The aim of land use policies on the European level is to support regional rural
development and social cohesion, and too decouple economic growth from
environmental degradation. In order to do so , policy makers require tools that allow an assessment of potential impacts of land use policies on all sectors.
Over the last five years, the EU has invested substantial funding in the
development of a suite of computer-based models to support policy-making for different sectors and at different strategic levels and spatial scales. One of
the most innovative and ambitious of these initiatives is SENSOR? (Tools for
Environmental, Social and Economic Effects of Multifunctional Land Use in
European Regions), a four year project, which has brought together teams of
researchers from 36 institutes in 15 European countries, as w ell as China,
Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The aim is to develop Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SIAAT)
that support ex ante assessment of new policies on six land use sectors:
agriculture, forestry, nature conservation, transport infrastructure, energy
and tourism. By integrating cross-sector knowledge at a European level, the
project will provide decision makers with scientifically sound information on
regional impacts of land uses changes and policy effects on sustainable
development.
- Title Original : IP SENSOR
- Website : http://htttp://www.sensor-ip.org
- Project start : 2004
- Project end : 2009
- Contact Person : Katharina Heelming
- Funding Agency : FP6
- Project Partners : Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Alterra Green World Research ALTERRA Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences, HU Berlin UBER Chair of forest yield science TU Muenchen ARC systems research GmbH, ARC-sys Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetations and Landscape Ecology U Vienna Institutes of Soil Science and of Forest Growth Research BOKU Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL Aarhus University NERI University Copenhagen Forside - Forest & Landscape UCPH University Tartu U Tartu European Forest Institute EFI CEMAGREF Groupement de Grenoble Cemagref Centre d'Observation Economique COE/CCIP Institute of Environmental Sciences University of Western Hungary UWH Institute of Environmental Management, University Gödöllö SZIE/KGI International Institute for Applied System Analysis IIASA Dept. of Agriculture and resource Economics of Florence University DEART-UNIFI Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Ispra JRC Plan Making and Policy Development Unit, Malta Environment and Planning Authority MEPA Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus BTUC Agricultural Economics Research Institute LEI Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University WUR Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation Pulawy IUNG Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences. ILE SAS University Lund LU Social Research Unit Forest Research FR National Environmental Research Centre, Lancaster Research Station NERC Dept. of Economics and International Development, University of Bath U Bath Centre for Environmental Management UNOTT Dept. of Geography and Environment UNIABDN Institute of Geological Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Institute of Sustainable Development Soil National Research Centre of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Solos) Federal University of Santa Catarina, Research Group on Environmental Monitoring and Appraisal (UFSC) University of Buenos Aires-Agronomy (UBA), Regional Analysis and remote Sensing Laboratory (LART) Universidad de la República, Terrestrial Ecology, Ecology Department, Faculty of Science, (UDELAR)
- Project structure : The project is based on three key assessment streams: European-wide, indicator-based driving force and impact analysis of land use policy scenarios, region specific problem, risk and threshold assessment making use of spatial reference systems , land use functions and participatory processes, case study based, exemplary sensitive area studies in mountains, islands, coastal zones, post-industrial areas using detailed information on specific sustainability issues, and engaging with stakeholders at the local level. FFor each policy area, the outputs of the tool are being validated with local stakeholders in six regions throughout Europe, and a methodology for future stakeholder engagement is being developed for use alongside the tool. As additional policy areas become modelled within SIATT, it will be of value to an increasing range of policymakers as a decision-support tool, but also as a ?discussion-support? tool by providing a common platform for critical engagement between policymakers and stakeholders.
