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.
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
PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business
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
Water4Cities: ‘Holistic Surface Water and Groundwater Management for Sustainable Cities
Coordinator, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly
PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly
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
PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, International Center for Research on The Environment and the Economy (ICRE8)
funded by European Commission EU-ERANETMED II
PI, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou, University of Thessaly
AWESOME: Managing Water, Ecosystems and Food Across Sectors and Scales in the South Mediterranean
PI, Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business
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
SMIRES: Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams
Management Committee Member, 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
Water-Energy-Food Nexus Knowledge-Action Network | Future Earth
Steering Committee Member, Prof. Chrysi Laspidou
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.
