|
Project Topic
|
The Mediterranean region is considered a “Hot Spot” susceptible to the threat of climate change. Many regions are prone to desertification, reduced amount of water, loss of fertile soil and degradation of the ecological services provided. On top of those, many countries are engaged in political conflicts. Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Israel are in the focal point of such a conflict. The Jordan Valley (JV) exhibits all those threats. It is the only region shared by the three countries and the unique combination of climate-change and political threats led us to choose it as ae test case. The overall project objective is to develop a climate-change adaptation program oriented towards maximum socio-economic inputs for people in the Mediterranean region. Using WEFE nexus methodology, the project will build the research and innovation capacities of partners and stakeholders in order to: a) Propose a climate change adaptation plan for the region, based on existing technologies, taking into account the social and economic priorities of the three involved countries; b) use techno-economic models to optimize the sustainable efficiency performance of the Plan; c) use socio-economic models to assess and recommend policies in the WEFE context to improve the welfare of people in the region; d) perform tests in three demonstration sites in the Jordan Valley, one in each country, in order to validate the inputs to the various models; e) propose methodologies to extend the applicability of the results of the Jordan Valley to other regions and to other Mediterranean countries; f) build synergies across sectors to investigate interlinkages across the nexus; and g) implement capacity building and training programs in response to project findings. Our nexus approach will give greater emphasis to decentralized but coordinated decision making as the source of solutions, as well as the source of understanding the challenges faced. Our approach will also stress the business imperative and the need to prepare for investment scenarios in the future. We will partner with manufacturers and producers of wastewater treatment plants, water pumping stations and technology to introduce energy efficiency programs at all viable facilities. Public institutions will create incentives for efficient agricultural water use to support food security policy objectives, develop incentive mechanisms for the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the water and food sectors, conduct proper assessment of and utilization of the potential for generating hydropower at locations where water drops in elevation, and use wastewater bio-solids from treatment plants to produce renewable energy and improve the environmental conditions. The project will develop WEFE Nexus best-practice recommendations for resource management in the Jordan valley. It will seek to identify and quantify the adaptation challenges to water, food and energy security and to the environment, and will propose an adaptation plan, based on existing technologies and adaptation solutions including centralised and decentralized wastewater treatment, smart agriculture in acclimatized greenhouses, agri-PV and precise irrigation - solar desalination - renewable energy. The project will account the social priorities of the three involved countries, and use techno-economic models to optimize the techno-economic performance of the proposed adaptation plan. It will use innovative socio-economic models in to verify maximum impact on the lives of the people in the region, and will perform tests at existing WEFE demonstration sites in order to validate the inputs to the various models, and thus propose best-availably methodologies to extent the applicability of the results of the Jordan Valley to other regions and to other Mediterranean countries through the development of versatile key performance indicators for WEFE via extensive dissemination through a broader community of practice.
|
