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ESMERALDA: Enhancing Ecosystem Services Mapping for Policy and Decision Making

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Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (ES) are core to the EU Biodiversity (BD) Strategy. They are essential if we are to make informed decisions. Action 5 sets the requirement for an EU-wide knowledge base designed to be: a primary data source for developing Europe’s green infrastructure; resource to identify areas for ecosystem restoration; and, a baseline against which the goal of ‘no net loss of BD and ES’ can be evaluated. In response to these requirements, ESMERALDA aims to deliver a flexible methodology to provide the building blocks for pan-European and regional assessments.

The work will ensure the timely delivery to EU member states in relation to Action 5 of the BD Strategy, supporting the needs of assessments in relation to the requirements for planning, agriculture, climate, water and nature policy. This methodology will build on existing ES projects and databases (e.g. MAES, OpenNESS, OPERAs, national studies), the Millennium Assessment (MA) and TEEB. ESMERALDA will identify relevant stakeholders and take stock of their requirements at EU, national and regional levels. The objective of ESMERALDA is to share experience through an active process of dialogue and knowledge co-creation that will enable participants to achieve the Action 5 aims. The mapping approach proposed will integrate biophysical, social and economic assessment techniques. Flexibility will be achieved by the creation of a tiered methodology that will encompass both simple (Tier 1) and more complex (Tier 3) approaches.

The work will exploit expert- and land cover-based methods, existing ES indicator data and more complex ES models. As a result the outcomes will be applicable in different contexts. The strength of the ESMERALDA consortium lies in its ability to make solutions for mapping and assessment problems available to stakeholders from the start of the project, because our expertise allows us to build on existing research projects and data sharing systems.


Contact: 

Prof. Manfred A. Lange     |     This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.     |     +357 22 208 621

 

 

Additional Info

  • Acronym: ESMERALDA
  • Center: EEWRC
  • Funding Source: EC H2020
  • CyI Funding: € 6,250
  • Starting Date: 1/2/2015
  • End Date: 31/7/2018
  • Coordinator: Leibniz Universität Hannover
  • Partners:

    Finnish Environment Institute

    Autonomous University of Madrid

    University of Trento

    Pensoft Publishers Ltd

    Free University of Amsterdam

    Flemish Institute for Technological Research

    National Institute in Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

    Global Change Research Centre

    Foundation for Sustainable Development

    ETH Zürich

    Baltic Environmental Forum

    Regional Environmental Centre

    Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

    Instituto Superior Técnico

    University of Bucharest

    UNEP WCMC

    Paris-Lodron University Salzburg

    Uiversity of Poznan 

    Institute for Environmental & Agricult. Science & Research

    Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology

    University of Copenhagen

    Naturvårdsverket

    Joint Research Centre

    Christian Albrechts University Kiel

    National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Arts, Heritage,Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

    Norwegian Institute for Nature Research

    Tel Aviv University

    Nature, Biodiversity and Landscape Protection Directorate Ministry of Environment

    Estonian University of Life Sciences

    Mykolas Romeris University

    University of Patras

    Cyprus Institute

    The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

    Fabis Consulting