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TA3.HLO1 - To develop multidisciplinary analyses and indicators of past trends and present state of natural resources use in Europe and its global interdependencies

TA3.HLO2 - To develop scenarios describing the efficient use of natural resources in the global transition towards a green and low carbon economy

A new paradigm is recently embraced to describe how ecosystems and biodiversity are incorporated into societal decision-making, where natural resources are currently undervalued, and sometimes neglected. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the TEEB initiative (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, 2008, 2009) gave political acknowledgement to the concept of ecosystem services and advocate for a better understanding of the links between biodiversity, ecosystems functions, ecosystems services and human well-being. Most recently, the EU Commission biodiversity strategy to 2020 (COM (2011) 244 final) integrates the concept of ecosystem services as underpinning elements of our economy to complement the conservation approach to biodiversity, thus contributing to the Europe 2020 targets, in particular through the resource efficiency flagship. Under conservative assumptions covering only terrestrial ecosystems, the COPI (The Cost of Policy Inaction, 2008) report estimated that the loss of welfare in 2050 from the cumulative loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity could be equal to 7% of global GDP. The ecosystem service concept has also been identified as one of the pillars of the assessment of impacts (socio-economic benefits in association with improvement of the state of water resources) in the preparation of the 2012 Commission's Blueprint for the future of European Waters. Nature-based solutions, e.g. using wetland ecosystems for water purification, may indeed be more cost-effective than technical infrastructures for enhancing resilience. Taking into consideration a probable future of decreasing water availability in Europe and worldwide, by protecting ecosystem services provided by water ecosystems would contribute to delivering a sustainable, low carbon society and help progress towards the Europe 2020 targets on climate and energy. Assimilation of the ecosystem service concept calls for the economic valuation of ecosystem services and for its incorporation into policy making and implementation. This implies putting ecosystems and biodiversity at the centre of other sectoral policies, integrating them into the spatial planning for water and land, and making explicit the costs and benefits of ecosystem service degradation and biodiversity loss. The BIOMES Action aims to provide the scientific basis for this integration of policies, with a focus on mapping ecosystem services, developing robust modelling approaches that evaluate ecosystem dynamics and simulations of future scenarios, and providing scientific support to EU nature and water policies which have ecosystem-based management targets.

The BIOMES Action will focus its research on ecosystem services assessment, anticipatory research on the evolving vulnerability of water ecosystems and developing an improved capacity to model ecosystem dynamics. Scientific topics that will be addressed by the Action include the role of biodiversity in underpinning ecosystem services, the adaptation of ecosystems and biodiversity to drivers of biodiversity loss (e.g. alien species, nutrient pollution, climate change), and the spatial function of green and blue infrastructure. The work on ecosystem service mapping will continue in 2012, aiming to develop a digital Atlas of ecosystem services and delivering European scale maps of ecosystem services, which are essentially based on spatial indicators for ecosystem services statistically coupled to land cover and land use patterns. The Action will support Commission initiatives in the implementation of the new biodiversity strategy to 2020, notably within the Common Implementation Framework, to help maintain and restore ecosystems and their services in the EU. The focus is on defining indicators and mapping ecosystem services in biophysical terms and on the link with economic valuation in order to develop science-based methodologies for the assessment of the costs and benefits to humans and ecosystems of conservation activities. The Action will partner policy DGs to implement targets of the 2012 Commission's Blueprint for the future of European Waters and contribute to the Impact Assessment of the Blueprint by providing maps of ecosystem services demonstrating how the restoration or improvement of the state of water resources would lead to net socio-economic benefits. It will provide support to the implementation of EU Directives protecting the ecosystem functions of inland and marine waters (Water Framework Directive-WFD and Marine Strategy Framework Directive-MSFD) with a focus on intercalibration for the definition of good ecological status. Building on existing model chains (bio-geochemical and hydrological), the Action will continue working on ecosystem modelling for the implementation of an eco-hydrological approach to the assessment of ecological impacts of socio-economic and climate scenarios on the river-floodplains-estuarine-coastal continuum. This will be coupled with assessments of supply and demands of water resources accounting also for water footprint, improving the integration of water-related policies into other legislation and carrying out research on how aquatic ecosystems adapt to climate change.
The BIOMES Action will contribute to the JRC Strategy on Climate Change, and to GMES. It will collaborate and benefit from interactions with other JRC Actions (AGRI-ENV, INTESA, MAPLE, MONDE, PROCAS, WQM) in light of the need for strengthened cooperation for the achievement of High Level Objectives 1 and 2 of the JRC Thematic Area 3, contributing namely to the milestones on "Prospects on Water", "Science for a stronger biodiversity policy", and "Integrated modelling platform for sustainability assessment".
International activities
* Collaboration with international networks of ecologists and economists in the follow-up initiatives of the implementation of TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) recommendations and in the assessment of the economic costs of biodiversity decline and the costs and benefits of actions to reduce these losses. This will also include support to the establishment of the IPBES (Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).
* A Mediterranean focus in the context of the Commission Environment Strategy for the Mediterranean (COM(2006) 475), the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Barcelona Convention, involving Candidate and Neighbouring Countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Teaming up with MEDPOL, with the European Federation of Coastal Lagoons and with the European Technology Platform for Water (WssTP) for demonstration cases in Mediterranean coastal regions.
* Coordination of European networks of competent authorities and national laboratories from EU27 Member States and Candidate Countries involved in the Water Framework Directive Intercalibration and in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
* Collaboration with Enlargement and Integration countries in the preparation of an Atlas of Ecosystem Services.