#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/202634/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SIM4NEXUS (Sustainable Integrated Management FOR the NEXUS of water-land-food-energy-climate for a resource-efficient Europe)

Teaser

Summary

Land, food, energy, water and climate are interconnected, comprising a coherent system (the â€˜Nexusâ€™), dominated by complexity and feedback. The integrated management of the Nexus is critical to secure the efficient and sustainable use of resources. Barriers to a resource efficient Europe are policy methodologies and tools for the Nexus, and knowledge and technology lock-ins.
SIM4NEXUS will develop innovative methodologies to address these barriers, by building on well-known and scientifically established existing â€œthematicâ€ models, simulating different components/â€œthemesâ€ of the Nexus and by developing: (a) novel complexity science methodologies and approaches for integrating the outputs of the thematic models; (b) a Geoplatform for seamless integration of public domain data and metadata for decision and policy making; (c) a Knowledge Elicitation Engine for integrating strategies at different spatial and temporal scales with top down and bottom up learning process, discovering new and emergent knowledge, in the form of unknown relations between the Nexus components and policies/strategies; (d) a web-based Serious Game for multiple users, as an enhanced interactive visualisation tool, providing an immersive experience to decision- and policy-makers. The Serious Game will assist the users (as players) in better understanding and visualising policies at various geo-/spatial scales and from a holistic point of view, towards a better scientific understanding of the Nexus.
The Serious Game will be validated (applied, tested, verified and used) via 12 Case Studies ranging from regional, national, transboundary, European and Global levels.

Work performed

The case studies offer a spotlight on policy success stories. Examples of good governance are presented, including success criteria and conditions. They focus on interdisciplinary, \'systems-thinking\' and inter-/cross-sectoral processes. The national case studies in Sweden, Latvia, the Netherlands, Greece and Azerbaijan regard the transition to a low carbon economy as driver of change in the other nexus sectors. Water, energy and agriculture is a common focus of the regional case studies in Spain, Italy and the UK. Both transboundary cases are clustered around the themes of water, with a focus on its relation to land use (Germany-Czech Republic-Slovakia) and on biodiversity conservation (France-Germany). The European case is targeted at a low-carbon economy and the global case does link the Nexus to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The benefit of a nexus approach stems from the exploitation of synergies between policies, avoidance of conflicts and trade-offs between policies because they were foreseen and addressed. See also: http://bit.ly/2UNrsBB. European policies for water-land-energy-food-climate sectors reckon with conflicts and trade-offs in other sectors. However, opportunities for synergies are less explored and there is no institutionalised procedure for a comprehensive nexus assessment of new policies. New integrating themes (e.g. circular and low-carbon economy related to resource efficiency and planetary boundaries) can stimulate a nexus approach.

A policy brief on climate adaptation is released, and concludes the current EU Directive proposal on Promoting the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources has trade-offs on water that are not as well addressed as those related to land. SIM4NEXUS also has published 20 papers. SIM4NEXUS is appointed by EASME to lead the ICT4WATER Action group for Data Sharing in the ICT4WATER Cluster. This will support the implementation of the Digital Water Action Plan. The Nexus Project Cluster is launched, aimed to team up for increased and more impacting communication and dissemination of the Nexus. See also: https://www.nexuscluster.eu/. A policy-targeting event is held in Brussels, 27 November 2018, bringing together different nexus projects with representatives from different DGs.

A stepwise methodological assessment framework of the Nexus is drafted. A glossary is produced of terms related to the science of the nexus. So far, the assessment framework consolidates a process, which enables the integrated assessment of resources towards resource efficiency and a low carbon future. This is achieved by the strong focus given to policy analysis and coherence of the nexus, and its sound incorporation in the quantification analysis. Related to the assessment framework, SIM4NEXUS also launched a process to consolidate nexus innovations that span three main categories: technology, policy and society.

Final results

The exploitation strategy is drafted, assessing the current technical and intellectual property status of the project. A combined for-profit and non-profit exploitation is recommended to ensure the largest project impact.

SIM4NEXUS contributes to the impacts set out in the work programme: First, the project increases the understanding of how water management, food, biodiversity and land use policies are linked together and to climate and sustainability goals. It is for the first time a serious game with this complexity has been built on the theme of the Nexus. A beta version of the Serious Game is released (Google Chrome): http://seriousgame.sim4nexus.eu.

Second, uncertainties about the opportunities and limitations of low-carbon options are reduced. A stepwise methodological assessment framework of the nexus is developed. It enables the integrated assessment of resources towards resource efficiency and a low carbon future, and is achieved by the strong focus to policy analysis and coherence of the nexus. A process to consolidate nexus innovations is launched, which spans technology, policy and society.

Third, SIM4NEXUS contributes to future assessments, including those of the IPCC, with multidisciplinary tools.SIM4NEXUS organised a side-event during COP23 (November 2017). Some interconnections between energy, water, food, land and climate resources are presented, enabling policy-makers to identify trade-offs and exploit synergies, leading to more efficient resource use. SIM4NEXUS also contributed to COP24 (December 2018) in Katowice. A side-event focussed on climate action and the Nexus. Examples are discussed of (i) how does climate action relate to other challenges like achieving the SDGs, and (ii) how could climate action be supported by learning from Serious Games?

SIM4NEXUS has communicated with policy decision-makers, practitioners and communities of practice during 14 events. SIM4NEXUS has been active on social media, primarily through the @sim4nexus twitter account. There are 355 tweets, 1,502 retweets, 1,788 likes and 867 link clicks.