balanced manner alongside other uses of the marine space. Under fossil-fuelled development (SSP5), offshore wind grows slower and may experience rapid uptake only in the latter half of the century. Under the regional rivalry scenario (SSP3), the need for local energy sources drives the national energy policies and may create new opportunities for offshore wind. Under the inequality scenario (SSP4), local municipalities and the residents decide on locations of new wind turbines and the overall magnitude of future offshore wind.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40974-022-00252-7.

On the development of a regional climate change adaptation plan: Integrating model-assisted projections and stakeholders' perceptions

Climate change is expected to have strong social-ecological implications, with global but especially regional and local challenges. To assess the climatic vulnerability of a given territory, it is necessary to evaluate its exposure to climate change and its adaptive capacity. This study describes the development of an Action Plan for Adapting to Climate Change in the Tâmega and Sousa Region, a mountainous inter-municipal community in the North of Portugal. The goals were to identify the main impacts of climate change on water resources, agriculture, forests, biodiversity, and socioeconomic sectors, as well as to develop a plan, merging local and scientific knowledge through a transdisciplinary lens. This study describes an approach that combines modelling methods, applied in the different sectors, and participatory methods, based on the analysis of the perceptions of local actors. Results indicate that the target region will experience a generalized increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation, which will negatively impact all studied social-ecological dimensions. Overall, local business and institutional agents perceive the primary and tourism sectors as the most vulnerable in the region. The described framework demonstrates the engagement process between relevant scientific experts and local practitioners, as well as how it is critical to understand the impacts of climate change and to support the co-design of an adaptation plan, which in turn can guide political and economic decision-making towards effective implementation of the plan. In addition, the difficulties and challenges encountered during this process are discussed to support future plans and strategies for local adaptation.

Impacts and social implications of landuse-environment conflicts in a typical Mediterranean watershed

In coastal watersheds, services and landuse favour coastal tourism and urbanization, depriving rural upstream of infrastructure and attention. This unbalanced management leads to an intensification of socioeconomic changes that generate a structural heterogeneity of the landscape and a reduction in the livelihoods of the rural population. The incessant dissociation between the objectives of the stakeholders triggers landuse-environment-economy conflicts which threaten to mutate large-scale development programs. Here, we used multi-assessment techniques in a Mediterranean watershed from Morocco to evaluate the effects of landuse change on water, vegetation, and perception of the rural population towards environmental issues. We combined complementary vegetation indexes (NDVI and EVI) to study long-term landuse change and phenological statistical pixel-based trends. We assessed the exposure of rural households to the risk of groundwater pollution through a water analysis supplemented by the calculation of an Integrated Water Quality Index. Later, we contrasted the findings with the results of a social survey with a representative sample of 401 households from 7 villages. We found that rapid coastal linear urbanization has resulted in a 12-fold increase in construction over the past 35 years, to the detriment of natural spaces and the lack of equipment and means in rural areas upstream. We show that the worst water qualities are linked to the negative impact of anthropogenic activities on immediately accessible water points. We observe that rural households are aware of the existence and gravity of environmental issues but act confusedly because of their low education level which generates a weak capacity to understand cause and effect relationships. We anticipate the pressing need to improve the well-being and education of the population and synergistically correct management plans to target the watershed as a consolidated system. Broadly, stakeholders should restore lost territorial harmony and reallocate landuse according to a sustainable environment-socioeconomic vision.

Framing biophysical and societal implications of multiple stressor effects on river networks

Urbanization, agriculture, and the manipulation of the hydrological cycle are the main drivers of multiple stressors affecting river ecosystems across the world. Physical, chemical, and biological stressors follow characteristic patterns of occurrence, intensity, and frequency, linked to human pressure and socio-economic settings. The societal perception of stressor effects changes when moving from broad geographic regions to narrower basin or waterbody scales, as political and ecologically based perspectives change across scales. Current approaches relating the stressor effects on river networks and human societies fail to incorporate complexities associated to their co-occurrence, such as: i) the evidence that drivers can be associated to different stressors; ii) their intensity and frequency may differ across spatial and temporal scales; iii) their differential effects on biophysical receptors may be related to their order of occurrence; iv) current and legacy stressors may produce unexpected outcomes; v) the potentially different response of different biological variables to stressor combinations; vi) the conflicting effects of multiple stressors on ecosystem services; and, vii) management of stressor effects should consider multiple occurrence scales. We discuss how to incorporate these aspects to present frameworks considering biophysical and societal consequences of multiple stressors, to better understand and manage the effects being caused on river networks.

Assessing Riparian Areas of Greece—An Overview

Riparian areas, especially in the Mediterranean, offer many ecosystem services for the welfare of society benefits from their sustainable management. This study presents different tools used to assess riparian areas of Greece and their results. Riparian areas with different land-uses/vegetation covers along streams or torrents were assessed. The assessment tools were visual protocols, bioindicators, geographic information systems (GIS), vegetation indices, and a model. These tools differ in scale, accuracy, and difficulty of implementation. The riparian areas had Low and Moderate quality in Greece because of agricultural activities and hydrologic alterations. Vegetation appeared more important for the integrity of riparian areas than stream flow (perennial or intermittent). In addition, territorial variables (distance from dam and sea) were more influential compared to climatic variables. Visual protocols and GIS were effective for preliminary assessments. GIS can be applied at a greater scale but was less accurate than the protocols. Bioindicators can provide more cost-effective monitoring than physicochemical water variables. Finally, vegetation indices and models can be used for larger spatial and temporal scales, but require specialized personnel. Overall, riparian areas of Greece seem to be degraded, and monitoring would contribute to the development of a database on riparian areas that should form the basis for sustainable management plans in Greece.

Using UAV to Capture and Record Torrent Bed and Banks, Flood Debris, and Riparian Areas

Capturing and recording fluvio-geomorphological events is essential since these events can be very sudden and hazardous. Climate change is expected to increase flash floods intensity and frequency in the Mediterranean region, thus enhancing such events will also impact the adjacent riparian vegetation. The aim of this study was to capture and record the fluvial-geomorphological changes of the torrent bed and banks and flood debris events with the use of UAV images along a reach of Kallifytos torrent in northern Greece. In addition, a novel approach to detecting changes and assessing the conditions of the riparian vegetation was conducted by using UAV images that were validated with field data based on a visual protocol. Three flights were conducted using the DJI Spark UAV. Based on the images collected from these flights, orthomosaics were developed. The orthomosaics clearly identified changes in the torrent bed and detected debris flow events after major flood events. In addition, the results on the assessment of riparian vegetation conditions were satisfactory. Utilizing UAV images shows great potential to capture, record, and monitor fluvio-geomorphological events and riparian vegetation. Their utilization would help water managers to develop more sustainable management solutions based on actual field data.

Scenario processes for socio-environmental systems analysis of futures: A review of recent efforts and a salient research agenda for supporting decision making

This paper reviews the latest research on scenarios including the processes and products for socio-environmental systems (SES) analysis, modeling and decision making. A group of scenario researchers and practitioners participated in a workshop to discuss consolidation of existing research on the development and use of scenario analysis in exploring and understanding the interplay between human and environmental systems. This paper presents an extended overview of the workshop discussions and follow-up review work. It is structured around the essential challenges that are crucial to progress support of decision making and learning with respect to our highly uncertain socio-environmental futures. It identifies a practical research agenda where challenges are grouped according to the process stage at which they are most significant: before, during, and after the creation of the scenarios as products. These challenges for SES include: enhancing the role of stakeholder and public engagement in the co-development of scenarios, linking scenarios across multiple geographical, sectoral and temporal scales, improving the links between the qualitative and quantitative aspects of scenario analysis, addressing uncertainties especially surprise, addressing scenario diversity and their consistency together, communicating scenarios including visualization methods, and linking scenarios to decision making.

Determining the contributions of climate change and human activities to vegetation dynamics in agro-pastural transitional zone of northern China from 2000 to 2015

The vegetation in the agro-pastoral transitional zone of northern China (APTZNC) was significantly restored, and both climate change and ecological restoration projects contributed to vegetation activities with varied proportion. Since few decades ago, APTZNC has undergone significant land degradation and climate change, threatening regional sustainable development, and in response to such ecological crises, multiple ecological restoration projects were implemented, which have caused a profound impact on the terrestrial ecosystem. Taking agro-pastural transitional zone of northern China (APTZNC) as the study area, this study used 16-year (2000-2015) net primary productivity (NPP) as an important indicator of the arid and semi-arid ecosystem's productivity, combing meteorological data in same period to (1) monitor the vegetation dynamics affected by both climate and ecological restoration projects; (2) detect climate changing trend, including annual precipitation, air temperature, and sunlight hours; (3) explicitly distinguish driving forces of climate change and ecological restoration projects on vegetation dynamics based on correlation analysis. The results demonstrated that (1) the annual NPP indicated overall greening (48.77% significant restoration) and partial degradation (0.39% significant degradation) in APTZNC; (2) the annual precipitation was the main factor that widely influences vegetation growth, and the area with significant influence accounted for 55.53%; however, the area with significant temperature influence only accounted for 1%, and the area affected significantly by sunshine hours accounted for 14.33%; (3) In the area of significant greening with proportion of 48.77%, of 26.93% was related to climate change, of 19.80% was related to ecological conservation programs, and of 2.05% was related to multiple factors. In the significantly degraded area with proportion of 0.39%, of 0.1% is related to climate change and of 0.29% is abnormally degraded. Our study is expected to accelerate the understanding of vegetation dynamics and its driving mechanisms, and provide support for scientifically formulating and adjusting ecological restoration projects in APTZNC.

New tools and approaches to promote soil and water bioengineering in the Mediterranean

Soil loss and erosion is a major environmental problem in the Mediterranean. Soil and water bioengineering uses plants and/or parts of plants along with inert material to create solutions to fulfill soil conservation objectives combined with an ecological rehabilitation approach. The ECOMED project developed novel approaches and tools to specialize the soil and water bioengineering sector within the Mediterranean. The first activity was the Sector Needs Analysis were the responses to an online questionnaire of 110 stakeholders from the region were analyzed. The main conclusion was the need to specialize the soil and water bioengineering sector in the Mediterranean. In addition, 21 soil and water bioengineering case studies in the Mediterranean were reviewed. Many works of this type are implemented in the region, but have flaws because of the lack of training material, design routines, protocols, specific to the region. The second activity developed New Design Routines and Protocols. Specifically, three protocols, one template and one plant database were developed for the region. Finally, in the Training Material activity, six educational modules along with a handbook (that contained modules, protocols, template and case studies) were developed. Overall the ECOMED project generated new and novel material and tools that were lacking in the region to enhance the specialization process of the soil and water bioengineering sector. These should increase the adoption of soil and water bioengineering techniques with better trained and new professionals as well as improve the work performance of these interventions.

Assessing the Effectiveness of the WFD as a Tool to Address Different Levels of Water Scarcity Based on Two Case Studies of the Mediterranean Region

Despite being a natural phenomenon, water scarcity is, to a great extent, human-induced, particularly affected by climate change and by the increased water resources vulnerability. The Water Framework Directive (WFD), an ‘umbrella’ directive that aims to provide holistic approaches to the management of water resources and is supported by a number of Communication documents on water scarcity, requires for prompt responses to ensure ‘healthy’ water bodies of good ecological status. The current paper presents a multidisciplinary approach, developed and engaged within the Globaqua Project, to provide an assessment of the main challenges towards addressing water scarcity with emphasis on the climate change projections, in two Mediterranean regions. The current paper attempts to critically assess the effectiveness of the WFD as a tool to address water scarcity and increase sustainability in resource use. Criticism lies on the fact that the WFD does not directly refer to it, still, water scarcity is recognized as a factor that increases stress on water resources and deteriorates their status. In addition, the Program of Measures (PoMs) within the WFD clearly contribute to reducing vulnerability of water resources and to ensure current and future water use, also under the impact of the projected climate change.