- 1Agricultural University of Athens, Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering, Athens, Greece (soco@aua.gr)
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Path4Med is a collaborative, multidisciplinary project tackling water and soil pollution in the Mediterranean agro-hydro-system. Bringing together 26 partners from 10 EU and 5 non-EU countries, the project aims to achieve zero through an innovative triple bottom line approach, ensuring economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Path4Med focuses on identifying pollution pathways from farm to sea and implementing both established and novel agricultural management technologies.
To this end, Path4Med recognised the key challenges, namely: i) Agriculture is site-specific while water flows across landscapes, making it difficult for actors to grasp the full impact of agricultural activities on the landscape-river-sea systems; ii) A lack of harmonized data from soil monitoring hinders the ability to assess soil health and inform effective interventions; iii) Overuse and mismanagement of agricultural water as well as nutrients from chemical fertilizers and livestock manures pose a great threat to soil health and water quality both in local farming communities and downstream water bodies; iv) Farmers do not have the luxury of waiting until sustainable soil management and healthy soils deliver their benefits. Factual information is required to support private-sector funding by financial institutions; v) Adoption and application of effective solutions is lagging far behind innovation and emerging technological solutions; vi) Localized or narrow-scope actions are insufficient to tackle large-scale environmental challenges, while large-scale actions often neglect the specific needs of individual farms; vii) Policymakers often start with a broad array of innovative solutions but end up compromising, which limits the effectiveness of policies in addressing agricultural challenges. vii) Many stakeholders, including water authorities/managers, farmers, end users, policy and/or decision-makers, environmentalists and others are curious and concerned about the quality and quantity of irrigation return flows, i.e., IRFs, known as one of the major pollutants that significantly pollute the aquatic environment.
The main ambition of Path4Med is to enable informed decision making and policy design in all scales from farm level to country level and to EU level through the following key elements:
- Map the current status of agro-hydro-system in designated catchments.
- Develop and mainstream novel monitoring technologies (Earth Observation, eDNA, IoT, AI).
- Implement integrated agricultural solutions (smart irrigation, nutrient management, biochar, nature-based solutions etc.).
- Assess the technical and socioeconomic viability of solutions through integrated modelling at different spatial and temporal scales.
- Empower stakeholders to take action against pollution.
The approach includes an open participatory environment which will be implemented in a wide set of large-scale Demonstration Sites across the Mediterranean and other European sea basins, including an open call to replicate solutions. A digital platform will facilitate information sharing, data exchange, and knowledge dissemination.
Ultimately, Path4Med enables informed decision-making and policy design from the farm to the EU level, promoting sustainable practices and a healthy agro-hydro-system.
Ana Pego, Universidade do Algarve, CINTURS, Faculty of Economics – Building 8, Campus of Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, acpego@ualg.pt Anastasios Papadopoulos, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Department of Inland Waters, 46.7 km Athens-Sounion ave., 19013, Anavissos Attikis, GREECE, e-mail: tpapa@hcmr.gr Carlo Aliprandi, Extra Red S.r.L., Via S. D'Acquisto 40/P - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy, e-mail: carlo.aliprandi@extrared.it Christina Papadaki, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Department of Inland Waters, 46.7 km Athens-Sounion ave., 19013, Anavissos Attikis, GREECE, e-mail: chrispap@hcmr.gr Cristina Amaro da Costa, School of Agriculture | Polytechnic Institute of Viseu & CERNAS | IPV, Quinta da Alagoa, Estrada de Nelas, 3500-606 Viseu, PORTUGAL, e-mail: amarocosta@esav.ipv.pt Dionissios Kalivas, Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering, Lab. of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, GIS Research Unit, 75, Iera Odos str., 11855 Athens, GREECE, e-mail: Kalivas@aua.gr Divina Gracia P. Rodriguez, Department of Economics and Society, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås, NORWAY. email: divina.rodriguez@nibio.no Efstathios Diamantopoulos, Chair of Soil Physics, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany, email: efstathios.diamantopoulos@uni-bayreuth.de Eleni Raidou, Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering, Lab. of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, GIS Research Unit, 75, Iera Odos str., 11855 Athens, GREECE, e-mail: eleni_raidou@aua.gr Elias Dimitriou, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Department of Inland Waters, 46.7 km of Athens-Sounio Ave., Anavissos, 19013, GREECE, e-mail: elias@hcmr.gr Emma Gaitán Fernández, Climate Research Foundation, c/Tremps 11, 28040, Madrid, e-mail: emma@ficlima.org Frangiskos Kolisis, National Technical University of Athens, School of Chemical Engineering, Zographou Campus, 15772 Athens, GREECE, e-mail: kolisis@chemeng.ntua.gr Franziska Fischer, Department of Soil and Land Use, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås, NORWAY. email: franziska.fisher@nibio.no Hanne Ugstad, Department of Soil and Land Use, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås, NORWAY. email: hanne.ugstad@nibio.no Javier Casalí, Public University of Navarra, Department of Engineering, Campus de Arrosadia s/n, 31006 Pamplona, Spain, email: jcs@unavarra.es Jian Liu, Department of Soil and Land Use, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås, NORWAY. email: jian.liu@nibio.no Lea Ellegaard-Jensen, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark, leael@envs.au.dk Mahmut Cetin, Cukurova University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, 01250, Balcali, Saricam, Adana, Turkiye, e-mail:mcet64@cu.edu.tr Maria Moustaka-Gouni, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Biology, Department of Botany, 54124 Thessaloniki, GREECE, e-mail: mmustaka@bio.auth.gr Maryna Strokal, Wageningen University & Research, Earth Systems and Global Change Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a. Gebouw 100 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands, maryna.strokal@wur.nl Mengru Wang, Wageningen University & Research, Earth Systems and Global Change Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a. Gebouw 100 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands, mengru.wang@wur.nl Miguel A Campo-Bescós, Public University of Navarra, Department of Engineering, Campus de Arrosadia s/n, 31006 Pamplona, Spain, email: miguel.campo@unavarra.es Nicos Larkos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture, Soil Science Laboratory, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece, e-mail: nicoslark@gmail.com, nlarkos@agro.auth.gr Odysseas Sekkas, NEUROPUBLIC SA, 6 Methonis str., 18545 Piraeus, Greece, o_sekkas@neuropublic.gr Panagiota Louka, NEUROPUBLIC SA, 6 Methonis str., 18545 Piraeus, Greece, p_louka@neuropublic.gr - Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Natural Resources Development and Agricultural Engineering, 75 Iera Odos str., 11855 Athens, Greece, p.louka@aua.gr Pedro N. Carvalho, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark, pedro.carvalho@envs.au.dk Remegio Confesor, Department of Soil and Land Use, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Oluf Thesens vei 43, 1433 Ås, NORWAY. email: remegio.confesot@nibio.no Savvas Genitsaris, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Biology, Section of Ecology and Taxonomy, Zografou Campus, 15784 Athens, GREECE, e-mail: genitsar@biol.uoa.gr Spyridon Paparrizos, Wageningen University & Research, Earth Systems and Global Change Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a. Gebouw 100 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands, spyros.paparrizos@wur.nl Ufuk Gultekin, Cukurova University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, 01250, Balcali, Saricam, Adana, Turkiye, e-mail:ugultekin@gmail.com Vita Strokal, National University of Life and Environmental Science of Ukraine, Department of Agrosphere Ecology and Environmental Control, Heroiv Oborony St, 15, Kyiv, Ukraine, 03041, vita.strokal@gmail.com
How to cite: Soulis, K. and the Path4Med team: Path4Med - Demonstrating Innovative Pathways Addressing Water and Soil Pollution in the Mediterranean Agro-Hydro-System, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11873, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11873, 2025.
