INTERREG EURO-MED – GERM OF LIFE
Germ of Life project, co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED Programme, develops an innovative system of digital technologies to improve preventive management of drought risks.
10 entities from 6 countries Euro-Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, France and Spain) work together to improve preventive management of drought risks. Germ of Life, due to the quality of its proposal, has been selected by the European Commission through the Interreg Euro-MED Program and has more than 2,3 million euros of European funds for its materialization.
The Mediterranean region is considered one of the geographical areas in the world with the greatest exposure to the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of droughts due to climate change.
Given this horizon, the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in their recommendations to the United Nations, insist that it is of crucial importance to adopt standardized indices that quantify a drought and indicate its severity, using classifications, according to the level of deviation from hitherto normal conditions.
Germ of Life wants to provide solutions such as a digital drought risk management system that allows drought mitigation and adaptation strategies to restore the balance of ecosystems in Euro-Mediterranean countries.
These are the three dimensions that it faces with a new perspective:
1) The severity and probability of a drought situation occurring.
2) The exposed territories, ecosystems and population.
3) Vulnerability and the ability to adopt solutions (with technologies and natural means), also based on transnational collaboration and the exchange of practices and mitigation measures to address risks.
The cross-border dimension of the project allows the institutions, entities and companies involved to collaborate in the assessment of the vulnerability of the territories based on a shared approach. Contributing together to the generation of innovations and their pilot tests with nature-based solutions and technological solutions aimed at the challenges of mitigating drought risk.
Full title: Digital drought risk management that enables the drought mitigation and adaptation strategies to restore ecosystem balance in Mediterranean European countries.
Project budget: 2.998.600,00 € Interreg Funds: 2.398.880,00 €
Partners: University of Patras (Greece) Lead Partner – Region of Western Greece – Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (Italy) – Lamoro Development Agency (Italy) – Ubitel (Spain) – Atos (France) – The Development and Infrastructure Company of Alqueva (Portugal) – Junta de Andalucía (Spain) – Dotsoft (Greece) – Infotrend Innovations (Cyprus)
Start date: 01/01/2024 Completion date: 30/09/2026
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The droughts will be a relevant risk in the Mediterranean. Predictions indicate a notable increase in droughts: for each degree the temperature rises, rains will be reduced by 4%, so that reductions of between 5% and 20% are predicted. It is essential to tackle the use of water in agriculture to try to adapt to this drought and the temperature rise and promote other agricultural methods, such as regenerative agriculture, which keeps the soil more fertile and richer in organic matter.
The Mediterranean region is expected to feature an Agricultural productions decline of up to 17% in productivity, in the worst-case scenario. Although there are adaptation measures in agriculture, such a as shifting crop areas to higher areas, or the use of species that are more resistant to salinity or water stress, in high warming scenarios (>2ºC) adaptation measures can be no longer effective and will not maintain the current food production.
The Mediterranean is the most wildfire risk area of temperate ecosystems. The spatial variability of plant types and landscapes make Regional generic drought indices misleading at local scale.
European Commission have mobilised research and innovation to support policy investing more than €350 million in projects demonstrating how to deploy Technologies and Nature Based Solution (NBS) for ecosystem restoration.
In some countries and regions that deal with droughts, desertification, temperature increase, urban heat island effect and floodings, NBS are key solutions for mitigation and adaptation processes to help to cope with climate change. The potential for NBS has direct relations to the local context and the natural environment.
This potential can differ from region to region as a result of geography, land use (including urban and rural areas), climate change impacts and related vulnerabilities, as well as biodiversity.
Policy-makers can widely benefit from digital technology, accelerating the process of designing better policies that consider biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. With decision-support environments for key stakeholders involved in NBS value chains such as farmers, urban gardeners, enterprises, indigenous communities, foresters, government officials, citizen groups, environmental engineers, academia, and others.
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Germ of Life is one of the 13 projects promoted by Interreg Euro-MED that have been included in Mission Natural Heritage & Thematic Projects. The others are: Artemis (restoration of seagrass), Coastrust (stewardship for coasts), GreenList4MMPAs (in Marine Protected Areas), LocAll4Flood (flash flood risk prevention & resilience), MedSeaRise (sea level rise), FRED (wildfire), Treasure (ports), Carbon 4 Soil Quality (CO2), MPA4Change (in Marine Protected Areas), StrategyMedFor (forests), We Go Coop (wetland governance), and WetlandSolutions4Change (mitigation).
One of the main objectives is to create a community of practice like Mediterranean Resilience Network. Study and assess the transferability or results of each project. Promote the reuse of solutions and their transferring to other territories. Promote policy harmonization and innovative governance practices. Dialogue to mainstream solutions to effective policies. Creation of thematic working groups and collaborative work. The Mission supports dialogue with policy makers and aims to integrate technical solutions offered by the Thematic Projects into mainstream policies.
The role assigned from Mission Natural Heritage to each thematic project from the amplification strategy includes design plans for transfer of results; consolidate the results of relevant projects; promote interfaces with other initiatives and projects of other programmes; identification and mobilisation of relevant multi-sectorial and multi-level decision-making actors like potential targets for transfer and mainstreaming; the participation of stakeholders beyond the partnership; and share knowledge to stakeholders through dissemination activities, including training.
