Project properties
Title Benefits and impacts of changing agricultural land use and related practices in the Mediterranean
Group Soil Physics and Land Management group
Project type thesis
Credits 24-39
Supervisor(s) Joao Pedro Nunes
Examiner(s) Coen Ritsema
Contact info joao.carvalhonunes@wur.nl
Begin date 2021/05/25
End date
Description The Mediterranean basin is known for its well-developed winegrowing activity due to favourable pedo-climatic conditions (high solar radiation, low/medium precipitation, shallow soils) and long tradition. However, this large basin is also vulnerable to land and soil degradation due to intense agriculture activity exacerbated by extreme weather events. In project MASCC (https://mascc-project.org/study-sites), erosion and soil and water conservation (SWC) practices have been assessed by field experiments and modelling in study sites throughout the Mediterranean, including: the vineyard of Roujanin France. In this context, it would be relevant to identify the benefits of implemented SWC via the evaluation of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services (sediment retention, water filtration), but also to evaluate the environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective (climate change, resource use, ecotoxicity, etc.). For example, changes in land use and vegetated grass strips have been used to prevent water runoff and erosion, however an in-depth study of the benefits and impacts at the scale of the vineyard would be relevant to increase our scientific understanding these practices, and the agroecological transition they are inserted in, in a broader context.

Research Objective/Question

The objective of this research would be to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the vineyard and to make an inventory of ecosystem services (ES). This aims at bridging knowledge gaps between these two disciplines in terms of indicators and methodologies.

What is expected from the student (type of research)

The student may choose on specific aspects of the objectives, including:

i)make an inventory and quantification of ecosystem indicators relevant to the case study;
ii)carry out an LCA to the case study;
iii)check the complementarity, double counting, and missing issues in these two approaches;
iv)developing in-depth indicators for the inventory of ES and LCA, using erosion or ecosystem services models;
v)provide guidelines to combine these two approaches.
Used skills
Requirements notions of hydrology, erosion, vegetation and ecosystem services; GIS experience; R or Python would be an asset