REXUS
Duration: 36 months. May 2021 - April 2024.
Status: Ongoing
Budget: 5,000,000 €
Funding program:
HORIZON 2020
Reference number:
Grant agreement 101003632
The REXUS project aims to propose a management system for the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus (WEFE) that takes into account the interrelationships between the different components of the Nexus, primarily, by involving all the stakeholders and by providing them with the appropriate tools to collectively create mechanisms for analysing and managing potential synergies, trade-offs and agreements among the four components of the WEFC Nexus, in order to obtain optimized results.
REXUS brings together experts in the fields of terrestrial ecology, system dynamics, environmental economics, law, energy transition, remote sensing, climate modelling, hydrology, food systems and economics, NGOs and public administrations.
The Project aims to achieve the following specific objectives in an integrated manner:
- Identify the objectives of each component of the NEXUS, with the participation of all the stakeholders of the different components;
- Create Learning & Action Alliances (LAAs) focusing on joint development through joint learning.
- Develop Participatory System Dynamics Models (PSDM), focusing on the analysis of the System’s structure seeking to describe the relationships between the different components of the WEFC Nexus that can support evidence-based policy design.
- Identify and analyse relevant scenarios to guide the WEFC Nexus analysis as, for instance scenarios of relevant energy transitions, land use changes and demographic changes in order to allow the definition of collective solutions and the strengthening of evidence-based and multi-objective policies.
- Use earth observation methods and conduct climate risk assessments at the Nexus level, integrate earth observation methods and inventories to understand the interactions between the different components of the WEFC Nexus;
- Carry out an analysis of the different policies including the alignment and coherence of the different regulatory objectives and their constraints (Water Blueprint, Food 2030, Energy Roadmap, Acquis Communautaire, Paris Agreement) to help understand the “knots” in the system in terms of the simultaneous implementation of all these policies and their objectives.
- Improve governance of natural resources in the management of the Nexus, addressing the transformations and transitions that are necessary in our social and economic systems to achieve REXUS objectives, as well as on the development of integrated governance systems needed to implement the necessary changes in the system.
- Develop cases using environmental economics through a common strategy for economic evaluation of ecosystem services, aimed at highlighting environmental costs and externalities related to the pilot cases and integrating them into effective cross-sectoral business models.
- Plan ecosystem-based adaptation measures to achieve the different objectives of the Nexus, based on the collective knowledge generated, evidence and policy analysis.
The case studies focus on several priority water uses such as food production, energy and biofuel production. Two of the cases involve transboundary watersheds.
The pilot basins:
- Danube Basin - Romania/Bulgaria/Serbia.
- Isonzo River, Eastern Alps Basin - Italy/Slovenia
- Cauca River Basin - Colombia
- Pinios Basin - Greece
- Spain-Jucar Basin
Partners:
| Organisation | Country |
|---|---|
| UCLM (Universidad De Castilla - La Mancha: Coordinator | ES |
| AGRISAT Iberia S.L | ES |
| CNR (Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche) | IT |
| CEENRG (The University of Cambridge) | UK |
| Centre for Sustainable Development (The University of Cambridge) | UK |
| CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) | CO |
| CIRCE (Centro De Investigación De Recursos y Consumos Energéticos) | ES |
| DELTARES | NL |
| DRAXIS Environmental Technologies | EL |
| ETIFOR Srl | IT |
| Geoecomar | RO |
| GWPMed (Global Water Partnership Mediterranean) | EL |
| GOLEA | SI |
| IRSA CNR (Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche) | IT |
| NOVA | EL |
| TESAF (Università Degli Studi Di Padova) | IT |
| WCMC (World conservation Monitoring Centre) | UK |
| AAWA (Autorita’ Di Bacino Distrettuale Delle Alpi Orientali) | IT |
| ELGO DIMITRA (Ellinikos Georgikos Organismos) | EL |
| I-Catalist S.L | ES |
| WWF - Asociatia WWF Programul Dunare Carpati Romania | RO |
MENBO is a member of the Advisory Board of the Project and contributes to the project by providing regular feedback on the activities carried out and the outputs achieved.