www.sensor-ip.org

Sustainability Impact Assessment:

Tools for Environmental, Social and Economic Effects of Multifunctional Land Use in European Regions

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Now that SENSOR is underway, communication and team spirit will be essential in keeping this Integrated Project on course and on schedule. SENSOR is a marvellous project to be working with, and we are all keen to prove the added value of this new way of working together on European-level research. Putting together so many Partners through the multiple links organised through the work programme means that an enormous amount of interaction will occur. This Newsletter will be one of the ways to appreciate the fruit of these exchanges. We can expect intellectual stimulation provided by novel and challenging concepts; we can hope for internal debate that will sharpen our perception on the subject matter of SENSOR; and we are sure to find many keys to accessing complementary scientific research. A hearty welcome to the SENSOR Newsletter, which will be a regular meeting place for both project Partners and all others who find the future of multi-functional land use in Europe a fascinating, critical issue for our future environmental, social and economic well-being. Peter Nowicki, Peer Review Group Co-Ordinator European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC)

A case for SENSOR (by Dirk Wascher)

As one of the new generation research initiatives under the EU’s 6

th

Framework Programme, the Integrated Project SENSOR puts forward a wide range of ambitious objectives, designed to provide scientific support to the implementation of the EU Strategy of Sustainable Development. One of the key challenges SENSOR has taken on is to provide decision makers with an integrated set of Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SIAT) that build upon existing – but highly fragmented and sectoral – approaches to enable informed political judgements to be made and economic trade-offs to be identified (Tamborra 2003). The relevance of such tools is reflected in a recent issue of The Economist (April 23, 2005). Its cover story suggests that “market forces could prove the environment’s best friend – if only greens could learn to love them”. While SENSOR will not explore the emotional dimensions of this topic, the project is clearly designed to employ cost-benefit analysis, cost effectiveness and multi-criteria analysis in order to make social and environmental functions and benefits more accountable. One of the examples that The Economist is putting forward derives from a study by the World Bank (Pagiola et al, 2004), assessing the costs and benefits of reforestation at selected sites in Coastal Croatia. The appropriate question in this case was whether the additional benefits obtained by reforestation, compared to allowing natural regeneration to occur, justified the additional costs. The figure below shows the results for each proposed reforestation site: in each case the expected benefits are compared to the expected costs. The overall analysis, shown in the last column, indicates an average Net Present Value (NPV) of US$790/ha, and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 17 percent. However, this overall result masks the fact that the net benefits of reforestation vary substantially from site to site – even within the same region, benefits can vary by several orders of magnitude.

NEWSLETTER No 1

June 2005

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This example shows limitations of aggregated national or regional statistics when it comes to measuring true environmental impact and benefits and can hence be considered as a point in case in support of sub-regional assessment techniques as currently discussed in the so-called “Grid-Forum” as part of the SENSOR website (www.sensor-ip.org). Another interesting message from this case study is the relatively prominent role of landscapes as a one of the most beneficial factors. This is especially interesting since the World Bank report is actually addressing the economic values of ecosystems. Especially in Europe, however, cultural landscapes are likely to represent higher economic values due to their large geographic coverage and multi-functional qualities. References: Pagiola, S., von Ritter, K. & Bishop, J., 2004. Assessing the Economic Value of Ecosystem Conservation. The World Bank

Environment Department in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and IUCN–The World Conservation Union. Environment Department Paper No.101.

Tamborra, M. 2003. Developing Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment: The Role of Socio-economic Research in the EU. European Commission, Brussels.

World Bank, 1996a. “Croatia Coastal Forest Reconstruction and Protection Project: Staff Appraisal Report.” Report No.15518-HR. Washington: World Bank.

Sensitive Regions and Areas (M3 and M6)

The main purpose of developing regional profiles is to differentiate regions according to ‘relatively stable’ geo-physical and social-economic characteristics. Regarding the latter, M3 focuses on population settlement characteristics, that are expressed through population densities (average human presence within a region) and presence/absence of important ‘cities’ that concentrate population (urban system development). For ‘cities’, the intention is to apply the ESPON definition of the FUAs (functional urban areas): these are important core cities and nearby areas under strength influence of core cities, e.g. through commuter displacements flows. These two criteria differentiate low densities regions, in most cases without marked concentration of population in cities, from high densities regions, in most cases where population concentrates in cities. Moreover, M3 makes a further distinction between cities, through setting apart the most important FUAs in terms of population, assuming these cities play a role as development nodes within the regions. The above map illustrates some results.

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Data analysis and empirical studies suggest that mountain regions run short of socio-economic development compared to lowland equivalent regions. Peripheral location and presence or absence of large towns are also of great importance. While Module 3 provides the spatial reference framework for locating and characterising sensitive areas at the European level, Module 6 is going to work at higher resolution (e.g. NUTS V) and will include national data sources. An underlying assumption of SENSOR Module 6 is that sustainability impact assessment tools that prove their suitability in pilot and case studies will be effective in assessing implications of policy elsewhere in Europe. For post-industrial areas, a set of overlapping sustainability key issues needs to be considered. In the Silesian post-mining area, for instance, wide spread soil contamination and

groundwater pollution is paralleled by a breakdown of local industries and a high post-industrial population density. In the Lusatian mining area amelioration technologies had been developed some time ago and applied to rehabilitate highly acid overburden sediments and mining lakes. Long-term monitoring showed that the productivity of reclaimed agricultural land is still falling below the average. Similarly it remains still uncertain whether forest ecosystem established on such reclamation will develop in a sustainable way. D. Wascher (Module 3) U. Schneider (Module 6) Contact: Vincent Briquel, Cemagref Contact: Oliver Dilly, BTU Cottbus Email: vincent.briquel@cemagref.fr Email: dilly@tu-cottbus.de

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SENSOR dissemination: Publications and conference presentations (by Katharina Helming)

Dissemination of project results is a very important part of the SENSOR work. The plan for using and disseminating knowledge (DoW, p. 63 ff.) identifies three user groups that have to be addressed: (i) end user at European Commission level, (ii) end users at regional and national administration level, and (iii) the scientific community. While the first two groups are predominantly addressed through the participatory work organised by module seven, the third group, the scientific community has to be addressed by all of us through conference presentations and publications. The project web-site provides a continuously updated conference calendar covering research issues which are addressed in SENSOR (public part, go to news/events). Please help us to keep this list updated and comprehensive by providing information on interesting conferences and meetings. In order to keep record and avoid overlap, please inform the project coordination team about your intention to produce a SENSOR related presentation/publication. Generally, presentations on the overall design of the project and/or specific modules are under the responsibility of the coordinator and/or module leaders. On behalf of the European Commission, the following disclaimer is mandatory for all publications: “This publication has been funded under the EU 6th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration, Priority 1.1.6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems (European Commission, DG Research, contract 003874 (GOCE)). Its content does not represent the official position of the European Commission and is entirely under the responsibility of the authors.”

FP 6 projects around SENSOR (by Katharina Helming)

One of the major features of the SENSOR project is its complexity resulting from the variety of analysed sectors, sustainability issues, scientific approaches and spatio/temporal scales to be covered. With this, SENSOR aims at meeting the challenge to integrate a wide range of land use – impact relations and landscape sustainability issues into a comprehensive and concise system. In depth analysis of specific processes and cause-effect relationships is not SENSORs prime objective. Therefore, to consider the state of the art in all research fields addressed, linkages with other projects covering specific research issue are very important.

The below list of FP6 projects around SENSOR might help to get an understanding of the project world around SENSOR. The list is preliminary, continuous updates are planned for which comments and information form SENSOR partners are highly welcome. www addresses are provided for all projects. In June, the European Commission will organise a meeting of some of the project for mutual information. We will keep you informed.

Topic Projects

Evaluation of

existing tools

Thresholds of

Sustainability

Indicators/

ModelsParticip. Tools

Sus A-Test Thresholds I.Q. Tools -

Policies Climate Change Technology

development

Market changes

- ENSEMBLES - -

Agriculture Forestry Transport Energy Tourism Urban Nat.Con.

SEAMLESS MEA-

Scope

MULTAGRI

Efor Wood RENEW NEEDS - - -

Rural

Development

GHG emission Climate Change Soil Water

- INSEA Carbo-Europe KASSA FloodSite

NeWater

Data compilation Land use models Social system

modelsGEOLAND LUCC TIGRESS

Externalities

METHODEX

Impact

analysis/

Management

Land use

drivers

Demography

-

Impact

Assessment

Data / models

Multifunctional land use

SENSOR

IA Tools

MATISSE

Land use

analysis

Biodiversity

ALTERNET

ALARM

Sectoral

analysis

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Project information Project Instrument www Co-ordinator

ALARM IP www.alarmproject.net UFZ (DE) ALTERNET NoE CEH (UK) CarboEurope IP http://www.carboeurope.org/ MPI Jena (DE) GEOLAND IP http://www.gmes-geoland.info/ InfoTerra GmbH (DE) EFORWOOD IP (FI) ENSEMBLES IP http://www.ensembles-eu.org/ Hadley Centre (UK) INSEA STREP http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/INSEA/index.html IIASA (AT) I.Q.Tools CA ZEW (DE) KASSA SSA http://kassa.cirad.fr/ CIRAD (FR) LUCC http://www.geo.ucl.ac.be/LUCC/lucc.html IGBP/IHDP MATISSE IP Maastricht University

(NL) MEA-Scope STREP www.mea-scope.org ZALF (DE) METHODEX www.methodex.org AEA Technology

Environment (UK) MULTAGRI CA www.multagri.net CEMAGREF (FR) NEEDS IP NEWATER IP http://www.newater.info/ University Osnabrück

(DE) RENEW http://www.renew-fuel.com/home.php VW (DE) SEAMLESS IP www.seamless-ip.org WUR (NL) Sustainability A-Test

www.sustainabilityA-Test.net Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)

THRESHOLDS TIGRESS www.tigress.ac University of Newcastle-

upon-Tyne (UK)

News from the co-ordination team

In June, Dr. Karen Tscherning will join the project coordination team at ZALF. Karen will replace Betting König during her maternity leave. When Bettina is back, they both will take care of the proper coordination and management of the project together with Katharina.

SENSOR first semi-annual reporting (by Bettina König)

At the end of May the first semi-annual internal reporting period ended. The first internal reporting will be of special importance for all of us to gather experience and get a first overview on the progress that has been made in SENSOR so far. Besides the semi-annual internal report, which has to be prepared by every partner, already some deliverables are due (see deliverable plan for the first 18 months under Module 1). Therefore, the responsible partner for the deliverable has to prepare a deliverable report. Report templates are available on the internal website under Module 1/ reporting. Deliverable reports also have to undergo the process of consultation/ evaluation by Module Coordinators. The final version has to be made available to the Project Coordination Team to communicate the report to the EC. The reporting process with deadlines for the first internal reporting and reviewing is shown in the figure below. A background document and the reviewing sheet to be used by module coordinators for the evaluation of the partner reports can be downloaded from the website as well.

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Module coordinators will sum up the results reached so far for their Module and inform the project coordination team. We will then compile an overall internal report for the first semi- annual period to be made available to the Steering Committee and the Module Coordination Committee.

We intend to use the Malta meeting for exchanging our experiences with the reporting and reviewing schedule to agree upon adaptations to make the process transparent and efficient to meet the requirements and deadlines of the first reporting to the EC. Finally, the reporting and reviewing process shall be understood as a mean to monitor the fulfilment of the overall scientific approach and quality of SENSOR.

Thanks to Tomasz Stuchynski and colleagues

Again a big thank you to Tomasz and his team for organising the successful Project meeting in Warsaw and the very interesting field trip to Silesia!

RECOAL (by Paul Tabbush)

There is a strong link between SENSOR and RECOAL. RECOAL is a “STREP” which began in Autumn 2004, under the INCO-Balkan funding stream, based in Bosnia Herzegovina. Its focus is a series of coal-ash dumping sites near Tuzla, amounting to more than 200ha of land. This, of course, poses a serious environmental problem through windblown dust and through water pollution – the ash is very alkaline and contains high levels of heavy metals. The link with SENSOR is partially to do with the partnership: the Project Co-ordinator is Walter Wenzel from BOKU; Uwe Schneider from University of Cottbus is a partner, and the social research is lead by Paul Tabbush from Forest Research. The other link is that this is a landscape-based problem concerning people, for instance local farmers and residents, local industries, local government, higher levels of government and NGOs. The solutions will not be simple and technical, although natural science is a vital part of the equation; sustainable solutions must be devised to take account of stakeholder views so that they work in context and are “owned” by those who have to implement them.

Schedule SENSOR semi-annual Report 1Report template

Partner X Module co-ordinator+ optional second reviewer

Reviewing sheet

review

SENSOR co-ordination

(Basis forSENSOR payment)

31 May

4 July

18 July

20 June

Steering committeeModule co-ordination committe

SummaryPartner reportsPartner reviews

Partner report

Overall report

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This is echoed in SENSOR’s case studies. A thorough understanding of the context of environmental issues will be needed to interpret the output from SENSOR’s models, and to answer the question: Does this policy instrument lead to sustainable outcomes?

Thermo-Electric Power Plant in Tuzla, Bosnia, one Partner in RECOAL

Nearby coal ash deposit sites which is being used by local residents for growing crops and for pasture

QUEST (by Stefan Sieber)

Many literature researches are done and we all have a wide range of literature listings which cover normally important aspects or details of our research topic. One link I would like to add in this sense, but not to advertise a tool in terms of business and money making. In fact one tool we found has a very similar general assembly and research objectives as we have: Decision-making within organizations through a dialog, that deliver in one tool a sustainability visioning and planning solutions for regions and corporations around the globe. This tool so called QUEST is a software tool that increases the capacity of individuals and organizations to inform decisions, engage stakeholders and build support for long term, strategic plans. It employs a wide variety of state-of-the-art computing techniques delivered as stand-alone products or as web-enabled experiences. Each technique should allow users to understand overwhelming amounts of information surrounding complex issues such as urban development, environmental planning, and climate change. But as always in life: One huge

difference has to be pointed out: Quest focuses mainly metropolitan areas.

For further information: The QUEST software has become a fundamental tool in sustainability planning for municipalities, regions, and corporations around the world: Based in Vancouver, Canada, Envision was founded in 1997, as a spin-off from the world-renowned Sustainable Development Research Institute (SDRI) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). QUEST was developed through a decade of collaboration with SDRI under the mandate to bridge the gap between academic research, decision makers and the general public. Copyright 2004 - Envision Sustainability Tools - e: info@envisiontools.com p: 604.225.2000 f: 604.225.2001 Home - Contact - News - Site Map - Products - Services - Projects - Sustainability - About Envision

Last News: NUTS-X ready for use (by Dirk Wascher)

Following a collaboration between M3 and M4, the official NUTS-X region map for ongoing and future SENSOR assessments has just been finalised. The presented map represents a combination of NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 regions for EU25+2+2+1 (plus Rumania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland) applying criteria such as comparable area size and data accessibility, resulting in a total of 573 NUTS-Regions. The approach represents a further development of what had been tabled during the Warsaw conference as initial drafts by Marjolijn Bloemmen (M3) and Tom Kuhlman (M2). The work has advanced with further input by Tom and Michiel van Eupen, taken into account the latest information on the approach taken by EEA. The data is being offered as a zipped (compressed) shape-file, ready for further GIS-applications and can be downloaded on request to Michel van Eupen at Alterra (Michiel.vaneupen@wur.nl) or Henning Sten Hansen at NERI (hsh@mail.dk)

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We strongly recommend to make use of this data as the one and only common NUTS-Region reference base within SENSOR.

Editorial

Responsible: Dirk Wascher (dirk.wascher@wur.nl), Marta Perez-Soba; Alterra Green World Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Contributions: Peter Nowicki (ECNC, NL), Uwe Schneider (BTUC, DE), Olliver Dilly (BTUC, DE), Vicent Briquel (Cemagref, FR), Paul Tabbush (FR, UK), Stefan Sieber (ZALF, DE), Katharina Helming (ZALF, DE), Bettina König (ZALF, DE),

More information: www.sensor-ip.org Contact: sensor@zalf.de,

This publication has been funded under the EU 6th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration, Priority 1.1.6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems (European Commission, DG Research, contract 003874 (GOCE)). Its content does not represent the official position of the European Commission and is entirely under the responsibility of the authors.