Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

SENSOR

Sustainability Impact Assessment: Tools for Environmental, Social and Economic Effects of Multifunctional Land Use in European Regions

Start: 12/2004
End: 05/2009
 

SENSOR is an Integrated Project in the Sixth Framework Programme that technically aims to build, validate and implement sustainability impact assessment tools (SIAT), including databases and spatial reference frameworks for the analysis of land and human resources in the context of agricultural, regional and environmental policies. The scientific challenge is to establish relationships between different environmental and socio-economic processes as characterised by indicators considered to be quantitative measures of sustainability. Scenario techniques will be used within an integrated modelling framework, reflecting various aspects of multifunctionality and their interactions. The focus will be on European sensitive regions, particularly those in accession countries, since accession poses significant questions for policy makers regarding the socio-economic and environmental effect of existing and proposed land use policies. SIAT utilises the statistical and spatial data continuously collected by European and regional agencies. SENSOR delivers novel solutions for integrated modelling, spatial and temporal scaling and aggregation of data, selection of indicators, database management, analysis and prediction of trends, education and implementation. SIAT is made available to decision makers at the European and regional level, providing user-friendly interfaces and scientifically sound procedures for the assessment of environmental and monetary responses of policy options. Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis of policy implementation will be an integral part of the SIAT functions. As a result, SIAT facilitates the implementation of European policies towards sustainability and multifunctionality of land use.

Researchers: Dr. Martina Padmanabhan, Dr. Andreas Thiel

Project Partners:



  • Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research Müncheberg, Germany
  • Alterra Research Institute, Wageningen, The Netherlands
  • Chair of Forest Yield Science, Munich Technical University, Germany
  • ACR systems research, Vienna, Austria
  • Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetations and Landscape Ecology of Vienna University, Austria
  • Institutes of Soil Science and of Forest Growth Research of University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf, Schweiz
  • National Environmental Research Institute at Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Forest & Landscape Centre at University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Tartu University, Estonia
  • European Forest Institute, Joensuu, Finland
  • CEMAGREF, Grenoble, France
  • Centre d'Observation Économique, Paris, France
  • Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of West Hungary, Sopron, Hungary
  • Institute of Environmental Management, University of Gödöllö, Hungary
  • International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria
  • Dept. of Agriculture and Resource Economics of Florence University, Italy
  • Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy
  • Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Marsa, Malta
  • Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, Germany
  • Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
  • Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation Pulawy, Poland
  • Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
  • University Lund, Sweden
  • Forest Research, Farnham, UK
  • National Environmental Research Centre, Lancaster Research Station, UK
  • Dept. of Economics and International Development, University of Bath, UK
  • Centre for Environmental Management, Nottingham, United Kingdom
  • Dept. of Geography and Environment, Aberdeen, UK
  • Institute of Geological Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
  • Institute of Sustainable Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China
  • Soil National Research Centre of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Solos), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Research Group on Environmental Monitoring and Appraisal at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
  • Regional Analysis and Remote Sensing Laboratory at the University of Buenos Aires-Agronomy, Argentina
  • Ecology Department at the University of the Republic, Monte-video, Uruguay


Lead Overall Project: Dr. Katharina Helming, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg

Lead HU Sub-project: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn

Funding: European Union (FP6)

Project Website: SENSOR

Publications and Presentations: see Website