SAAFE · Soil quality Assessment in Agriculture For life cycle assessment-based Eco-design
„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“
- Период
- 2022-04-23 → 2025-04-22
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 281 827 €
- Участници
- 2
- Схема
- MSCA-IF
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Качеството на почвите в земеделието се анализира чрез нови показатели, които да допълнят измерването на органичния въглерод. Това помага за въвеждането на по-устойчиви методи за управление на земята и намаляване на екологичните вреди.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Soil quality Assessment in Agriculture For life cycle assessment-based Eco-design
Evidence indicates that human activities are surpassing Earth's safe limits, necessitating urgent reductions in our environmental impact. Agriculture, pivotal in both production and natural resource protection, contributes significantly to environmental impacts, including global greenhouse gas emissions, notably through soil carbon losses. Yet, studies underscore both agriculture's potential to store substantial carbon in soils and more generally agriculture's overall impacts on soil, which is critical for providing essential ecosystem services. However, soils are under threat, with land degradation affecting a significant portion of global land area and incurring substantial economic costs, particularly in Europe. To address these challenges, there is a pressing need to adopt more sustainable land management practices that safeguard soil quality. Soil quality is integral to achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Life cycle assessment (LCA) stands as the globally recognised method for evaluating environmental impacts across production chains. Despite its adoption as a standard for reporting environmental data and certifications, LCA application to agricultural products faces significant limitations, especially regarding its ability to assess the impact of land use on soil quality comprehensively. "Soil quality" refers to a soil's fitness to function within its context, a concept that defies direct measurement and relies on proxy indicators. Existing frameworks, such as those developed by the JRC European Platform on LCA, have made strides in assessing soil organic carbon but fall short in evaluating broader soil functions. Current methods struggle to balance the need for comprehensive soil quality assessment with practical applicability, indicating a critical gap in the understanding and implementation of soil-related metrics in LCA. The Soil quality Assessment in Agriculture For life cycle assessment-based Eco-design (SAAFE) EU project aims to tackle these challenges through an interdisciplinary approach, developing a dedicated framework and complementary models to assess soil quality's key functions comprehensively. By enhancing model implementation and fostering interdisciplinary research, SAAFE seeks to ensure its framework's adoption by LCA end-users and policymakers, thus advancing sustainable development aligned with SDG objectives.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
The SAAFE project, Soil quality Assessment in Agriculture For life cycle assessment-based Eco-design, aims to tackle thelack of accounting for land use impacts on soil quality in environmental footprints. It will provide a turnkey method within LifeCycle Assessment (LCA) based on a set of models integrating the interdisciplinary research advances. To benefit from thisup-to-date research and to learn from renowned researchers, I aim to go to James Cook University, where there are richknowledge and unique modelling groups on tropical soil processes. I will then bring back operational knowledge to Europe,where the gap in methods is still hampering the development of environmental footprint regulations, which concern agrowing number of imported tropical products. Such scientific and operational developments are critical to improve thediagnostic power of LCA and ensure that LCA-based eco-designed practices enable soil functions’ resilience, hencesustainability. I will coordinate the project together with two extraordinary supervisors, A/Prof. Nelson and Dr. Perret, whohave remarkable experiences in tropical soil sciences and LCA of agricultural systems, respectively, and are undeniablereferences in terms of project coordination and student supervision. I will also develop a complete personal careerdevelopment plan along the project in order to overcome my scientific and skill gaps and surpass me. Rich from thesecollaborations and the experience gained through this ambitious project, I aim to move to the next stage in my career andbecome an internationally recognised research director. I will then build an ambitious new research programme inecosystem services modelling and environmental assessments, combining research projects and an excellence trainingnetwork to train young researchers and enhance capacity building exchanges. I also hope to become an influential expertproviding advices to policy makers and contributing to make an impact for the society.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз