Water (Water Management Resources, Water Management Model, Large-Scale Water Budget Model) - Hydroisotop; University Kassel; PIK
Agroecosystems (Soil Science, Plant Nutrition, Crop Farming, Animal Farming) - University Hohenheim
Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Analyses (Economy, Socio-cultural Analysis) - University Hohenheim; University Köln; University Kassel
Landscape Ecology - Technical University München-Weihenstephan
Integrated Modelling - PIK
Within the framework of the consortium project, three disciplines (Climate Analysis and Modelling, Water and Agroecosystems) will investigate the area as regards its potential capacity, based on its natural resources. At the same time, the socio-cultural and economic dimension is analysed by a fourth discipline. These results will be put together in a supra-disciplinary picture by two other disciplines (Landscape Ecology and Integrated Modelling). The discipline Integrated Modelling is intended to create an integrated regional model in co-operation with all other disciplines, covering the entire investigation area and combining the partial models of the different disciplines on a municipio level. The basis for this is a Geographical Information System (GIS) that is supervised by the discipline "Landscape Ecology" and is available for all project participants.
Meteorological data and precipitation data in particular are required by almost every discipline. The discipline Climate Analysis and Modelling requires support from other disciplines for the creation of climate models, scenarios and for the determination of boundary conditions.
The discipline Water works mainly on the mesoscale. Its focus is the modelling of water supply and water management (working group Large-scale Water Budget Model and working group Water Management Model) supported by investigations on the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater at the catchment level (working group Water Management/Resources). There are important interfaces with the discipline Climate Analysis and Modelling and with the working group Soil Science (discipline Agroecosystems) which complement the large-scale modelling of water supply by groundwater budget measurements on the microscale. Furthermore this discipline depends on the supply of topographical and geomorphological information from the discipline Landscape Ecology.
Regarding demand for drinking water and irrigation water, there are interactions between the water management model and the models of the discipline "Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Analyses".
The discipline Agroecosystems is concerned with the listing of site-related production potentials and the verification of the transferability of simulation models of plant production and animal farming to the ecological and technical situation in the investigation area. Its goal is to evaluate the local suitability and the sustainability of production under present and changing climate conditions. The discipline depends on a co-operation with other groups (Climate Analysis and Modelling, Landscape Ecology and Integrated Modelling). The yield models are closely connected with the economic production models and, as far as irrigation agriculture is concerned, also with the water management model and water evaluation of the discipline "Water".
The Socioeconomic and Socio-cultural Analyses are methodologically treated in different ways. While indicator spaces, which enable an evaluation of social and economic living conditions and of the objective dimension of the quality of life of human beings, are identified on the meso- and macroscale, investigations at the site should serve to identify, categorize and put into the context of the mesoscale indicator family and farm types, production systems, economic efficiency and the individual perception of problems. These indicators in their spatial context are a decisive interface to other disciplines and have to be further developed in interdisciplinary co-operation. The discipline "Socio-economic and Socio-cultural Analyses" will closely co-operate with the disciplines "Water" and "Agroecosystems".
"Landscape Ecology" is a spatially orientated and interdisciplinary working group with interfaces to all other working groups. The working group will divide the research area into landscape ecological system units e.g. by means of remote sensing. Furthermore the working group will draw up ecological standards. The results of the other working groups will be integrated on different spatial levels. The capability of scaling will be examined in co-operation with each discipline. The relevant spatial data will be transferred into the Geographical Information System (GIS). The GIS results and representations will be available for all project partners.
The discipline-specific partial models and the GIS form the basis for the development of the integrated regional model in the discipline "Integrated Modelling". The integrated model can be developed in iterative steps from already existing partial models or also from submodels to be newly developed by the disciplines, which are connected with each other in an appropriate open model framework. Regarding the application of the entire model or also partial models, it is of special importance to create sectoral and/or overall scenarios in view of possible climate changes for the federal states of Piauí and Ceará, which requires expert knowledge from all disciplines.
A special focus of the interdisciplinary WAVES research project is the integration of discipline-specific single results. This requires an intensive, continuous demand for adjustment and decision making among the participating disciplines.
More information Chapter 2.2 Study Area