EUROPE-LAND - Towards Sustainable Land-use Strategies in the Context of Climate Change and Biodiversity Challenges in Europe

Funding Program: Horizon Europe

Funding Agency: European Commission

Grant Agreement Number: 101081307

Aligned with the European leading efforts in climate science and multiple initiatives on climate action and sustainability, the project Towards Sustainable Land-use Strategies in the Context of Climate Change and Biodiversity Challenges in Europe (EUROPE-LAND) focuses on the integration of natural and social sciences to identify, develop, test and implement integrated tools to improve the understanding of the factors behind land-use decisions as well as the stakeholders' awareness and engagement in terms of climate change and biodiversity challenges. EUROPE-LAND expects to go beyond the state-of-the-art and fill in specific gaps associated with integrated indicators for monitoring land use and land cover change, the effects of awareness and behavioral typologies on pathways to more sustainable land use across Europe, and interactive tools to explore land use under different scenarios and with participatory approaches.

The project also intends to challenge the dominant narrative through its choice of case studies – particularly comparing Eastern and Western European situations, while also devoting special attention to the role of stakeholders in land-use decisions. EUROPE-LAND integrates 12 EU member states and consists of 7 work packages with tasks associated with assessing land-use behavior across Europe, investigating the awareness of key land-use related stakeholders about climate change and biodiversity challenges and their willingness to contribute to addressing them, mapping land use and land cover patterns, and constructing integrated assessment modeling approaches.

The project will also produce an interactive toolbox designed in a user-friendly way, to allow users via the web to experiment with different land uses, understand hidden connections between them, and develop a holistic and systemic way of thinking. Combined with efforts on strategic stakeholder engagement and capacity-building initiatives, the project resources are expected to support sustainable land use and decision-making at all levels.

 Project Partners:

• Department of Management, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna (DISA) –partner in collaboration with the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering (DICAM), and the Department of Statistical Sciences "Paolo Fortunati" - STAT

• HAMBURG UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES, Germany - coordinator

• AUTh ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS, Greece

• EMU EESTI MAAULIKOOL, Greece

• UCPH KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET, Denmark

• UC UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA, Portugal

• IGAR INSTITUTUL DE GEOGRAFIE, Romania

• BUT POLITECHNIKA BIALOSTOCKA, Poland

• LU LATVIJAS UNIVERSITATE, Latvia

• SUA SLOVENSKA POLNOHOSPODARSKA UNIVERZITA V NITRE, Slovakia

• BOKU UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN, Austria

• IAMO LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUER AGRARENTWICKLUNG IN TRANSFORMATIONSOEKONOMIEN (IAMO), Germany

• CU UNIVERZITA KARLOVA, Czech Republic

• LUT University LAPPEENRANNAN-LAHDEN TEKNILLINEN YLIOPISTO LUT, Finland

• VU VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETAS, Lithuania

DiSA Team Leader: Angelo Paletta

DISA Team members: Giuseppe Torluccio, Marco Maria Mattei, Eleonora Monaco, Magalì Fia, Eleonora Foschi ,Genc Alimehmeti, Francesca Regoli

Total contribution: € 6.288.178,75

Start date 01.06.23 -  End date 31.05.27