Managing water, ecosystems and food across sectors and scales in the South Mediterranean
AWESOME will make substantial progress in systems approaches to support the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient agriculture in southern Mediterranean countries under diverging water availability and demand due to the projected impacts of changing climate and society.
The integration of models running at different spatial scales allows a better characterization of different technological solutions to produce water and food.
The main objective of AWESOME (managing Water, Ecosystems and food across sectors and Scales in the south Mediterranean) is developing a decision-analytic platform based on a multi-level, integrated WEFE (Water Energy Food and Ecosystems) model to better understand multi-sectoral WEFE tradeoffs and to capitalize on potential synergies, also exploring the interdependencies and feedbacks across a hierarchy of spatial scales, from the macroeconomic development of the Mediterranean region and national scale, to regional planning at river basin scale, down to the single farm.
The platform will allow simulating the impacts of alternative WEF planning portfolios composed of regional policies, river-basin strategic planning options, and innovative technological solutions demonstrated at the local scale, to generate shared economic, environmental, and societal benefits.