4. Wageningen UR & SENSOR project
Marta Pérez-Soba
ALTERRA Wageningen UR
São Carlo Engineer School, University of São Paulo, 13 April 2010

5. Wageningen UR
Research
– Unique chain of knowledge
– From academic to applied
– Top 3: Plant & Animal Sci, Agricultral Sci & Ecology and
environment
– Top 100 universities
5

6. International orientation
Students and faculty from > 100 countries
6

7. Relevant trends
Increasing world population and wealth
– Increasing demand for food
– Growing demand for safe and healthy nutrition
– Reduction of the (pressure) on natural
resources such as water
– More pressure on environment, land usage
and nature
Scarcity of sweet water and energy
Competing claims: Food of Energy
Growing concern over climatic changes
Concern over global infectious diseases
(animals/humans)
Higher life-expectancy of Western
population, global high birth-rate
Increasing urbanisation and population
density 7

8. The Wageningen approach:
biological and social
Planet Society
institutions
Policy & limiting conditions
Ecosystem Community
Organism technologies Household
Products
Cell
Individual
Gene/ Molecule Gene/ Molecule
planet profit people 8

9. Investing in new themes
Themes for society
– Bio-based economy (use of biomass)
– Climate resistent coastal areas
– Food, Health, Behaviour
9

10. Investing in fields of expertise
Themes for society
– Bio-based economy (use of biomass)
– Climate resistent coastal areas
– Food, Health, Behaviour
Enabling science and technology
– Bio-nanotechnology (for food)
– Systems biology (i.r.t. genomics)
– Linking scales and governance
10

11. Co-innovation
Entrepreneurs
Research CO- INNOVATION Stakeholders
Education
11

12. Wageningen UR
Management Board
3500 3000
Wageningen staff staff
Agricultural
University 5000
Research Service
students
Dept. of Plant Sience Plant Research
International
Dept. of Animal Science Inst. of Animal Science
Dept. of Food Science Agrotechnology and Food
Science
Dept. of Social Science Agro-Economics Institute
Environmental Sciences Group
Dept. of Environmental
Alterra
Science
12

13. Environmental Sciences Group
Directors
Financial and
Economic Affairs
Human Resource
Management Staff
and
Directors Office: Strategy,
Communication, Legal Advisors,
support
Tender Support Facility services
Centre
Centre Centre
Centre Centre for
for for
for for Water
Landscape Ecosystems
Soil Science Geo and
Studies Studies
Information Climate
13

14. Climate change causes and
impact: worldwide
Leemans et al.
14

15. Climate change adaptation:
hotspots in NL
Three rivers
Schiphol
Weak spots in coastal
defense
15

16. Climate change adaptation:
safety
16

17. Adaptation: Floating cities and
greenhouses
Image courtesy Dura Vermeer
Image courtesy www.tuinbouw.nl Image courtesy www.drijvende kas.nl
17

18. Our clients
Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality
Other ministries
Local and regional governments
Nature conservation organizations
European Union
World Bank and Regional Development
Banks
Private sector 18

19. Education in Environmental
Sciences
6 Bachelor programs
12 Master programs
PhD programs
19

20. MSc programs (in English)
Climate Change (Earth Systems Science)
Environmental Sciences
Forest and Nature Conservation
Geo-Information Science
Hydrology and Water Quality
International Land and Water Management
Landscape Architecture and Planning
Leisure, Tourism and Environment
Meteorology and Air Quality
Soil Science
Urban Environment Management
20

21. The SENSOR project
experience

22. EU Policy
Impact Assessment Guidelines (2006)
– ‘The decision to develop a policy…….should
be based on sound analysis fed by the best
data available. Impact assessment (IA) is a
key tool ….’
– ‘A formal IA is required for items on the
Commission’s Work Programme. All
regulatory proposals, White Papers,
expenditure programmes and negotiating
guidelines for international agreements….’
22

23. EU projects under FP6
Land use
Coastal zones
agriculture forestry urban
management
Carbon and nitrogen cycles
Taken from presentation EC scientific officer Daniel Deybe
23

24. EU projects under FP6
Matisse
Adam
Sensor Land use Lupis
Coastal zones
agriculture forestry urban
management
Insea
Eforwood Plurel Spicosa
Seamless
Carbon and nitrogen cycles
Carbo-europe Nitro-europe
Taken from presentation EC scientific officer Daniel Deybe Carbo-africa
24

25. Two trends in research
“Top down processes” “Bottom up processes”
Impact studies Design studies
Evaluation of policies Regional development
Objectives are defined Objectives and indicators
Researchers develop defined interacting with
indicators the researchers
Researcher define Researcher have a
normative targets facilitator role
SENSOR MATISSE?
25

26. SENSOR in a nut-shell
Multifunctional
Interdisciplinary
Interaction between spatial + time scales
and three dimensions of sustainability
19 member states, 38 research institutions
including Alterra (as second partner) and
EMBRAPA
2004-2009
Budget: 12.6 M €
26

27. SENSOR…
Develops an ex-ante Sustainability Impact
Assessment tool for land use in European
Union
– Impact on economic, environmental and
social aspects
– Multifunctional land use
– EU27 + Norway + Switzerland
– Multi-scale: member states and regions
Makes use of existing datasets
27

28. The project team
28

29. SENSOR overall objective
Build a tool that can
support decision
makers to anticipate
the effects of their
policies
Integral weighting of
the three
sustainability
dimensions
29

30. Sustainability (3 D)
SPACE SOCIETAL
Policy makers Scientists
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL
Stakeholders
TIME 30

31. Sustainability: integrative concept
Normative
Many assumptions and definitions
Discipline dependent
Region dependent
Cultural dependent
31

32. It refers always to a value that is
offered by a location
Value
Usability
Experience
Future
Monetary, non-monetary
PhD Termorshuizen, Landscape ecology 2009
32

33. Physical structure determines the
functioning that leads to the defined
value
Physical
Function Value
structure
objective subjective
33

34. Example
Physical Function Value
structure
Soil, water,
climate in Sao Production of Sustainability
Paulo state sugarcane image
agricultural Reduction of GHG
areas emissions; energy
safety
34

35. The missing link
European Regional
Local
35

36. Scientific result
Book: Sustainability
Impact Assessment of
Land Use Changes
20 papers in peer
reviewed journals
36

37. Tool: Land Use Functions
37

38. Many indicators
Individual indicators –
detailed view but not the integrated
picture
Pesticide use
Carbon sequestration
Verweij and te Roller, Alterra, 2009
38

39. 39

40. THE NINE LUFs
40

41. 


41

42. 42

43. Aggregation scheme
Parachinni et al (2009)
43

44. 


44

45. 


45

46. The SENSOR knowledge flow: top-down
To translate the impact that EU policy scenarios have on indicators
into a sustainable impact assessment at regional level
Policy scenarios Policy makers and
researchers
TOP
Database based on
statistics, model outputs,
Researchers
case studies
Indicators Policy makers and
researchers
LUFs
Sustainability
Impact Assessment
of EU policies Policy makers
DOWN Valuation
Regional stakeholders
46
Based on the information pyramid (World Resource Institute, 1995)

47. The SENSOR knowledge flow: top-down
Policy scenarios Policy makers and
researchers
TOP
Database based on
statistics, model outputs,
Researchers
case studies
Indicators Policy makers and
researchers
Sustainability
Impact Assessment
of EU policies Policy makers
DOWN Valuation
Regional stakeholders
47
Based on the information pyramid (World Resource Institute, 1995)

48. 48

49. Legend
Spatial Regional Reference Framework (SRRF)
Clusters Cluster Regions (SRRF
0100 MEDFOR
0200 CONFOR
0300 MEDHET
0400 MEDMIX
2700
0500 MNTMIX
3000 0801 MEDSHR1
0802 MEDSHR2
0900 MNTOPE
2600 2600
2700 1200 CONHET
2600 1300 CONMIX
2400 2800
2502 1500 CONAGR
2502 2900
2400
2800 1600 PANAGR
2000
1700 STEAGR
2501 2400
1900 1800 1800 CATARA
2000 1500
1900 2000
1900 CATPAS
12002101 1200
1300 1300 2000 CATAGR
2101 1200200
1900
2102 1800 2101 CATMIX1
2300 1300 200
1600 1300 2102 CATMIX2
1300 1300
1900 1700
900 100
1300 2300 CATFOR
1300 200
2102 1600 2400 NATAGR
400 100
500 1300 2501 NATPAS1
801 200
100 400 2502 NATPAS2
300
400
400
2600 NEMFOR
300 802
300 802 2700 BORFOR
300
300 802 2800 NEMMIX
300
2900 NEMAGR
Calculated and edited by: 802
Kilometers 3000 BORSHR
C. Renetzeder, T. Wrbka (UVienna)
0 250 500 1.000 1.500
49

50. 50

51. 51

52. 52
Verweij et al (2009)

53. 53

54. 0
0 54

55. How did the knowledge affect the
decision making process?
55

56. THANK
YOU

57. NL compared to other EU27
countries: SOCIAL
57

58. NL compared to other EU27
countries: ECONOMIC
58

59. NL compared to other EU27
countries:ENVIRONMENTAL
59

60. NL: Land Use Functions
baseline 2025
60