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Project Topic
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The SureNexus project is responding to PRIMA-NEXUS 2021 call by contributing to ensure a fair transition to climate change adaptation and sustainable development enhancing the implementation of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) NEXUS approach. The project will generate scientific and practical evidence on the transition in developing the NEXUS approach through the optimization of water allocation across different sectors, combining with energy and food security to support regional and local development and to support systemic change and resilient transition. The general approach is to produce healthy food, with less resources (water, soil and nutrients) and less energy through regenerative agriculture and with minimal impact on the environment. However, local/regional sustainable development should be coupled with the conservation of biodiversity and mitigation of land degradation. SureNexus will implement different socio-ecological and technical systems (SETs) adapted to NEXUS conflicts on different key sectors for the Mediterranean areas, using nature-based solutions (NbS) and bioeconomy as the main integrative tools for NEXUS implementation, to improve the circular cycles of the water, energy, food and ecosystem resources. The project will establish demonstrators of promising small-scale innovative transformation solutions and evaluate their productivity and value to the local community, driving technology acceptance and mentality change. Integrated tools will be tested on four different innovative pilot sites, focused on relevant Nexus actions. At the same time, SureNexus will bridge the barrier and the resistance to changes through the development of interconnected networks (network of networks) of grassroot community projects and foster Mediterranean knowledge transfer and best practices, coupled with intersectoral cooperation. SureNexus’s novelty is centered on the “bottom-up meets top-down” approach for NEXUS implementation around the development of interconnected networks of co-designed community SETs adapted to NEXUS conflicts on different key sectors and to increase resilience in the Mediterranean areas. Innovative solutions will be tested and validated in the pilots for Mediterranean environments and applied for different sectors and contexts, including: 1) water treatment and conservation (natural intensified treatments for ecolodge and for winery sector), 2) energy save (agrovoltaic system combining photovoltaic with agriculture), 3) off-grid water-energy-food systems (for sustainable tourism, for housing and food production), 4) Bioeconomy solutions for resource and waste recovery and reuse and for water treatment, 5) machine learning and AI for data analysis and to improve the allocation of different resources considering technical and policy constraints. The balance of different key NEXUS sectors (Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems) will be one of the main added values from the SureNexus combined inter and transdisciplinarity approach. In second place, the extensive use of AI and machine learning will help to establish insights and lessons that can be drawn from empirical nexus work, including specific technical and policy solutions adapted to the Mediterranean area. Finally, emphasizing participatory approaches, SureNexus will work to reduce the “outcome gap” connecting decision-makers and resource managers and contributing to capacity building.
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