Systems Nexus Modeling Unit: Land-Water-Food-Biodiversity-Marine Nexus

Mission

Our wide scope covers in essence the natural/physical systems and their responses to factors such as climate change, land-use or marine-use changes, or anthropogenic changes.

Simulation models are used, as each of these nexus systems (e.g. water management, or renewable energy/ hydropower production, land-agriculture-food nexus, marine-use, and biodiversity) have their specific models, or need custom-developed ones depending on the case study’s characteristics (e.g. accounting for waste, GHG emissions, etc.).

Land-marine-water-agriculture-biodiversity-forestry systems dynamically interact. We simulate these interactions and explore their trade-offs, under different scenarios, considering natural (environmental-driven), and socio-economic (human-driven) factors.

 

 

A typical example of this unit’s work would be a land-use change model (e.g. iCLUE model predicting future land-uses), coupled with a water management model (availability, demand, quality), and a food system model (e.g. the FABLE Calculator).

The marine-use system is another area covered by this unit, by improving the understanding and predictions on the interactions between various marine uses, including shipping, fishing, tourism, offshore energy development, conservation, and environmental protection.

Head

Dr. Aggelos Alamanos

Research Advisor Associate

Dr. Konstantinos Dellis

Post-Doc Researcher ReSEES AUEB & SDU Athena Research Center

Team

Dr. Giannis Adamos

Research Associate at University of Thessaly

Dr. Elias Giannakis

Assistant Professor, Agricultural University of Athens

Dr. Sotiris Georganas

Associate Professor, City University London

Dr. Alexandra Ioannou

Associate Researcher at University of Thessaly

Dimitrios Kofinas

Associate Researcher at University of Thessaly

Prof. Chrysi Laspidou

Professor, University of Thessaly

Prof. Ralf Ludwig

Professor, LMU Munich

Dr. Nikos Mellios

Post Doctoral Researcher at University of Thessaly

Martin Drews

Senior Scientist, Technical University of Denmark

Prof. Nikos Theodosiou

Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Chair UN SDSN Black Sea

Dr. Alexandra Spyropoulou

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate | Civil Engineering | University of Thessaly

Dr. Alina Velias

Postdoctoral Researcher, Athens University of Economics and Business

Konstantinos Ziliaskopoulos

PhD candidate, University of Thessaly

          Supporting Projects

          Water Futures: Designing the Next Generation of Urban Drinking Water Systems

          Funded by the European Research Council

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business

          SEAwise: Shaping ecosystem based fisheries management

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, “Athena” Research and Innovation Center

           

          ARSINOE: Climate Resilient Regions Through Systemic Solutions and Innovations

          PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly 

          PI, Prof. Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business

          PI, Dr. Ebun Akinsete, “Athena” Research and Innovation Center

          PI, Martin Drews, Technical University of Denmark

          PI, Prof. Ralf Ludwig, LMU Munich

          BIONEXT: The Biodiversity Nexus: Transformative Change For Sustainability

          PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, “Athena” Research and Innovation Center

          NEXOGENESIS: Streamlining water related policies 

          PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly

          DESIRA: Digitisation Economic and Social Impacts in Rural Areas

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, “Athena” Research and Innovation Center 

          NanoSWS 

          funded by European Commission EU-ERANETMED II

          PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly

          NEXUSNET: Network On Water-Energy-Food Nexus For A Low-Carbon Economy In Europe And Beyond

          Action Chair, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou

          Member of the Management Committee for Greece, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri

          RECONNECT: Regional cooperation for the transnational ecosystem sustainable development

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy (ICRE8)

          SMARTEN: SERIOUS GAMES FOR DIGITAL READINESS OF WATER EDUCATION 

          PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly

          THESEUS: Innovative coastal technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business 

          SESAME: Southern European Seas: Assessing and modelling ecosystem changes

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business 

          Cross-KIC Water Scarcity Activities

          PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, “Athena” Research and Innovation Center 

          The NEXUS Cluster is a group of independent research initiatives who team up for increased and more impacting communication and dissemination of the Nexus. The Nexus includes sectors like water, energy, food, land and climate, as well as important societal challenges like public health and rural-urban development.

           

          Steering Committee member: Prof. Chrysi Laspidou

          Steering Committee member: Prof. Phoebe Koundouri

           

           

          Collaborations

          MIT Climate Interactive

          Climate Interactive creates and shares tools that drive effective and equitable climate action.

          Balmorel is a partial equilibrium model for analysing the electricity and combined heat and power sectors in an international perspective. It is highly versatile and may be applied for long range planning as well as shorter time operational analysis. Balmorel is implemented as a mainly linear programming optimisation problem.

          The model is developed in a model language, and the source code is readily available under open source conditions, thus providing complete documentation of the functionalities. Moreover, the user may modify the model according to specific requirements, making the model suited for any purpose within the focus parts of the energy system.

          The Integrated Sustainable Development Goals (iSDG) model is a policy simulation tool designed to help policy makers and other stakeholders make sense of the complex web of interconnections between the SDGs.

          Unlike databases and indexes that provide a measure of where a country stands, iSDG focuses on the dynamic interactions within the SDG system to reveal the best paths and progression towards achieving the SDGs.

           

          The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium is convened as part of the Food and Land-Use Coalition (FOLU). It aims to understand how countries can transition towards sustainable land-use and food systems. In particular, we ask how countries can collectively meet associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the Paris Agreement. FABLE comprises 20 country teams, which develop data and modeling infrastructure to promote ambitious, integrated strategies towards sustainable land-use and food systems. 

          FABLE is led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), working closely with EAT, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and many other institutions.

          Learn more here.

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