Ergene Municipality is an active local authority located in the Thrace Region of Türkiye, within Tekirdağ Province. The municipality covers an area of 418 km², consisting of 17 neighborhoods and a population of approximately 67,000 residents. Situated along the Ergene River, a sub-basin of the Marmara Sea, the district has strategic importance as a major industrial and agricultural hub in the region. It hosts four Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) — Ergene-1 OIZ, Ergene-2 OIZ, Velimeşe OIZ, and the Leather OIZ — employing more than 70,000 people across textile, leather, food, and chemical sectors.
In parallel, Ergene benefits from a highly productive agricultural hinterland typical of the Thrace Region, with intensive cultivation of wheat, sunflower, and other field crops, generating substantial volumes of lignocellulosic residues such as straw and stalks. These underutilized biomass streams present a strong opportunity for integration into circular bio-based value chains, particularly for fibre-based materials, bio-based packaging, and soil-enhancing applications such as biochar. The municipality is well-positioned to mobilise these feedstocks through local farmer engagement and cooperative structures, enabling scalable and traceable biomass supply systems.
Despite the high level of industrialization, Ergene Municipality actively works in the fields of environmental sustainability, digital transformation, and climate action. With the 2025 Municipal Council Decision, the Municipality has officially committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Its work is built on data-driven governance, stakeholder participation, and low-cost digital solutions.
WEFE Nexus, circular bioeconomy, agricultural residues valorisation, biomass mobilisation, fibre-based materials, sustainable farming systems, water-energy-food integration, digital traceability, IoT monitoring, data-driven governance, industrial symbiosis, municipal innovation, climate neutrality, Mediterranean ecosystems, stakeholder engagement, policy integration, resource efficiency, bio-based materials, circular value chains, local governance
Ergene Municipality seeks to establish a multi-actor consortium to develop and implement a scalable WEFE (Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems) Nexus governance model in a highly industrialised and agriculture-intensive Mediterranean context. The proposed collaboration aims to integrate water management, circular bio-based resource use, sustainable farming practices, and digital monitoring systems into a coherent, place-based governance framework.
The Municipality will act as a pilot territory, providing a real-life environment where agricultural biomass (e.g. wheat straw and sunflower residues), industrial symbiosis opportunities, and water resource challenges intersect. Special emphasis will be placed on mobilising underutilised agricultural residues into circular value chains, supporting bio-based materials and sustainable resource efficiency pathways.
We are particularly interested in collaborating with:
Research institutions with expertise in WEFE Nexus modelling, policy integration, and impact assessment
Technology providers specialising in digital traceability, IoT-based monitoring, and data platforms
Agri-food and bio-based industry actors working on valorisation of agricultural residues and circular production systems
Public authorities and regional agencies experienced in multi-level governance and policy implementation
Civil society organisations and cooperatives to ensure stakeholder engagement and social uptake
The project will focus on co-developing governance tools, decision-support systems, and policy recommendations to enable cross-sectoral coordination, while demonstrating practical solutions such as biomass mobilisation, circular material production, and data-driven resource management. The results will contribute to scaling WEFE Nexus approaches across Mediterranean regions with similar industrial-agricultural dynamics.
Ergene Municipality offers a unique real-life laboratory at the intersection of intensive agriculture and high-density industrial activity, providing an ideal environment to test and scale WEFE Nexus solutions in a Mediterranean context. The Municipality has strong operational capacity to coordinate multi-stakeholder processes, including close collaboration with Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs), local farmers, and regional institutions.
We bring hands-on experience in implementing data-driven municipal services and are currently advancing low-cost digital monitoring approaches that can be adapted for resource tracking, biomass mobilisation, and decision-support systems. Our administration is committed to long-term climate neutrality targets (2050) and is ready to allocate pilot areas, facilitate stakeholder engagement, and support replication activities.
We are particularly interested in building a consortium that goes beyond theoretical frameworks and delivers practical, scalable governance solutions with measurable impact on resource efficiency, circular bioeconomy, and cross-sectoral coordination.
