PESFOR-W: Improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water Payments for Ecosystem Services

ABSTRACT: The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe?s water bodies to ?good ecological status? by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions - including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forestscarbon policy nexus

Biomass Production from Crops Residues: Ranking of Agro-Energy Regions

The aim of the paper is to rank the agro-energy regions according to their potentials of biomass production in the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM). For this reason, a model of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCDA) is developed with the ELimination and Et Choix Traduisant la REalite (ELECTRE) ΙΙΙ method, with the construction of outranking relations. The aim is to compare in a comprehensive way each pair of action, in our case the agro-energy regions of the RCM, in order to satisfy the main goal which is to rank the seven regions as regards their biomass production. The final goal is to select the optimal crop plan as a pilot case for biomass production in the region. In the case of ELECTRE III multicriteria model, we used several conflicting criteria such as the farm income, the biomass production from crop residues, the variable costs, and the production of thermal energy and electrical energy. Alongside a technical and economic analysis of the study area is conducted for the existent crop plans of each agro-energy region. The results show that agro-energy regions with cereals and arable crops have better results than regions with fruit trees and other crops

Designing and development of a web portal for e-government and farm management

In this thesis we have studied the designing and development of an e‐government and farm management agricultural portal. With the development of the portal agroGOV.gr we have tried to handle the problem of lack in access to information and to offer enhanced e‐government services to the farmers.The e‐government provides a variety of information that can be used by the farmers to handle the cases involving agricultural holdings in connection with the administration. Through e‐government farmers can have access to information, and to decision‐making centers related to the operation of their agricultural holdings. Farm management, and farm planning requires the proper decoding of information that the farmer is able to cope during the decision making process. The contribution of farm management at this point is essential, even as a process of knowledge development and exploitation of information. For this purpose we have analyzed the available tools for e‐governmentportal development, we have studied the classification methods for these tools, we developed an e‐government agricultural portal, and we have evaluated this portal by the portal users. In parallel, we developed two farm management applications: a) for the administration and management of agricultural holdings and b) for farm planning of agricultural holdings and agricultural regions.In this research we have applied three multicriteria methodologies: 1) for the classification and selection of the available tools we have applied a multicriteria method based on theory of outranking relations (PROMETHEE), with data collected after a survey in 28 informatics experts, 2) in order to evaluate the portal we have applied the multicriteria satisfaction analysis (MUSA), with data collected after a questionnaire survey in agroGOV.gr portal visitors and 3) for the farm and regions planning application agroPLAN, we have applied multicriteria weight goal programming. From our research we can conclude that: The difficulties in farmer’s decision‐making process are growing. An emphasis should be given to the development of applications or systems that will support farmers in this process. In this frame we have developed an e‐govenrment portal and two applications: agroMANAGER for farm management, and agroPLAN for farms and agricultural regions planning. The adoption of these tools by farmers is very important. They have to obtain the relevant skills that will enable them to use these applications. From our side we have to provide a friendly applications environment for users who do not have special skills.Η διδακτορική διατριβή μελέτησε τη δυνατότητα σχεδιασμού και ανάπτυξης κόμβου για την ηλεκτρονική διακυβέρνηση και το management της γεωργικής παραγωγής. Με την ανάπτυξη του κόμβου agroGOV.gr προσπαθήσαμε να συμβάλλουμε στην αντιμετώπιση του προβλήματος της εύκολης και φιλικής πρόσβασης στην πληροφόρηση, αλλά και στην προσφορά βελτιωμένων υπηρεσιών ηλεκτρονικής διακυβέρνησης στους αγρότες. Η ηλεκτρονική διακυβέρνηση παρέχει ένα μεγάλο πλήθος πληροφοριών, που μπορεί να χρησιμοποιήσει ο αγρότης για να διεκπεραιώσει τις υποθέσεις που αφορούν τη γεωργική εκμετάλλευση του σε σχέση με την δημόσια διοίκηση. Μέσω της ηλεκτρονικής διακυβέρνησης ο αγρότης έρχεται σε επαφή με την πληροφόρηση, αλλά και με τα κέντρα λήψης αποφάσεων που επηρεάζουν τη λειτουργία της γεωργικής του εκμετάλλευσης. Η διοίκηση και διαχείριση των γεωργικών εκμεταλλεύσεων, αλλά και η οργάνωση της γεωργικής παραγωγής, προϋποθέτουν τη σωστή αποκωδικοποίηση της πληροφορίας, ώστε ο αγρότης να μπορέσει να ανταπεξέλθει κατά την διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων. Η συμβολή του management στο σημείο αυτό είναι ουσιαστική, έστω και σαν διαδικασία ανάπτυξης της γνώσης και αξιοποίησης της πληροφορίας. Για το σκοπό αυτό προχωρήσαμε στην μελέτη των εργαλείων που υπάρχουν για την κατασκευή κόμβου στο διαδίκτυο, στην μελέτη των μεθόδων ταξινόμησης τους, στην ανάπτυξη του κόμβου με πραγματική εφαρμογή στο διαδίκτυο, αλλά και στην αξιολόγηση του. Παράλληλα, αναπτύξαμε και δύο προγράμματα εφαρμογών για το management της γεωργικής παραγωγής: α) για τη διοίκηση και διαχείριση γεωργικών εκμεταλλεύσεων και β) για την οργάνωση παραγωγής γεωργικών εκμεταλλεύσεων και γεωργικών περιοχών. Χρησιμοποιήθηκαν 3 πολυκριτηριακές μεθοδολογίες: 1) για την ταξινόμηση και επιλογή των εργαλείων ανάπτυξης του κόμβου χρησιμοποιήσαμε την πολυκριτήρια μέθοδο σχέσεων υπεροχής PROMETHEE, με δεδομένα που συλλέχτηκαν μετά από έρευνα από ειδικούς πληροφορικής, 2) για την αξιολόγηση του δικτυακού τόπου, χρησιμοποιήσαμε την πολυκριτήρια μέθοδο μέτρησης ικανοποίησης του χρήστη MUSA, μετά από έρευνα ερωτηματολογίου των επισκεπτών του κόμβου και 3) κατά την ανάπτυξη της εφαρμογής οργάνωσης παραγωγής γεωργικών εκμεταλλεύσεων και γεωργικών περιοχών agroPLAN, εφαρμόσαμε την πολυκριτήρια ανάλυση σταθμισμένου προγραμματισμού στόχων. Από την έρευνα προέκυψαν τα ακόλουθα συμπεράσματα: Ο βαθμός δυσκολίας των αποφάσεων που καλείται να πάρει ο παραγωγός γίνεται ολοένα και μεγαλύτερος απαιτώντας την υποστήριξη του από εξειδικευμένα εργαλεία. Ιδιαίτερη έμφαση πρέπει να δοθεί στην ανάπτυξη των κατάλληλων εφαρμογών ή συστημάτων που θα υποστηρίζουν την διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων του αγρότη. Στα πλαίσια αυτά κινήθηκε και η δημιουργία των εφαρμογών που αναπτύξαμε. του agroMANAGER για την διαχείριση και διοίκηση μιας γεωργικής εκμετάλλευσης και του agroPLAN για την οργάνωση της παραγωγής γεωργικών εκμεταλλεύσεων και γεωργικών περιοχών. Για την υιοθέτηση των εργαλείων αυτών θεωρείται πολύ σημαντική η απόκτηση από τον ενδιαφερόμενο δεξιοτήτων που θα του επιτρέπουν την χρήση των εφαρμογών, αλλά και φιλικό περιβάλλον λειτουργίας για τους χρήστες που δεν έχουν ιδιαίτερες γνώσεις πληροφορικής

Efficiency of Vegetables Produced in Glasshouses: The Impact of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Land Management Decision Making

Glasshouse farming is one of the most intensive types of production of agricultural products. Via this process, consumers have the ability to consume mainly off-season vegetables and farmers are able to reduce operational risks, due to their ability to control micro-climate conditions. This type of farming is quite competitive worldwide, this being the main reason for formulating and implementing assessment models measuring operational performance. The methodology used in this study is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which has wide acceptance in agriculture, among other sectors of the economy. The production protocols of four different vegetables—cucumber, eggplant, pepper, and tomato—were evaluated. Acreage (m2), crop protection costs (€), fertilizers (€), labor (Hr/year), energy (€), and other costs (€) were used as inputs. The turnover of every production unit (€) was used as the output. Ninety-eight agricultural holdings participated in this survey. The dataset was obtained by face-to-face interviews. The main findings verify the existence of significant relative deficiencies (including a mean efficiency score of 0.87) as regards inputs usage, as well as considerably different efficiency scores among the different cultivations. The most efficient of these was the eggplant production protocol and the least efficient was that used for the tomato. The implementation of DEA verified its utility, providing incentives for continuing to use this methodology for improving land management decision making

Impact assessment of CAP policies on social sustainability in rural areas: An application in Northern Greece

This study aims to assess the multiple impacts of the Common Agricultural Policies (CAP) on social sustainability in rural areas. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that are described in this paper and measured by relevant social indicators. A multicriteria model was formulated in order to study the social impacts of the CAP reform ("decoupling") and Water Framework Directive. The model estimates the farmers' utility function taking in account various conflicting criteria that can explain the farmers' behavior (e.g. maximisation of farm income, risk minimisation, minimization of labour, etc.). The model is further used to simulate the impacts on social sustainability by estimating the social indicators mentioned above. The model is applied in a region of Northern Greece. There is a major reduction in family and external labour in the study region as a result of the implementation of EU policies. These effects cause many social problems particularly in the ageing of population because of the internal migration. There are also social problems for the seasonal workers of agricultural labour market who are mainly foreign immigrants. In addition, there are changes in the profile of gender issues since the decrease in women employment is much higher than in men. These changes have a negative effect on the social sustainability. The paper provides a future path for research taking suitable methodology and policy for social sustainability in rural areas

Multicriteria analysis for grouping and ranking European Union rural areas based on social sustainability indicators

Social sustainability is \u2018one of the three legs of the sustainability stool\u2019 (the other two are environmental and economic). There is limited literature that focuses on social sustainability to the extent that a comprehensive study of this concept is still missing. As a result, there have been very few attempts to define social sustainability as an independent dimension of sustainable development. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that are measured by relevant social sustainability indicators. This paper aims to measure these indicators and to compare them. In order to measure these indicators, a household survey carried out in the context of the research project CAP-IRE. This survey included 11 case study areas in nine case study areas of the European Union. From the results of this survey, we measured a set of economic and social sustainability indicators. We have selected the main social sustainability indicators on which we based to proceed to the grouping and ranking of the 11 European rural areas

Classification of rural areas in Europe using social sustainability indicators

Social sustainability is “one of the three legs of the sustainability stool” (the other two are environmental and economic. There is limited literature that focuses on social sustainability to the extent that a comprehensive study of this concept is still missing. As a result, there have been very few attempts to define social sustainability as an independent dimension of sustainable development. Social sustainability is related to social capital, social inclusion, social exclusion and social cohesion in rural economies, terms that are measured by relevant social sustainability indicators. This paper aims to measure these indicators and to compare them. In order to measure these indicators, a household survey carried out in the context of the research project CAP-IRE. This survey included eleven case study areas in nine case study areas of the European Union. From the results of this survey we measured a set of economic and social sustainability indicators. We have selected the main social sustainability indicators on which we based on to proceed to the ranking of the eleven European rural areas