A well-attended Info-Session in Malta about the PRIMA-funded Mara-Mediterra research project on 24 April 2023, coincided with the launch of the MCST-TUBITAK funded research project entitled ”A unified framework to cope with droughts under Mediterranean climate change conditions” (UNIMED). A digital copy of all presentations can be accessed through this link.
Started on April 1st 2022, the Mara-Mediterra Research and Innovation Project is aimed at promoting the uptake of Nature-based Solutions to address the land and water degradation challenges in 5 hotspots around the Mediterranean. The project’s portfolio of solutions consists of 9 well-proven agro-ecological as well as 4 eco-engineering solutions.
Mara-Mediterra’s Project Coordinator, Dr. Vasileios Takavakoglou from the Soil and Water Research Institute (SWRI) of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization “DIMITRA” in Greece, seized the opportunity to share not just the project’s objectives but also the outcomes and results achieved during the first twelve months of project implementation. He also delved into the strong synergies that are foreseen to be developed between Mara-Mediterra and UNIMED. In a nutshell, where Mara-Mediterra is focused on the practical application of Nature-based Solutions, UNIMED is set to provide the context of the importance of these solutions through research of a fundamental nature.
Being in charge of guiding the setting up of Living Labs in each of the project’s hotspots, Anna Spiteri, Managing Director of Integrated Resources Management Company Ltd. (IRMCo) in Malta, explained how everything is now in place to launch the Mara-Mediterra Living Labs as from May 2023. To start with video testimonials by farmers who have been successfully implementing the practices of minimum tillage, organic manure, green manuring and mulching have been collected in Italy and Greece. These short video clips have been linked to associated training material that is available from the project website in English, French, Arabic, Greek and Turkish.
The event also marked the launch of the UNIMED project which targets the development of a Survivability-of-Droughts Index in the context of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus. Sponsored through a bilateral cooperation agreement between Malta and Turkey, His Excellency the Turkish Ambassador to Malta, Erdeniz Şen (seated on the left), joined the Info-Session in anticipation of UNIMED’s first public presentation on the occasion of the Info-Session.
The project’s principal scientific investigator in Turkey, Dr. Cem Polat Cetinkaya, from the Dokuz Eylul University, Industrial Application and Research Center (DEU DESUM), gave an overview of UNIMED’s objectives. He also delved more deeply into how the overall Survivability-of-Droughts Index will be derived from four underlying indices: perception, vulnerability, adaptability and recoverability. Jointly, these indices look not only at the observed climatic data, but also take the economic, social and environmental dimensions of droughts into consideration. This approach has hitherto not been explored in the available literature and explains the uniqueness of the research that will be conducted in UNIMED.
Malta’s principal scientific investigator in UNIMED, Eng. Dirk De Ketelaere, Senior Researcher at IRMCo, presented the first results of a historical evidence-based analysis of droughts which employs the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), using the rainfall data collected for the hydrological years from 1960 to 2020 at the Luqa Meteorological Office in Malta. The same analysis will be conducted for rainfall stations in semi-arid climate locations from the western to the eastern & northern to southern shores of the Mediterranean.
Dr. Sarah Camilleri and Dr. Francesca Busuttil from the Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (MCAST), representing the other Maltese partner in UNIMED, presented the EU funded projects modernAKIS and MED-WET in which MCAST takes an active part, and will serve as further projects with which synergies will be explored.
The event was organized by Integrated Resources Management Company Ltd. (IRMCo) and took place in the auditorium of the Malta Council for Arts, Sciences & Technology (MCAST).
The Info-Session preceded the Second Project Progress of Mara-Mediterra in Malta, which ran from 25 through 27 April 2023 and was hosted by IRMCo.
