• Energy Research

This dataset includes the territorial development scenarios developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone. These scenarios were co-designed with local stakeholders to depict possible futures of the territory. “Towards a desirable future” represents the implementation of the business roadmap also designed in collaboration with stakeholders to achieve a desirable and sustainable future. “Improving current trends” describes the expected evolution of the territory if current efforts are maintained without significant innovation. “Towards a fragmented territory” illustrates a negative development of the territory, exacerbating current issues and inequalities. Each scenario consists in a narrative and in a set of values attributed to the decision variables of the MAL #4 system dynamics model. These values are converted into time-series to simulate the scenarios (cf. data_scenarios.xlsx in https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075123).

Non-point source pollution is a cause of major concern within the European Union. This is reflected in increasing public and political focus on a more sustainable use of pesticides, as well as a reduction in diffuse pollution. Climate change will likely to lead to an even more intensive use of pesticides in the future, affecting agriculture in many ways. At the same time, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and associated EU policies called for a "good" ecological and chemical status to be achieved for water bodies by the end of 2015, currently delayed to 2021-2027 due to a lack of efficiency in policies and timescale of resilience for hydrosystems, especially groundwater systems. Water managers need appropriate and user-friendly tools to design agro-environmental policies. These tools should help them to evaluate the potential impacts of mitigation measures on water resources, more clearly define protected areas, and more efficiently distribute financial incentives to farmers who agree to implement alternative practices. At present, a number of reports point out that water managers do not use appropriate information from monitoring or models to make decisions and set environmental action plans. In this paper, we propose an integrated and collaborative approach to analyzing changes in land use, farming systems, and practices and to assess their effects on agricultural pressure and pesticide transfers to waters. The integrated modeling of agricultural scenario (IMAS) framework draws on a range of data and expert knowledge available within areas where a pesticide action plan can be defined to restore the water quality, French "Grenelle law" catchment areas, French Water Development and Management Plan areas, etc. A so-called "reference scenario" represents the actual soil occupation and pesticide-spraying practices used in both conventional and organic farming. A number of alternative scenarios are then defined in cooperation with stakeholders, including socio-economic conditions for developing alternative agricultural systems or targeting mitigation measures. Our integrated assessment of these scenarios combines the calculation of spatialized environmental indicators with integrated bio-economic modeling. The latter is achieved by a combined use of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling with our own purpose-built land use generator module (Generator of Land Use version 2 (GenLU2)) and an economic model developed using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) for cost-effectiveness assessment. This integrated approach is applied to two embedded catchment areas (total area of 360,000 ha) within the Charente river basin (SW France). Our results show that it is possible to differentiate scenarios based on their effectiveness, represented by either evolution of pressure (agro-environmental indicators) or transport into waters (pesticide concentrations). By analyzing the implementation costs borne by farmers, it is possible to identify the most cost-effective scenarios at sub-basin and other aggregated levels (WFD hydrological entities, sensitive areas). Relevant results and indicators are fed into a specifically designed database. Data warehousing is used to provide analyses and outputs at all thematic, temporal, or spatial aggregated levels, defined by the stakeholders (type of crops, herbicides, WFD areas, years), using Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing (SOLAP) tools. The aim of this approach is to allow public policy makers to make more informed and reasoned decisions when managing sensitive areas and/or implementing mitigation measures.

This dataset includes the model developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone. It also includes the data necessary to perform model simulations and the data representing three development scenarios co-designed with local stakeholders to envision possible futures of the territory (cf. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7074941). The model, developed in system dynamics language (software Vensim), simulates the interactions between water management, shellfish farming, agriculture, population & tourism, and infrastructure development around their common water resource and under the influence of external uncertainties (climate and agricultural prices). The model was designed in order to identify and improve possible land-sea synergies between these activities, with the aim to reach a sustainable, robust and desirable future for the territory.

Ce jeu de données comprend le modèle développé par le projet H2020 COASTAL MAL #4 pour le bassin de la Charente et sa zone côtière. Il comprend également les données nécessaires pour effectuer les simulations du modèle et les données représentant trois scénarios de développement co-conçus avec les acteurs locaux pour envisager les futurs possibles du territoire (cf. "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7074941" ; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7074941). Le modèle, développé en langage de dynamique des systèmes (logiciel Vensim), simule les interactions entre la gestion de l'eau, la conchyliculture, l'agriculture, l'accroissement de la population, le tourisme et le développement d'infrastructures autour de leur ressource en eau commune et sous l'influence d'incertitudes externes (climat et prix agricoles). Le modèle a été conçu afin d'identifier et d'améliorer les synergies terre-mer possibles entre ces activités, dans le but d'atteindre un avenir durable, robuste et désirable pour le territoire. This dataset includes the model developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone. It also includes the data necessary to perform model simulations and the data representing three development scenarios co-designed with local stakeholders to envision possible futures of the territory (cf. "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7074941"; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7074941). The model, developed in system dynamics language (software Vensim), simulates the interactions between water management, shellfish farming, agriculture, population & tourism, and infrastructure development around their common water resource and under the influence of external uncertainties (climate and agricultural prices). The model was designed in order to identify and improve possible land-sea synergies between these activities, with the aim to reach a sustainable, robust and desirable future for the territory. zenodo

This dataset includes the territorial development scenarios developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone. These scenarios were co-designed with local stakeholders to depict possible futures of the territory. “Towards a desirable future” represents the implementation of the business roadmap also designed in collaboration with stakeholders to achieve a desirable and sustainable future. “Improving current trends” describes the expected evolution of the territory if current efforts are maintained without significant innovation. “Towards a fragmented territory” illustrates a negative development of the territory, exacerbating current issues and inequalities. Each scenario consists in a narrative and in a set of values attributed to the decision variables of the MAL #4 system dynamics model. These values are converted into time-series to simulate the scenarios (cf. data_scenarios.xlsx in https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075123).

This dataset includes the causal loop diagrams (CLDs) developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone. These CLDs represent the functioning of the territory in a systemic way, highlighting its main components and interactions among them. The CLDs are the result of multiple sectoral and multi-actor workshops during which stakeholders from different sectors discussed and collaborated to establish a common vision of the land-sea system. The CLDs concern the whole territory and some specific sectors. This dataset includes the causal loop diagrams (CLDs) developed by the H2020 COASTAL project’s MAL #4 for the Charente River basin and its coastal zone.

Global change, in particular climate change, will affect agriculture worldwide in many ways: increased drought or flooding amplitude and frequency, variable temperature increases, loss of natural depuration of waters, soil erosion, loss of soil carbon content, invasion by alien species, increased pest events, changes in plant phenology, increased sensitivity of crops to stress and diseases etc. (Fisher et al. 2005; Howden et al. 2007). These anticipated or even already occurring stresses raise concerns about the sustainability of production and the ability of agriculture to feed human populations. All these changes could lead to an increased use of pesticides (Kattwinkel et al. 2011). Moreover, demographic pressure continues to rise, in particular in tropical and sub-tropical regions, where greater threats to agriculture and food sustainability are anticipated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Easterling et al. 2007). These trends will certainly lead to mounting conflicts involving water uses (irrigation versus drinking water production or freshwater ecosystem maintenance, sanitation etc.) and food production. This appeals to an "ecologically intensive agriculture" (Griffon 2006), i.e. a sustainable agriculture providing ecosystem services more efficiently than today and causing fewer adverse impacts on the environment and water resources. With EU Directive 2009/128/EC (EC 2009a) enforcement, requesting Member States to adopt action plans aiming to reduce risks and impacts related to pesticide uses, there will be a focus in the public and political debates in Europe on achieving a more sustainable use of pesticides. This should consequently lead to a reduction of the risks or impacts of pesticides on the environment. In Europe, there is currently a strong focus on source (including dose) reduction. This approach may nevertheless be too restrictive if the goal is to reduce the agriculture footprint while maintaining or increasing yield. Depending on the chemical properties of pesticides as well as environmental factors, decreasing the amounts of pesticides applied to crops will not automatically produce a decrease in the risk to non-target species or water supply. How could society meet the challenge of the forthcoming climate change? What adaptations should be envisaged for agriculture/pesticide risk management (RM)? These changes will probably have a profound effect on agricultural systems (crop selection, farming practices etc.) and to a lesser extent influence the fate and effects of chemicals (Schiedek et al. 2007). These questions have been addressed by two European research networks, namely Euraqua (the European Network of Freshwater Research Organisations, http://www.euraqua.org/) and PEER (Partnership for European Environmental Research, http://www.peer.eu/), which organised a workshop aiming to identify research needs and strategies induced by these questions in October 2011 in Montpellier, France. The workshop's specific goals were to (1) discuss the pesticide risk assessment (RA) approach, its limitations (e.g.spatial scale and multi-stress situations), the connections between different policies (pesticide regulation and Water Framework Directive), the use of models, (2) review integrated practices and innovative technologies which could or are intended to reduce pesticides' environmental impacts and (3) contribute to the future research and development agenda. This review summarises the workshop discussions.