Proiecte

Land-Sea Interface: Let’s Observe Together (LandSeaLot) is a Horizon Europe project that seeks to integrate and enhance existing coastal observation efforts including in situ, satellite, modelling and citizen science to better study the land-sea interface area, where terrestrial and marine habitats meet. LandSeaLot is a four-year Horizon Europe funded project that will apply novel approaches to help achieve the goals of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” and the wider objectives of the EU Green Deal.The 20-partner consortium works to bring together the fragmented land-sea interface area observation communities across various scientific domains to co-design and develop an integrated, optimal, and robust observation of the land-sea interface area.

In LandSeaLot, GeoEcoMar is co-leading Work Package 2, contributing to building a Common Observation Strategy and to the long-term project’s impact and legacy. LandSeaLot Integration Labs are dynamic testing sites for developing and refining a Common Observation Strategy across land-sea interface areas in Europe. They serve as centres to test new methods and technologies, following a community-based approach to a fit-for-purpose observation of river mouths, estuaries and deltas. GeoEcoMar leads the Danube Delta LandSeaLot Integration Lab (LIL) in the framework of Work Package 5. The Danube Delta and coastal area Integration Lab is observing, mapping, analysing and modelling on coastal morphology and sedimentology, as well as plastics and nutrients pollution patterns and hotspots. These observation efforts will provide crucial data to stakeholders and policymakers and support local and regional mitigation.

Europe’s rivers are congested. More than a million barriers, like dams, ramps and fords, are causing extensive loss of river connectivity. In addition, human interventions have ecologically degraded a whopping 70 to 90 % of Europe’s floodplain. Despite ambitious EU policy to turn things around, fresh and transitional water ecosystem restoration remains limited. The EU-funded DANUBE4all project will develop a comprehensive restoration action plan for the Danube River basin lighthouse. The project will engage stakeholders, integrating citizens’ interests to support the EU Mission ‘Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030’ in an unprecedented cocreation process. The action plan will rely on solid scientific knowledge and new findings to promote ecological status, biodiversity, and ecosystem connectivity improvement.

Financed under Horizon Europe Framework Programme, EASTERN LIGHTS project is a crucial first step towards a large-scale onshore CCUS cluster in Eastern Europe. This initiative, centered in North West Bulgaria and driven by a powerful collaboration of 19 organisations across 8 countries, will de-risk development by demonstrating CO₂ transport and storage capabilities. By uniting diverse expertise, Eastern Lights aims to eliminate key uncertainties through industrial demonstration, in-depth research, and proactive stakeholder engagement.

The project aims to use the research infrastructure framework and concept to successfully support the needs of the river basin community to overcome the current technical state, as well as to support the connection of multiple hydrographic networks and operations, which are currently disconnected. The project will develop the concept of a EuroGO-SHIP research infrastructure to support the needs of ICES, GO-SHIP and other relevant hydrographic observation networks existing in the fulfilment of their missions.

The EuroGO-SHIP project seeks to enable the European community conducting hydrographic observations at sea to provide higher quality and more sustainable data flows to a broad range of end users, more effectively. The project will work towards strengthening European capabilities to deliver world-class Oceanographic science, which is key to inform policies and to meet the goals of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” and the wider objectives of the EU Green Deal.

The AQUARIUS project aims to provide access to a comprehensive and diverse suite of integrated research infrastructures in order to address the challenges and explore the opportunities necessary for the long-term sustainability of marine and freshwater ecosystems. AQUARIUS will bring together a diverse portfolio of 57 research infrastructures, facilitating more holistic research on aquatic ecosystems. An online catalogue of research infrastructures will allow visitors to search and view these infrastructures by type and location, learn about access arrangements and training requirements. Transnational access to AQUARIUS infrastructures will be ensured through a competitive call-to-finance process. AQUARIUS will launch two calls for funding, inviting candidates for research and innovation projects that can demonstrate how they will use more research infrastructures to contribute to the objectives of the EU Mission: Restoring our oceans and waters.

SOS-Water is a multi-disciplinary project that aims to create the foundation for a holistic and participatory assessment framework of the SOS for the entire water resources system, accounting concurrently for all relevant water dimensions across multiple sectors and spatial scales under the influence of socio-economic, policy, technological, and climatic changes. This framework will help to operationalise and downscale the global freshwater SOS to the continental and river basin levels and to ultimately streamline water planning and management at local to regional levels and beyond such that the allocation of water among societies, economies, and ecosystems will be economically efficient, socially fair, and resilient to shocks.

Worldwide freshwater resources are under increasing pressures of rapidly intensifying climate change effects putting the availability and quality of water resources and socio-economic developments at risk. River basin organisations need to be prepared. STARS4Water aims at improving the understanding of climate change impacts on water resources availability and the vulnerabilities for ecosystems, society and economic sectors at river basin scale.

The 2030 & 2050 Green Deal goals push EU towards integrated solutions & clear targets. EcoDaLLi, embedded in the Mission ‘Restore our Ocean, seas & waters by 2030’ will help achieve freshwater targets of European Green Deal, integrating a systemic approach for restoration, protection & preservation for the entire Danube Basin, provided by coordinated actions.

Restore4Life demonstrates the multiple socio-economic benefits generated by a holistic and transdisciplinary approach for the restoration of freshwater and coastal wetlands in the Danube basin that will contribute to new blue-green infrastructure supporting regional climate change resilience and mitigation.

Restore4Life engages in 4 demonstration sites and 6 monitoring sites all across the Danube basin to make evident that increased delivery of key ecosystem services, as water and pollutant retention, carbon sequestration and tourism opportunities as well as improved resilience of water-dependent habitats will produce multiple socio-economic synergies that also provide opportunities for sustainable businesses and investments.

The MARBEFES project (Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services) promotes an integrative approach to marine biodiversity, treating it as a continuous and interconnected system across space and time, beyond conventional boundaries between estuary, coast, and offshore areas. From this perspective, the project seeks a deep understanding of ecosystem dynamics and how they respond to global pressures. The research encompasses 12 Broad Belt Transects, covering the four major marine regions of the European Union – the Arctic, Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean – aiming to capture biodiversity and ecological phenomena along the river-to-ocean gradient. This structure enables comparative analysis of ecosystem responses to various stressors and highlights the regional variability of biodiversity changes.

MARBEFES contributes to strengthening the scientific foundation necessary for protecting marine biodiversity and promoting sustainable use.

Coastal and marine areas are incredibly dynamic and productive oceanic regions, providing significant resources and services for both wildlife and people. But they are also subject to intense pressures from agricultural and industry pollution in waterways, dredging and building development.

Many national and regional programmes assess environmental health and human impact on our coasts, but these programmes are often fragmented, short term and uncoordinated at larger scales.

MARCO-BOLO aims to connect the existing initiatives, to optimise and improve the methods, and to further innovate the technologies for biodiversity observations.

The Danube River Basin (DRB) faces significant challenges associated with river sediments. In the 2021 update of the Danube River Basin Management Plan, sediment balance alteration emerged as a new sub-topic within the existing Significant Water Management Issue titled “Hydromorphological alterations.” Additionally, sectors like industry, urban sewage, and agriculture call for sediment quality evaluations throughout the DRB. However, the absence of standard sediment monitoring limits our understanding of risks.

Coast-Scapes (rethinking COASTal landSCAPES with climate-resilient interventions: systemic land-to-sea solutions) proposes to rethink land-coast-sea systems under climate change for enhanced resilience and biodiversity gains. It seeks to develop and transfer climate resilient solutions, often discussed but seldom implemented in a systemic manner, for the land-coast-sea continuum, demonstrating co-benefits across: a) socioeconomic sectors b) geographical domains c) temporal scales.

By combining Core Pilots, to demonstrate and implement systemic solutions, Replicating Pilots, to export resilience plans and Transfer Pilots, to prove the scalability of the approach, COAST-SCAPES supposes a quantum leap for climate resilience.

GeoEcoMar co-leads the Danube Delta Replication Pilot, bringing scientific expertise and local knowledge to adapt and test systemic resilience solutions in this transboundary ecosystem. In parallel, GEM leads dissemination and training under WP5, delivering workshops, e-learning, and certification to empower administrations, practitioners, and civil society.