Water scarcity in the Mediterranean, South America, Africa... It is a growing global problem, as climate change pressure mounts and inefficiencies in water use and treatment continue, particularly in water-intensive industries. An EU-backed team - working with international partners - has developed an innovative, low-cost inorganic wastewater treatment using agricultural and industrial leftovers.
EU-funded research is developing advanced modelling tools to help assess the full extent of the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans and how it is affecting the marine environment. The tools will help policymakers design targeted measures to address a big and growing issue.
About 400 kg per square kilometre: this, according to estimates, is the amount of mostly plastic waste littering European seas. Some of it can be upcycled into high-quality clothing, claimed a Spanish SME, which carried out an EU-funded feasibility study to work out the details. And indeed, such garments are now available in its shops.
Nitrogen and pesticides linked to agriculture pose a threat to Europe's freshwater supply. An EU-funded project involving farmers and many other stakeholders is championing joint approaches to preserve this important resource.
Innovative in-situ sensors have been developed by EU-funded scientists to monitor marine life and the chemistry of our oceans with a high degree of accuracy and to map crucial changes.
An EU-funded project has created an updated distribution map of Kenya's bird species. It uses the latest mobile technology to create dynamic data with input from the public and has become a valuable resource for conservationists and policymakers.
The EU-funded Invisible Waters project is studying groundwater and competing uses in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to develop an analytical framework for visualising, understanding and ultimately conserving this most vital resource.
An EU-funded project has developed and deployed cost-effective marine sensors to monitor and provide a more complete picture of the health of our planet's oceans. Some of the sensors are already on the market and patents are pending.
The EU funded PRIDE project is investigating drivers of biotic turnover (the rate at which organisms die) in lakes in the Black Sea / Caspian Sea (Pontocaspian) region to understand the nature and severity of the current biodiversity crisis. Increased understanding will help the project team design conservation strategies to mitigate biodiversity loss.
EU-funded researchers studied genomic changes in water fleas for signs of evolutionary adaptation linked to human activities, such as phosphorous contamination in lakes. The results shed light on how species respond to environmental changes, and could feed into measures to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.
