This page provides information regarding other relevant LIFE (and not only) projects. To find more projects visit ECOWEB. ECOWEB is an initiative by the European Commission to increase the uptake of research results from Framework Programme, CIP and LIFE+ projects. ECOWEB provides information on 3271 European eco-innovations, including technologies, applications, products, processes?and other solutions. It aims to link enterprises, in particular SMEs, and eco-innovations to increase the uptake of EU-funded research.
SAGE10 (LIFE09 ENV/GR/000302 SAGE 10) is a pilot project aiming at the sustainability of Mediterranean agroecosystems, and especially of olive crops, with the century-long history, through the development and implementation of an environmental Impact Assessment Procedure (IAP).??The project is implemented on a pilot scale, covering a total area of 150-200 ha, including tree regions in South Greece (two on Crete and one in Peloponnese). A total of 80 farmers participate in the project, registering 600 of their parcels, as well as 3 advisor- agronomists (one per region).
SAGE10 Highlights:
Olive culture counts as one of the most significant agricultural activities in Greece, from a financial, social and ecological point of view. Modern olive culture often includes exhaustive use of the available resources having as a result adverse effects for production cost, the environment and the quality of produced food. The significant progress in technology and know-how during the past decades was not able to fully reverse the situation in the field of plant nutrition. Therefore, reduced performance and high production costs are still a fact for modern farmers.
The OLIVE CLIMA project addresses a multiplicity of environmental issues:
The reviewed Common Agricultural Policy sets the introduction of sustainable crop management practices on top of priorities on a European and national level.
The main aim of the project is to trial the introduction of new cultivation practices for tree crops in order to find a cost-effective means of mitigating and adapting to climate change. The project will focus specifically on olive-producing areas in Greece, investigating the potential of these areas to increase carbon sequestration by soils, and to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. In other words, in this project, a mitigation approach (enhanced CO2 uptake and reduced CO2 emissions) and an adaptation measure (increased soil quality) are tackled at the same time.
The olive oil extraction industry is important for the Mediterranean region. Spain, Italy and Greece are the largest olive oil producers in the world. In the Mediterranean, most of the olive oil mills (OOM) are small domestic enterprises scattered around the country, with owners that are not well informed on the environmental risks of this activity or on the available alternative waste treatment solutions. They are often unwilling to bear extra costs for such alternatives. The physical/chemical characteristics and the polyphenolic content of OOM effluents pose serious threats to the environment. There is a need to identify and study potentially contaminated sites, document them in special national registries (of contaminated sites) and suggest and implement integrated technologies and practices that aim to recover the quality of affected systems, while simultaneously gaining the acceptance and confidence of stakeholders and local communities. The application of soil protection/remedial methods could lead to soil remediation and/or to development and restoration of its functions.
All foresaw activities were implemented at two demonstration-pilot areas; one in Greece and one in Italy. The Greek demonstration area is located in the municipality of Rethymnon (former Municipality of Nikiforos Fokas), in the north of Rethymnon prefecture, Crete.The second implementation site of the project was set up in Liguria Region, Italy where young olive trees were grown under controlled conditions and with the addition of specific amounts of OMW during experimentations aiming to the identification of the optimum conditions for OMW use at olive trees orchards.
PROSODOL resulted in ready-to-be-used outcomes mostly related to the monitoring of soil quality at OMW disposal areas, to the development and implementation of soil remedial techniques at OMW disposal areas, wastes pre-treatment and legislative recommendations to policy makers.
The project’s overall objectives were:
PROSODOL was completed on 31 December 2012.
WasteReuse focuses on two significant environmental problems:
and aims :
WasteReuse aims to the development of new and alternative agricultural practices with the use of treated (or potentially untreated) agricultural waste (AW), which affects, besides the production itself, the quality of soil, water and air by considering the effect of the following significant parameters; soil properties, soil-climate relation and environmental conditions.
The HydroSense aims to improve the water, fertilizer and pesticide use efficiency of a major Mediterranean agricultural crop (cotton) by employing principles of site-specific management and advanced technologies in proximal remote sensing.
Project objectives
Taking into account the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the HydroSense aims to demonstrate recent advances in site-specific management in order to:
a. improve water, nitrogen and pesticide use efficiency of agricultural crops in dry Mediterranean environments
b. apply principles of precision agriculture through variable-rate inputs by the efficient monitoring of crop needs in space and time
c. exhibit a high degree of innovation by the use of proximal remote sensing such as the employment of advanced canopy sensors
d. demonstrate the economic effectiveness of the system by reducing inputs while maintaining productivity
e. provide tools for adjusting agricultural policy by upscaling in-field data to regional scale and by constructing a new design of water pricing
f. diffuse the innovative technologies to farmers by training on the use of the interactive website
g. have the potential to be applied in other agricultural crops and other geographical areas of water-limited environments
The SOILPRO project has the overall objective of halting soil degradation in EU Member States in line with the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. It will do this by encouraging co-operation between local authorities and research institutes within a transnational environment, as this can promote the development of spatial methodologies for monitoring and managing soil degradation.
Specific Objectives