AgriAdapt webtool for adaptation of typical EU farming systems to climate change (AWA)

Description

Climate change is one of the main challenges of the agricultural sector. Even if some of the changes in climate could be beneficial for some European agricultural production, most of them are expected to have negative impacts and disproportionately affect regions already concerned by other environmental problems. European farmers have and will have to adapt to a changing climate, through measures that go beyond simple adjustments to ad hoc practices. It was in this context that the AgriAdapt project was born, supported by the LIFE program of the European Commission. It brings together French, Spanish, German and Estonian partners, who represent four areas constrained by different climatic risks. The objective of the AgriAdapt project is twofold: to assess the vulnerability of the main European agricultural products to climate change; and to propose sustainable adaptation plans allowing these systems to become more resilient.

The AgriAdapt webtool for adaptation is based on the monitoring results of more than 120 pilot farms located in the four AgriAdapt partner countries, enabling to share them with a larger number of European users. The tool includes three successive modules, aiming to strengthen the agroclimatic knowledge of users and support them towards a more adapted agriculture:

• Module 1: Farm vulnerability and adaptation quiz. Through thirty different questions, the users can test their knowledge of climate change, climate change impacts on different agricultural productions and possible adaptation measures at the farm scale.
• Module 2. Yield and climate (observation and projections). It consists of a map interface providing the consultation of agronomic (yields) and climatic (observations and projections) data for different geographic locations throughout Europe, which can be selected by the users.
• Module 3. Sustainable adaptation measures. This last module focuses on sustainable adaptation measures that can be implemented at the farm scale. The agro-climatic vulnerability of a farm often depends on several climatic factors; therefore implementation of differentiated adaptation measures is often required. Within this module, adaptation measures are classified according to four components of farm vulnerability for each climate risk region.

Reference information