| projects-401 |
655331 |
PALEO-AGRI |
agroPastoral Activities and effects on Landscapes and ErOsion dynAmics in the alps: a new insight from Geological appRoaches and lake sedIment DNA |
H2020 |
H2020-MSCA-IF-2014 |
MSCA-IF-2014-EF |
2015-06-01 |
2017-05-31 |
Completed |
€ 000 183 454.80 |
Due to their unique biological and geological resources, mountains have attracted humans since prehistoric times, despite their sensitivity to environmental and climatic changes. Few studies, however, have investigated the detailed history and dynamic of alpine agro-pastoral activities or their impacts on plant cover and erosion. This is largely due to the lack of suitable proxies for human activities in these environments. The PALEO-AGRI project proposes to address this challenge: 1) through the optimization of a powerful and innovative tool, DNA metabarcoding, and 2) its application to archaeological layers and lake sediment archives distributed across elevation and latitudinal gradients in the French Alps in order to investigate how human-climate-environment relations evolved in diversified environments. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/655331 |
Lake' |
| projects-402 |
677898 |
MARCAN |
Topographically-driven meteoric groundwater – An important geomorphic agent |
H2020 |
ERC-2015-STG |
ERC-StG-2015 |
2017-01-01 |
2022-12-31 |
Completed |
€ 001 757 432.00 |
Topographically-driven meteoric (TDM) recharge is a key driver of offshore groundwater systems because sea level has been lower than at present for 80% of the last 2.6 million years. Groundwater has been implicated as an important agent in the geomorphic evolution of passive continental margins and the canyons that incise them. However, the geomorphic efficacy of groundwater remains dubious, and a diagnostic link between landscape form and groundwater processes remains poorly quantified, especially for bedrock and cohesive sediments. Obstacles that prevent going beyond the current state-of-knowledge include: (i) a focus on terrestrial contexts and a lack of mechanistic understanding of groundwater erosion/weathering; (ii) limited information on offshore groundwater architecture, history and dynamics. By addressing the role of TDM offshore groundwater in the geomorphic evolution of the most prevalent types of continental margins, MARCAN is expected to open new scientific horizons in continental margin research and bring about a step-change in our understanding of some of the most widespread and significant landforms on Earth. The project’s methodology is rooted in an innovative, multi-scale and multidisciplinary approach that incorporates: (i) the most detailed 3D characterisation of TDM offshore groundwater systems and their evolution during an integral glacial cycle, based on state-of-the-art marine data and hydrogeologic models, and (ii) the development of a comprehensive continental margin geomorphic evolution model, based on realistic laboratory simulations, accurate field measurements and advanced numerical solutions. By placing better constraints on past fluid migration histories, MARCAN will also have strong applied relevance, primarily by improving assessment and exploitation of offshore freshwater as a source of drinking water. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/677898 |
Groundwater', 'Coastal waters' |
| projects-403 |
101038070 |
MARGRAF |
Modern and recent sediment gravity flows offshore eastern Sicily, western Ionian Basin |
H2020 |
H2020-WF-2018-2020 |
WF-03-2020 |
2021-06-01 |
2023-05-31 |
Completed |
€ 000 148 049.28 |
Submarine sediment gravity flows are some of the most important sediment transport processes globally. They pose a hazard to offshore infrastructure and may contribute to tsunami generation. The behaviour of these sediment flows, however, is still not fully understood. The Ionian Basin offshore eastern Sicily is characterised by high seismicity, tsunamis and gravity flows. The 1908 Messina earthquake, which caused >60,000 casualties, triggered an extensive turbidity current. The geohazard implication of gravity flows is poorly constrained for this densely populated and economically important region. The objectives of MARGRAF are to: 1) reconstruct the behaviour and evolution of the 1908 turbidity current; 2)evaluate the role of this turbidity current in the 1908 Messina tsunami; 3) test the effectiveness of using a submarine telecommunication cable to detect modern gravity flows; and 4) determine present-day probability of new turbidity currents being generated along the eastern Sicilian margin. Addressing these objectives will help to understand key processes involved in submarine gravity flows. The objectives will be fulfilled via a multidisciplinary and multi-scale analysis comprising geophysical and sedimentological data interpretation, numerical modelling, and laser interferometry. The researcher’s expertise in analysing submarine sediment failures will be crucial to implement the project’s objectives. Results will be disseminated to target audiences via different measures (e.g., newspapers). MARGRAF will be carried out at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta. Secondments in France and in Germany will provide data and training of relevant skills. By the end of the fellowship the researcher will have new technical skills (e.g., numerical modelling), and enhanced transferable skills (e.g., project management), which will provide the researcher with better chances of future employment in marine geoscientific research, especially within Europe. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101038070 |
Coastal waters' |
| projects-404 |
190136759 |
PYDRO - Water to Data |
Sensing as a Service |
HORIZON |
HORIZON-EIC-2021-ACCELERATORCHALLENGES-01 |
HORIZON-EIC-2021-ACCELERATORCHALLENGES-01-02 |
2022-08-01 |
2024-10-31 |
Completed |
€ 002 798 138.75 |
Water utilities face growing challenges due to urbanization, water scarcity, rising energy prices, and aging water supply networks.To improve resource efficiency, utilities are integrating smarter technology in their networks. However, there are some constraints that make implementation difficult, such as reasonable and easy access to sufficient power for technological solutions. Furthermore, these solutions need to be pieced together using different components from various manufacturers (sensors, battery, data logger, connectivity and software). In addition, experts are needed to making the entire system work. With our self-powered and smart plug-and-play sensors,we provide more data to water system managers and help them better understand and manage their pipe networks. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/190136759 |
Urban water' |
| projects-405 |
101113015 |
DaWetRest |
Danube Wetlands and flood plains Restoration through systemic, community engaged and sustainable innovative actions |
HORIZON |
HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01 |
HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-02 |
2023-06-01 |
2027-05-31 |
On going |
€ 009 099 088.75 |
DAnube WETlands REStoration (DaWetRest) Lighthouse is designed to develop and demonstrate (pilot) concrete solutions applied on the Danube basin to address the challenges faced by its inland and coastal wetlands ecosystems’, namely on (i) biodiversity, (ii) water quality and availability, (iii) climate resilience and/or neutrality and (iv) socio-economic benefits for the local communities. These transformative and innovative solutions will be validated by local communities and main Regional and European-wide stakeholders.DaWetRest has the role to prepare and plan the replication, deployment and scaling up of the validated innovative solutions for the next mission’s phase. For this important scope, DaWetRest project proposes several strong ideas, such as (i) building and selecting interventions based on extensive and prior know-how (sibling sites and non-EU experiences), (ii) local, regional and basin scale integrated interdependent analysis of results from the planned interventions, (iii) merge DaWetRest own data, models and digital tools with existing and future ones, towards a centralized knowledge centre in the future and (iv) involve the managing authorities and a number of local actors in the entire process, from the very beginning. Thus, DaWetRest results will accelerate and generalize the deployment of innovative solutions in the second phase of the Mission.The demonstration of innovative and result-oriented solutions is organized in 3 DEMOs - DEMO Middle Danube (MD), DEMO Lower Danube (LD) and DEMO Danube Delta (DD). Each DEMO offers main intervention sites, pilots, sibling locations, replications, platforms/services, local stakeholders engagement and methodologies to strengthen the innovation, knowledge and cooperation in and beyond DaWetRest in Danube basin and across Europe.Via a widely representative consortium as well as active cooperation (e.g. Community of Practices), DaWetRest will provide tools for a significant transformation in the Danube. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101113015 |
Wetlands', 'Coastal waters' |
| projects-406 |
101063255 |
NaplaGro |
Nanoplastic Transport in Groundwater environments |
HORIZON |
HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01 |
HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 |
2023-04-01 |
2025-03-31 |
On going |
No data |
Groundwater is the largest drinking water resource on earth and 75% of EU residents depend on groundwater as water supply . Plastic contamination of drinking water supply wells has recently been documented. Plastic particles are a vector for pollutants ; interfere with biogeochemical cycles and nutrient transport , while particular nanoplastic (NP) is shown to cause adverse effects on human health. Hence, drinking water contamination by NP is a serious threat to human health. To protect the Earth´s largest freshwater reservoir and guarantee a sustainable use of water resources within Europe for future generations, we need to understand NP behavior in groundwater aquifers. In this MSC-action, I will study the transport behavior of NP particles in complex mineral and biogeochemical groundwater settings from lab- to field scale in order to embrace the natural complexity of aquifers. The following MSCA objectives address four major knowledge gaps of NP transport in groundwater systems: i)How does NP shape affect transport in groundwater? ii)Can flow rates modify NP transport in complex mineral and biogeochemical porous media settings?iii)Are fungal communities able to retain NP under realistic aquifer conditions? iv)Can findings from laboratory studies be up-scaled to field scale studies? I will answer these objectives by conducting laboratory experiments combining nanotechnological methods with novel microfluidic chips as well as field scale experiments using a tracer injection method. With these approaches, we generate tracer breakthrough curves inferring sediment specific retention rates, while they also enable us to gain better mechanistic understanding of NP transpor in porous media. This MSCA will be a stepping-stone in understanding NP transport in groundwater environments more systematically. Such knowledge will inform the development of new environmental models to enhance the predictive capability of NP pollution in drinking water reservoirs. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101063255 |
Groundwater' |
| projects-407 |
101126168 |
3POLE2SEA |
From the Third Pole to the Sea: impacts of melting glaciers and snowpacks on downstream water and food security |
HORIZON |
ERC-2023-COG |
ERC-2023-COG |
2024-06-01 |
2029-05-31 |
On going |
€ 001 999 689.00 |
The high mountains of South Asia, often called ‘the Third Pole’, store large volumes of water in their glaciers and snowpacks. Twelve large river basins, fed with meltwater from these mountains, are home to almost 2 billion people. In their floodplains, a significant fraction of the global food is produced (34% and 23% of the global rice and wheat production respectively). This makes the ‘Third Pole’ by far the most important region globally in terms of water reserves on which both water- and food security for a huge population heavily depend.The water supply from the Third Pole mountains faces many threats. Glaciers and snowpacks are melting at unprecedented rates, and large parts of these reservoirs are likely to disappear by the end of the 21st century. The dependence of downstream populations on mountain water resources is however increasing, mainly due to increasing water needs, continuing groundwater depletion and changes in (monsoon) precipitation.There is still limited scientific understanding of the impacts of melting glaciers and snowpacks on food and water security of people living downstream. 3POLE2SEA aims to quantify the links between the water stored in the High Mountains of Asia and the water- and food security of the people living downstream, evaluate how those links will change in the future, and use this understanding to support adaptation design. I hypothesize that the 12 river basins have very different upstream-downstream dependencies, resulting in different, cascading risks for water and food security, and therefore need different responses for effective adaptation.I will develop new models and methods to quantify upstream-downstream links and associated risks for all river basins that are fed by glacier- and snowmelt from the Third Pole. The results will advance science and inform policy makers and water managers on how to make agriculture in one of the largest food producing areas in the world more resilient to changes in the mountains. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101126168 |
Rivers and estuaries', 'Snow and ice', 'Water reservoir' |
| projects-408 |
101124884 |
WaterTheft |
Tackling Water Theft: Forecasting Adaptation Surprises |
HORIZON |
ERC-2023-COG |
ERC-2023-COG |
2024-04-01 |
2029-03-31 |
On going |
€ 002 000 000.00 |
Water theft claims between 30% and 50% of the global water supply, and despite policy efforts to tackle it, is still on the rise. The policy failure to tackle water theft has been attributed to the nonlinear adaptive responses by economic agents such as irrigators, which can affect and be affected by other socioeconomic (e.g., growing crop prices) and ecological processes (e.g., water scarcity) via feedback loops with cascading impacts that are difficult to foresee. This has led to adaptation surprises with unexpected policy consequences, which have increased rather than reduced water theft, thus depleting water bodies and hampering sustainable development.Here I aim to break new ground by developing a novel approach to forecast adaptation surprises in complex human-water systems. To this end, I will 1) combine microeconomic mathematical programming models with behavioral economic methods to forecast the nonlinear adaptive responses of individual agents over time; 2) integrate the behavior of individual agents into agent-based models and macroeconomic models to forecast nonlinear spatial trends emerging from human interactions at the local to global level; 3) endogenize these socioeconomic processes into human-water system models to forecast nonlinear socio-hydrological phenomena; and 4) use ensemble experiments to quantify scenario and modeling uncertainties, and forecast nonlinearities that may emerge or be amplified due to issues of model parameterization/structure or scenario design. These innovations will allow me to predict the emergence of nonlinearities and track their impact across coupled human-water systems, thus discovering adaptation surprises and their drivers. Methods will be empirically applied and tested in 3 living labs in Spain, Australia, and the US experiencing water theft. |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101124884 |
Urban water', 'Rivers and estuaries', 'Water reservoir', 'Groundwater' |
| projects-409 |
101082015 |
NIAGARA |
Understanding, monitoring, and remediating the spread of chemical, microbiological and plastic pollution in drinking water treatment plants |
HORIZON |
HORIZON-CL6-2022-ZEROPOLLUTION-01 |
HORIZON-CL6-2022-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-04 |
2023-11-01 |
2027-10-31 |
On going |
€ 003 601 443.00 |
"NIAGARA compiles all the necessary approaches to provide a comprehensive response to the phenomenon of spread of pollution (chemical, microbiological and plastic) from drinking water sources to human exposure, through the Driking Water Treatment Plants. These approaches and their solutions are:(1) Real-time monitoring. NIAGARA will develop multi-analyte biosensors able to quantify simultaneously 4 highly concerning pollutants of very different chemical nature: BPA, imazalil, H. pylori and paracetamol/ibuprofen. Using pre-concentration units, detection limits will reach pg/mL for chemicals and 10-100 viable cells for H. pylori, which are below harmful levels for human exposure.(2) Remediation. A removal and disinfection system based on a tandem formed by two IEDS biofilters (immobilized-enzymes degradation systems) and a UV/TiO2 photoreactor. With this solution, we will achieve total removal of the 4 analytes (concentrations below detection limits of water laboratory techniques) and a Total Organic Carbon removal of >70%, exceeding current State of Art. The DBPs formed will be identified, and their appearance mechanisms and toxicity will be predicted.(3) A fast and cost-effective method for real-time monitoring of the propagation of these 4 contaminants using a hydraulic model that exceeds the performance of current methods (seconds vs weeks, > 60% accuracy).These solutions will be validated up to a pilot scale (TRL=5) in a case study in the city of Valencia, in a DWTP, and using the drinking water supply system of district #9 (Jesús), with the participation of the Municipal Drinking Water Company, and accomplishing safety and sustainability-by-design.Finally, the Communication and Exploitation plan has been specially designed to have an clear projection ouside EU to enhance its competitiveness in the water sector and to foster its position and role in the global water scene, with the participation of previously established EU and non-EU networks." |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101082015 |
Urban water' |
| projects-410 |
101063294 |
MagicBathy |
Multimodal multitAsk learninG for MultIsCale BATHYmetric mapping in shallow waters |
HORIZON |
HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01 |
HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 |
2023-02-01 |
2025-01-31 |
On going |
No data |
Accurate, detailed and high-frequent bathymetry, coupled with the important visual and semantic information, is crucial for the undermapped shallow coastal areas being affected by intense climatological and anthropogenic pressures. Regular UAV and satellite imagery have the potential to frequently and consistently map those areas to different extents and detail, providing ground breaking key information. However, optical properties of water severely affect images and refraction is the main factor affecting their geometry. Current Structure from Motion (SfM) based solutions for refraction correction are slow and costly. Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) methods deliver faster results over huge shallow areas albeit in lower spatial resolution, failing to handle non-homogeneous seabeds. Recent methods based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) deliver either only the bathymetry or the semantics of the scene, tackling those problems separately and in one scale/modality at a time. They are mostly dedicated to satellite images, failing to address the challenges of shallow waters, being also inefficient for UAV images, preventing higher resolution results. MagicBathy will establish an advanced deep learning framework for low-cost shallow water mapping by developing a novel boundary-aware multitask, multiscale and multimodal learning approach for bathymetry and semantics together, exploiting single either UAV or satellite imagery. To overcome the domain gap, generalize and improve performance, self-supervised in-domain representation learning will be performed. To enhance the spatial resolution of low resolution satellite images and hence of the resulting bathymetric/semantic maps, a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN)-based Super Resolution framework will be developed, dealing with the special challenges of shallow water imagery. Frameworks, models and results will be published in open access, enabling the rapid progress in shallow water mapping worldwide |
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101063294 |
Coastal waters' |
