Recent projects in which the NetSyMoD approach and/or the mDSS tool have been adopted and further developed 

C3-Alps (Alpine Space Programme)

Capitalising Climate Change Knowledge for Adaptation in the Alpine Space


In Brief:

The project, conducted by a transnational consortium of 17 partners from all Alpine countries and coordinated by the Environment Agency Austria, builds on the results of previous projects and initiatives on adaptation to climate change in the Alps. It seeks to synthesize, transfer, and implement in policy and practice the best available adaptation knowledge. By applying a knowledge transfer concept driven by the information and communication needs of target groups, the project optimizes the usability of available knowledge resources in an attempt to bridge the gap between the generation of adaptation knowledge and its application in real-world decision-making. The project involves stakeholders in different ways, through events, online questionnaires, results dissemination and participation in the problem analysis, in order to support bottom-up adaptation measures in Alpine regions and municipalities, contribute to the implementation of national adaptation strategies, and disseminate Alpine adaptation capital within the Alpine community and beyond.

NetSyMoD case

The identification of a specific problem related to climate change of the cross-Alp and cross-sectoral importance and design of a set of possible solutions and evaluation criteria, through consultation with experts; the design of a new online version of mDSS that is combined with webGIS in order to integrate spatial component of the climate change adaptation; the analysis of the alternative solutions to the problem, by elicitation of stakeholders’ preferences, and the multi-criteria evaluation of alternative measures based on the knowledge and preferences expressed by stakeholders that are mobilized through mailing lists and other online networks and involved in the evaluation process through the online platform provided by the project.

References


Project website: http://www.c3alps.eu/index.php/en/

CMCC website: http://www.cmcc.it/projects/c3-alps-capitalizing-climate-change-and-knowledge-for-adaptation-in-the-alpine-space-2

Web platform: http://portal.c3alps.eu/dss/





ICARUS (IWRM-NET Project)

IWRM for Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Social Ecosystems in Southern Europe


In Brief:

The project, coordinated by the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, dealt with the effects of climate change on water management in Southern European irrigated systems, as already present and within plausible scenarios for the next 20 years. It delivered messages for how to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture selected case studies in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, by analysing and understanding the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional dimensions of sustainable water management and by identifying innovative adaptation strategies, practices, and decision support methods and tools for saving water in irrigated production systems. Moreover, it supported the implementation of the WFD by promoting transboundary exchange of experiences, not only within Europe but also across the Mediterranean, and by broadening the range of methods and tools available to water managers. .

NetSyMoD case

Formalization of the problem of dealing with the effects climate and other changes on irrigated agricultural systems via an online participatory process that identified the impacts on the ground, the main pressures and drivers of the stakeholders (farmers), and a range of potential solutions. Refinement of the available options with policy-makers in order to ensure their policy relevance. Collection, through mDSSweb, of farmers’ and irrigation boards representatives’ opinions about the potential of different strategies for water conservation, in order to identify actors’ priorities in terms of their expectations of efficacy.

References


CMCC website: http://www.cmcc.it/icarus-project-project-description
Publications : www.iemss.org/iemss2012/proceedings/C1_0968_Bojovic_et_al.pdf
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ClimAlpTour (Alpine Space Programme)

Climate Change and its impact on tourism in the Alpine Space


In Brief:

The project, coordinated by Regione Veneto, dealt with the effects of climate change on alpine tourism, with main reference to winter tourism and winter sports in various areas of the Alps. The issue of providing appropriate strategies to ensure a balanced development of alpine tourism, the preparation of appropriate adaptation policies at the national, regional and local level, and the assessment of the economic and social effects of climate change on tourism was a central issue in several studies. This project addressed the need to provide both a sound knowledge of the different aspects of the impact of climate change on alpine tourism and concrete adaptation strategies to apply in selected areas. The choice to  involve local actors (e.g. municipalities) was led by the intention to bring concrete solutions on the alpine territory and to include the topic of the effect of climate change on tourism into the local policy agendas.

NetSyMoD case

Analysis of problems related to adaptation to climate change in the Alpine area through the design of a new version of mDSS and the organisation of NetSyMoD workshops for the definition of local climate change scenarios, the identification of evaluation criteria to choose among available strategies, the elicitation of preferences by persons or groups of actors, and the multi-criteria evaluation of alternative strategies thanks to the knowledge and preferences expressed by the stakeholders involved in the project,joint with modeling of the systems.

References


- Project web site: http://www.climalptour.eu/content/
- CMCC web site: http://www.cmcc.it/projects/climalptour-climate-change-and-its-impact-on-tourism-in-the-alpine-space
- UNIVE web site: http://virgo.unive.it/climalptour/
- Publications: http://virgo.unive.it/climalptour/publications.html  



Brahmatwinn (FP6 Project)

Twinning European and South Asian River basins to enhance capacity and implement adaptive integrated water resources management approaches


In Brief:

The overall objective of BRAHMATWINN was to enhance the local capacity to implement a harmonised integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach in headwater river systems of alpine mountain massifs, as addressed by the European Water Initiative. Specific attention is given to plausible impacts of climate change, and to the transfer of professional IWRM expertise, approaches and tools based on case studies carried out in twinning European and Asian rivers – the Upper Danube River Basin in Europe, and the Upper Brahmaputra River Basin in Southeast Asia.
The overall objective was achieved by
(i) assessing climate change impacts for water-soil resources management in trans-boundary basins with significant water storage in snow and glacier covered alpine mountain headwaters;
(ii) developing and applying integrated assessment approaches, and establishing an Integrated Water Resources Management System (IWRMS) toolset;
(iii) disseminating results and contributing to capacity building for the implementation of IWRM plans within the twinning basins.
The project consortium was composed of both European and Asian partners.

NetSyMoD case

Development and test of a methodology aimed at improving the effectiveness of interactions between the scientific community and local actors for decision-making processes in water management in two case studies, in Europe and Asia. Identification and exploration of the capability of adaptation strategies to cope with flood risk in mountain areas. The methodological approach consisted of a sequence of steps including participatory local workshops and the use of a decision support systems tool: mDSS. Participatory iIdentification -via a workshop - of four categories of possible responses and a set of nine evaluation criteria, three for each of the three pillars of sustainable development: economy, society and the environment. Ranking of the broad categories of response strategies, according to the expectations and preferences of the workshop's participants, with the aim of orienting and targeting further activities by the research consortium. The mDSS tool was used to facilitate transparent and robust management of the information, the implementation of multi criteria decision analysis and the communication of the outputs.

References


Project web site:  http://www.brahmatwinn.uni-jena.de/index.php?id=5314&L=2

FEEM web site:  http://www.feem.it/getpage.aspx?id=143&sez=Research&padre=18&sub=70&idsub=86&pj=Past

Publications:
http://www.adv-sci-res.net/7/
http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/pdf/project_summaries/fp6/natural_resources/brahmatwinn.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146290111100092X

Presentations:
http://www.feem.it/userfiles/attach/20121191254452012.01.19_Valentina%20Giannini_presentation.pdf