Prima strategic Research and Innovation Agenda Version February 22, 2017 Foreword

Main challenges that will be addressed by PRIMA

Given the previous described problems and challenges to be tackled, the aims of PRIMA are:

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  To support the development of innovative solutions and induce their application to improve the efficiency and sustainability of food production and water provision in the Mediterranean basin, stimulating a stronger industry able to promote wellbeing and economic growth;
  
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  To support stability and socio-economic development in the Mediterranean area, within the framework of a reinforced Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and the European Neighborhood Policy;
  
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  To facilitate the creation of knowledge-based jobs and competences in the Mediterranean area.
  

Considering this general goal, PRIMA identified eight operational objectives (PRIMA proposal 2014):

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  To develop smart and sustainable farming systems to maintain natural resources, to preserve biodiversity and to increase production efficiency;
  
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  To test and stimulate adoption of context-tailored water-saving solutions, in particular in agriculture;
  
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  To innovate in the Mediterranean food products based on Mediterranean diet heritage and cultural identities and to enhance the links between nutrition and health;
  
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  To find context-adapted solutions to increase quality and recognizability of the products, food and water chain efficiency, and reduce losses and waste;
  
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  To design and promote the adoption of novel approaches to reduce the impact of pests and pathogens in farming, including their consequences on human health;
  
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  To conceive and implement innovative, quality oriented models in agro-business (included short and alternative food supply chains) as potential sources of new jobs and economic growth;
  
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  To improve land and water sustainability in arid and semi-arid watersheds;
  
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  To elaborate and stimulate adoption of new policies and protocols for the governance of water management systems.
  

Those 8 objectives have then been grouped and reorganized under the 3 scientific-technical pillars already mentioned, which constitute the backbone of PRIMA Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda:

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  Pillar 1: Sustainable management of water for arid and semi-arid Mediterranean areas;
  
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  Pillar 2: Sustainable farming systems under Mediterranean environmental constraints;
  
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  Pillar 3: Mediterranean food value chain for regional and local development.
  

Figure 1. – The 3 scientific-technical pillars of PRIMA Program

PILLAR 3

PILLAR 2

PILLAR 1



THEMES/TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED:

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  Water resources availability and quality within catchments and aquifers
  
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  Sustainable, integrated water management
  
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  Irrigation technologies and practice
  
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  Use of alternative water resources. Technologies and governance models
  

THEMES/TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED:

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  Valorisation of the nutritional qualities of Mediterranean foods and development of new healthy food products
  
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  Enhancement of the links between nutrition and health
  
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  Enhancement of organisation and coordination in the food chains
  
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  Involvement of rural and industrial stakeholders to ensure both food security and regional development
  
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  Promote the adoption of organisational innovations and more sustainable business models among firms
  

THEMES/TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED:

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  Adaptation to climate change, to drought and extreme events
  
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  Developing Sustainable productive eco-systems
  
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  Preventing the emergence of animal and plant diseases
  
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  Developing farming systems able to generate income, to create employment and to contribute to a balanced territorial development
  

5. 
   Strategy
   

Pillar 1:

Sustainable management of water for arid and semi-arid Mediterranean areas
Scope

Considering the water challenges faced by the Mediterranean basin, the general goal of this pillar is finding solutions to cope with increasing water demand and decreasing water availability. Such issues are considered by PRIMA as an urgent and fundamental priority for the Mediterranean arid and semi-arid areas. In this regard, achieving sustainable management of water requires 1) a better understanding of the processes affecting the water cycle, 2) the implementation of technical and water governance solutions to improve the resilience to water scarcity conditions, optimizing water use efficiency at the whole chain level and 3) the definition of new possibilities for increasing water availability and sustainable wastewater management, thus reinforcing the water circularly process and exploiting new conventional water resources.

More specifically, this pillar aims to contribute to secure water availability both in terms of quality and quantity, as well as to improve wastewater management, in order to develop innovative solutions and to stimulate their adoption to increase efficiency and sustainability of water provision in Euro-Mediterranean societies, providing environmental benefits and economic growth within the area and contributing to an inclusive, sustainable and healthy growth.

To achieve the main objective, the following important research and innovation areas have been identified:

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  Water resources availability and quality within catchments and aquifers;
  
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  Sustainable, integrated water management;
  
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  Irrigation technologies and practices;
  
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  Use of alternative water resources. Technologies and governance models.
  

Research challenges & Priorities to be addressed

Water resources availability and quality within catchments and aquifers

The ephemeral flow of rivers, the non-linear relationship between rainfall and runoff, the importance of extreme events, are major characteristics of the Mediterranean surface water resources. This makes river-flow extremely variable in time and space, difficult to exploit in natural conditions, and often a threat for the riparian population. Nevertheless, many intermittent rivers constitute important water resources for large areas in the Mediterranean Region: several reservoirs built in these catchments store water for multiple human uses (irrigation, drinking water, industry). Almost half of the 7,000 large dams existing in the EU are present in Southern countries. There is a need for such reservoirs and respective catchments to be accurately managed in order to store good quality water, reduce siltation, fulfil ecological flow requirement. With rivers in critical regions already exploited to capacity throughout the world and groundwater overdraft, as well as large-scale contamination occurring in many areas, we have entered an era in which multiple simultaneous stresses (chemical and biological) will drive water management, especially during drought periods. The peculiar characteristics of river systems in the Mediterranean area require that land management practices and adopted measures to reach chemical and ecological goals in River Basin Management Plans must be adapted.

Apart from a very small number of large rivers, aquifers are the most reliable source of water in the region, and are therefore essential for water supplying people and farming. However, contamination, seawater intrusion, salinization and overexploitation of groundwater are common problems in the Mediterranean.

In Mediterranean region, low permeability aquifers outcrop in large areas under different geomorphologic and climatic conditions and their groundwater resources supply water to small communities, plants or farms. If we add that in many countries, where low-permeability aquifers outcrop i) climate ranges from temperate to semi-arid, ii) the Water Exploitation Index is greater than 20% (EEA, 2003) and iii) General Circulation Models indicates a decrease of average precipitation in future, there are sound reasons for a thorough analysis of these aquifers.

Understanding the complexity of the system under present and future climatic and socio-economic conditions is of crucial importance for ensuring the long-term availability of water resources and for avoiding irreversible damages to the environment and the agricultural systems depending on land and water. At the same time, a detailed assessment of the current status and main criticalities affecting the water management cycle applied at national, regional and local level is required, in order to define and implement specific actions aimed at overcoming the existing issues and bottlenecks. In this regard, drought analyses and water accounting at regional scale should integrate the outputs of existing monitoring and forecasting systems at the Mediterranean level (downscaling global meteorological models and climate change scenarios) in order to plan and manage water supply systems considering climatic and anthropogenic changes and the need to cope with water scarcity. Long-term experimental observation are needed in the region, coordinating, networking, streamlining and promoting tangible and intangible infrastructure in support of research for the long term perspective on land and water in Mediterranean environments.

In this region, intermittent and ephemeral streams are very common fluvial systems. These rivers show a high rate of change in streamflow, high peak discharges, and low baseflow. Very often, there is a sensible lack of measurements and monitoring in small and intermittent rivers. A large part of their annual volume flows in a few days, delivering a great part of their sediment and nutrient loads. Basic research priorities for intermittent rivers include 1) methods for the estimation and restoration of natural flow regimes, 2) illegal water abstraction detection, since reported data on water abstraction most probably underestimate the water uses for agriculture, mainly due to a high percentage of illegal and unrecorded abstractions, 3) diversity and seasonal dynamics of biotic communities, 4) resilience of biota to increased desiccation duration, 5) the role of a dry river bed as a corridor for terrestrial vertebrates, 6) hydrological and ecological monitoring schemes must consider and adapt to capture short-term processes and 7) specific BMPs must be evaluated to be applied in such basins.

Excess water during floods constitutes a danger and is a waste of resource. Using it for Managed Aquifer Recharge can save water resources and damages to property. Same goals can be achieved using Natural Water Retention Methods and floodplain renaturalisation.
Sustainable, integrated water management

A sustainable water management is crucial in the Mediterranean basin for ensuring efficient multiple water use in irrigation, animal production systems, drinking and industrial activities, as well as the preservation of natural ecosystems through consideration of the quantity and quality of water needed for the functioning of aquatic ecosystem services. That requires efficient governance at different levels: watersheds, districts, national. PRIMA intends to improve water governance, taking into consideration both the socio-economic context and the meteo-climatic trends of the Mediterranean basin. Both of them are considered as important drivers of current and future water resources management. The development of innovative governance strategies, advanced planning methodologies, appropriate and sustainable treatment technologies and monitoring tools have to take into account the huge number of physical, technological and socio-economic variables in water management in order to address the ever-growing need for water and food. In particular, the identification and the demonstration at small, medium and large scale of good water management practices has to be fostered within PRIMA initiative, through the development of local case studies, including measures aimed at limiting aquifers contamination and providing a sustainable wastewater management, also through the implementation of a circular economy approach based on resource and energy recovery along the water management cycle. Water infrastructure is ageing and this implies the opportunity to apply climate proof, sustainable and environmentally sound approaches (construction material, means of measures, bioengineering and reuse of material after lifetime) in the management and rejuvenation of ageing water infrastructures.

Irrigation technologies and practices

Irrigated agriculture, which uses 70% of water resources, today provides more than 50% of the food produced in the Mediterranean basin, even though it only takes up 15% of the total surface devoted to agriculture. A particular attention should be paid to the water-energy nexus related to all technical steps involved, including freshwater supply, specific wastewater treatments for unconventional water resources availability, water storage systems, and irrigation techniques. Modernizing irrigation systems has increased on-farm water efficiency but it has also led to an increase in energy consumption. The successful adoption of new irrigation strategies and technologies, as well as their integration into farm management practices and off-farm constraints, require an additional effort in improving the exchange of information and dialogue between end-users, farmers, policymakers, water management authorities and research teams, to facilitate the transfer of new knowledge and technologies and their practical implementation at field-level. In fact, despite the development of techniques, models and decision support systems (DSSs) aimed to promote a more efficient use of irrigation water, their actual use and implementation by farmers is rather limited.

Where irrigation modernization has already started through the replacement of surface irrigation with drip or trickle systems, new irrigation scheduling programmes to better match water application with real crop needs should be investigated and proposed. More energy efficient water pumping and distribution technologies and models need to be developed, as well as specific water and wastewater treatment systems aimed at ensuring the appropriate water quality for a long-term sustainability of the irrigation systems. Regulated deficit irrigation strategies will have to be implemented in those countries where chronic paucity of summer rainfall allows supplemental water to act as a major controller of growth, yield and fruit quality.

Conversely, in some countries of the Northern Mediterranean basin (namely part of Italy and France), now frequently experiencing temporary, yet still fairly occasional, summer drought, the major challenge is having physiological and/or agronomical decision-making tools to assess if the severity of water stress might justify supplemental watering. Presently, irrigation technical change in the Mediterranean has mostly taken place on large farms. However, smallholders, face considerable difficulties to adopt standardized new technologies. This innovation process responds to small farmers’ objectives mainly focused on labour and crop productivity rather than just water-saving issues. From a users’ perspective, the PRIMA approach should promote the acquisition of knowledge on the local experiences of Mediterranean countries, enhance this (informal) innovation process, and connect it to official national programmes dealing with water saving issues.

Use of alternative water resources. Technologies and governance models

In countries with scarce water resources where irrigation of farmlands accounts for more than 70% of water use, the competition for this resource is intensifying and will continue as long as the demand for water increases. Where water availability is not enough to fulfil the existing irrigated lands, the use of non-conventional water resources (as reclaimed and desalinated water) represents the only solution to satisfy agriculture water needs. Reuse of wastewater presents one of the main options to the water supply decision makers and an appropriate wastewater management has to be promoted especially in peri-urban areas, where uncontrolled effluent disposal is commonly practiced and a decentralised approach need to be fostered in order to ensure economic and environmental long-term sustainability. Although reclaimed water is commonly and successfully used in many countries (e.g. Israel, USA, Australia), in the Mediterranean, water reuse face numerous barriers. Among them, safety risks, economic concerns and social acceptance can be currently defined as the main barriers considering that 1) safety risks have been traditionally linked to the use of improperly treated wastewater, 2) cost is probably the first driven force in fresh produce production and 3) public acceptance of reclaimed water by the public varied according to its potential use.

Related to safety risks, technological advances focused on developing on-line monitoring systems currently demanded by growers, irrigation associations and even authorities as an effort to fulfil current requirements on microbiological criteria based on the enumeration of faecal indicator microorganisms such as Escherichia Coli and have been included in Good Agricultural Practices guidelines, quality assurance standards as well as the legislation of specific European Member States and Mediterranean countries. In an attempt to help growers to assure the microbiological quality of non-conventional water sources, such as reclaimed water, and to fulfil microbial criteria, novel technological tools, suitable to perform on-line monitoring of the microbiological quality of irrigation water, are still required. Such tools need to be properly coupled to the selection of the appropriate (waste) water treatment systems, including adequate disinfection techniques and specific tertiary treatments complying with the quality standards required according to the final water use. Searching for new technology should not preclude the possibilities of using more simple approaches based on natural wetlands and water stabilization ponds, which might also favour landscape management and the ecological status of water bodies. Injection of reclaimed water in aquifers under strict control and pumping should also be tested as an alternative for renaturalisation. In this regard, microbiological contamination is not the only issue to be taken into account, with other specific parameters such as solid content, salinity, organic matter, nitrogen, and other emergent pollutants (e.g. endocrine disruptors) to be considered of great concern.

Indeed, in addition to the microbial risks, treated wastewaters have the drawback of their salinity levels which might limit the mid, long-term crop productivity. As a consequence, energy-efficient desalinization treatments should be developed for treating both wastewater from municipal and industrial use and seawater. Finally, multidisciplinary studies should be enriched by the analysis of economic and environmental suitability of the current implementation of the system, taking also into account the agronomic validation needed for its implementation as well as the public acceptance. Under this proposed multi-actor approach, issues regarding the disposal and treatment of brines after seawater or wastewater treatment should be considered to ensure a low impact of water treatment on the environment or in the fishery practices.

In the light of the consideration above exposed, the present pillar identifies the following priority topics to be addressed:

Priority Topic

Understanding groundwater processes and link with surface water for catchment/basin balance The challenges now faced by water planners require a new generation of aquifer management models that address the broad impacts of global changes on aquifer storage and depletion trajectory management, land subsidence, groundwater-dependent ecosystems, seawater intrusion, anthropogenic and geogenic contamination of the whole water cycle, supply vulnerability, and long-term sustainability. The typical slow flow processes in the subsurface result in a relatively long elapsed time (years up to decades) from the pollution initiation at the surface and its detection in the groundwater by traditional monitoring wells. During this long period before pollution is detected in groundwater, large masses of pollutants accumulate in the subsurface. The vadose slow flow conditions limit clean up processes and the remediation action of polluted aquifers becomes therefore a very difficult task. Innovative technological applications are requested with reference to the methods for the determination of available groundwater resources of low-permeability aquifers, also under different climate scenarios, as well as new methods for tapping the resource in these low-permeability aquifers and implementation and application of new hydro-geologic, environmental and economic coupled models to some significant rural areas, also including experiment of an integrated approach to surface-ground water management. Quantitative analyses on ecosystem services require an in-depth understanding of the underlying processes. To meet this need, it is important not only to use adequate modelling methods, but also to apply effective monitoring tools and research on new methodologies to understand biogeochemicals cycles. Developing efficient simulation models in order to analyse future scenarios at the spatial scales to be used for natural resource planning and management, is necessary in order to identify cost-effective strategies and techniques for a rational use of water and protection of land and soil. In this sense, there is a need for developing early warning systems to detect potential pollution transport through the soils and deep vadose zone to groundwater. This research should provide the needed information to support decisions on remediation strategies. More research efforts are also needed to understand the nitrogen and phosphorous pollution sources and processes, in particular those related with anthropogenic activities such as agriculture in order to investigate the link between agronomic practices and surface water, groundwater and/or soil pollution. Assessment of the potential occurrence of natural nitrate attenuation and its quantification and identification of remediation strategies to minimize soil and water pollution, e.g. biostimulation of in-situ denitrification by addition of an organic amendment coming from agricultural/farming processing sub-products in areas where not relevant natural attenuation processes occurs, are needed. New methodologies to determine the origin of pollution and to quantify the evolution of pollution and the remediation actions are also required.

Setting the limits for water use. Water accounting, water use efficiency and water governance Water sustainability in the Mediterranean region should be ensured by improved technical tools coupled with socio-economic studies able to define the limits for water use in certain key regions under present and future global change scenarios. This implies the use of technologies and tools for water accounting systems, including new remote sensing capacities coupled with governance allocation structures based on socio-economic rules for setting the limits for water consumption. Moreover, a sustainable integrated water management should be promoted and a decentralised approach should be fostered, especially in peri-urban areas where uncontrolled wastewater disposal is commonly practiced. Indeed, such an approach should finally promote the adoption of measures for maximizing water use efficiency through the whole chain.

Characterisation of the hydrological regime and morphological status of ephemeral rivers and floods. Ephemeral and intermittent streams make up, approximately, 75% of all streams in Mediterranean regions. Ephemeral streams convey runoff from mountain headwaters to lowlands and contribute to recharge alluvial aquifers and to sustain water resources. Ephemeral streams provide the same hydrological and ecological functions as perennial streams by moving water and sediments throughout the watershed. However, the lack of surface water during long periods of time constitutes a problem to characterise the hydrological regime and the geomorphological and ecological status. New methods should be developed to characterise the hydro-geomorphological and ecological status and degree of human affection on ephemeral rivers. The methodology will address the hydrological regime, water and sediment connectivity, geomorphological conditions of river channels and river corridors, biogeochemical functions and the spatial structure of the plant and animal communities. In addition, in the semi-arid regions of the Mediterranean basins, floods are a natural hazard but also renewable water resources. Floods are also a way for geomorphological and ecological regeneration along river corridors. However, floodwater itself is not considered a sustainable water resource, when infiltrating alluvial aquifers is a source of water supply in Mediterranean areas. There is therefore a need to understand the hydrological processes for the assessment, management and use of floodwaters. PRIMA resources will be set up to quantify a) the processes controlling this recharge, b) long-term recharge quantities (decade to multi-decadal scales) that determine the sustainability of these water resources and c) to translate these results into specific management strategies for alluvial aquifers of ephemeral rivers in Mediterranean regions.

Water-energy-food nexus. Technology and governance models The Water-Energy-Food nexus describes the complex and inter-related nature of our global resources systems. There are many synergies and trade-offs between water and energy use and food production, and a circular economy approach aimed at resource and energy recovery along the whole water management cycle may allow to improve the impacts in terms of overall energy consumptions and food security. However, research and policies have focused on some parts of this nexus, disregarding the others. In fact, using water to irrigate crops might promote food production but it can also reduce river flows and hydropower potential. The possibility of growing bioenergy crops under irrigated agriculture can increase the overall water withdrawals and jeopardize food security. As a consequence, land-water uses should be determined considering not only the water productivity but also the food specific food source-demand in a given area. Converting surface irrigation into high efficiency pressurized irrigation may save water but may also result in higher energy consumption. Recognizing these synergies and balancing these trade-offs is central to jointly ensuring water, energy and food security.

Technical and social aspects of water saving, on-farm water use efficiency and water management in agriculture The solutions to be developed should be of common interest to all the target regions, involving both Mediterranean shores and in particular areas where agriculture is the main economic activity and the main water user in volume terms. The cross-border dimension should be related to the different techniques and technologies that can be adapted to different pedo-climatic and socio-economic constraints and implemented in different areas. The adaptation of the technical solutions to the real local conditions should be addressed, and their adequacy to the diversity of cropping systems, sites and cultural practices has to be deepened. Adaptation strategies should include a) deficit/supplemental irrigation, b) application of more efficient water treatment and irrigation technologies, c) efficient irrigation scheduling protocols for precision irrigation practices and d) efficient water management protocols in animal production systems. Rain-fed agriculture needs to adapt to seasonal changes and long-term changes induced by climate change, while stable or increasing productivity likely depends on additional irrigation. Most countries have a large set of actual and indigenous knowledge concerning water harvesting technologies and a great potential of adaptability. However, more research is needed concerning the cost of those technologies in order to better assess the feasibility of their implementation.

Water reuse and water desalination for use in agriculture and food production Use of alternative water sources, e.g. treated wastewater or desalinated water, through efficient and competitive technologies (particularly in terms of energy content), is increasingly considered necessary to provide a complementary source of water in certain zones of the Mediterranean. Thus, integrating new unconventional water resources (desalination and treated wastewater) into water management systems should be studied and promoted taking into account the technical and environmental impact, economic efficiency, water governance rules and the local socio-economic context. PRIMA will address the problem of using non-conventional water resources through a holistic approach stimulating the joint collaboration between water treatment technology providers, water governing bodies, end-users and soil and water scientists. This will enable the consideration of water systems as part of a circular economy approach particularly for treated wastewater to be used for agriculture purposes.