ESMERALDA: Enhancing Ecosystem Services Mapping for Policy and Decision Making
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
- Website: http://www.esmeralda-project.eu/
- Center: EEWRC
- Funding Source: EC H2020
- CyI Funding: € 6,250
- Starting Date: 1/2/2015
- End Date: 31/7/2018
- Coordinator: Leibniz Universität Hannover
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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
