Deadline: 06-Oct-21
The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals for Improved understanding, observation and monitoring of water resources availability to reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems, society and water consuming economic sectors (agriculture, energy, industry) to climate change, it is necessary to enhance the knowledge on water resource availability and use, on future changes to climate and hydrological systems and on risks of extreme weather events.
Scope
Actions should address one or more of the following issues:
- A comparative assessment of the state-of-the-art integrated river basin models that are currently used for assessing water availability and vulnerability in the context of climate change. Models should be capable of simulating both surface and groundwater quantity and quality issues, as well as water supply and use and land use changes. They should be also able to take into account the socio-economic impacts of future climate change scenarios, as well as the costs and benefits associated with the adaptation strategies defined in response to those.
- Improve accuracy and spatiotemporal resolution of regional scale projections of changes in precipitation, soil moisture, runoff and groundwater availability for management purposes, and quantification of the related uncertainties. Projections of changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as severe storms, heat waves, floods, including flash floods and droughts should be also made. The potential of recent global observation studies and data collections, in cooperation with relevant EU earth observation initiatives, such as ESA, should be considered.
- Development of techniques, monitoring tools and innovative sensors for advance measurement and calculation of current available water balances and future needs and monitoring, leveraging on advanced computation technologies (e.g. high performance computing, edge analytics, cloud computing, and grid computing), artificial intelligence and Internet of Things
- Development of a long-term observation framework and capacity, in collaboration with the Copernicus programme and GEOSS and any other relevant global observation initiatives, to support integrated analysis of water resource availability in Europe, including the development of community-driven, open access, end-to-end data infrastructures.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
- Enhanced knowledge base regarding water related climate change impacts, vulnerability, risk and adaptation assessments in Europe and abroad.
- Provide a more complete picture of future water vulnerabilities, including both water quantity and quality aspects, by better considering the interactions among climate change and variability, land surface and groundwater hydrology, water engineering, and human systems, including societal adaptations to water scarcity
- Support decision makers defining the safe operating space in terms of water quantity and availability, i.e., defining sustainable water management and climate change adaptation measures, meeting growing water supply, food, and energy needs, and controlling the high inter-annual variability in water availability
- Improve Member States’ preparedness for climate change impacts with respect to floods and droughts and support more accurate decision making for flood and drought risk reduction and response.
- Improve knowledge of ecological flows in the context of the Water Framework Directive and especially of the impacts of management, infrastructure and climate on ecological flows; improve prediction of drought events and water scarcity and enhance the assessment of the impacts of drought on water quality and biodiversity.
- Minimise the disparities associated with data collection and reporting between researchers and data agencies, enhance the interoperability, in particular through the mainstreaming of community-accepted standards, metadata schemas and data management best practices in line with the FAIR principles, between data providers and data users and strengthen coordination among various monitoring services
- Foster commitments between climate change and water scientists, monitoring services, industry, water utilities and other socioeconomic communities to collect, standardise, and widely disseminate information on water use in different sectors.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
- eligible non-EU countries:
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- low- and middle-income countries.
Legal entities which are established in countries not listed above will be eligible for funding if provided for in the specific call conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.
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