About CIRCLE MED
CIRCLE-MED is a geographical group in the frame of CIRCLE ERA-Net. It addresses issues of common interest to the Mediterranean countries. It aims at creating a Mediterranean research community network through collaborative research projects on Climate Change Impact Research, with the objective to bring the results of this research to policy and decision-makers.
In March 2009 the CIRCLE MED webpage has been launched.
CIRCLE MED pilot call
The first CIRCLE-MED joint call is dedicated to integrated coastal zone management and water management. Eight projects were selected for a total budget of 1,65 M€ and associating research bodies from France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Croatia, and Albania.
- ACIDBIV: The integrated impacts of marine acidification, temperature and precipitation changes on bivalve coastal biodiversity and fisheries: how to adapt?
- AQUIMED: Participatory design of adaptive groundwater management strategies and instruments in Mediterranean coastal water scarce areas as a response to climate change.
- CANTICO: Climate and local Anthropogenic drivers and impacts for the Tunisian coastal area.
- CLIMBIOMEDNET: Climate change influence on biodiversity, goods and services of Mediterranean lagoons.
- CLIMWAT: Assessing and managing the impact of climate change on coastal groundwater resources and dependent ecosystems.
- INTERMED: The impact of climate change on Mediterranean intertidal communities: losses in coastal ecosystem integrity and services.
- MEDCODYN: Climate change impacts in transitional water systems in the Mediterranean.
- WATERKNOW: Integrated Water Management in Coastal Drainage Basins: challenges and adaptation strategies within the framework of climate change.
A Mediterranean common call within CIRCLE: why and how?
The Mediterranean basin can be considered as an almost natural closed laboratory that reacts quickly and strongly to main global change features and in turn feedbacks on it through various tele-connections. It is unique in the world because of its geographical position which brings it under the descending branch of the Hadley circulation in summer, while the Westerlies prevail during the winter season. The alternation between these two regimes and the buffering influence of the Mediterranean Sea makes the region vulnerable to large scale climate changes.
The complex structure of the basin land masses however, makes it difficult to generalize the climate variability, and to answer to such key questions as assessing the impact of vegetation on the water cycle. So, setting up the high resolution models that allow for -at least to a certain degree- the specificity of coastal features and the variety of ecosystems while taking into account the topping of the basin by the large scale circulation pattern, is especially complex to achieve. This makes it difficult to predict how the Mediterranean climate may respond to global changes, explains the weakness of global climate models in that region and hence the evaluation of the impacts of these changes and the way to mitigate and/or to adapt to them.
A number of possible environmental and socio-economic impacts have been identified in the literature, which could cause unacceptable hardship for particularly vulnerable populations or threats to coastal zones economy: costal flooding; erosion; sea water intrusion in aquifers; possible increase in flood and storm intensity and frequency; increase in desertification both in extent and in severity with possible consequent migration pressures; increased frequency of water shortage and decline in water quality with risks to public health; threats in food security; loss of and degradation of biodiversity and natural ecosystems and related services.
These impacts do not know any political boundaries, but potential answers are elaborated by national and/or regional decision and policy makers assisted by national scientific programmes. CIRCLE offers first a unique opportunity to share knowledge on impacts based on advanced modelling and various scenarios. A step further is to launch an international common call, focussed upon a specific theme, which could be considered as a pilot operation, within CIRCLE and for the Mediterranean community as well. Lessons learnt both in terms of science and organization, will allow to refine procedures on how such common calls can be launched and managed, to be as efficient as possible.
Exchanges on scientific and organizational topics were initiated during a first meeting held in Jerusalem and were refined during the second semester of 2006. A dedicated workshop held during the Toulouse EBM (November 23-24, 2006) allowed to converge on a common theme: “coastal zones & water management”. The call should be issued during the first semester of 2007. A two stage evaluation process is considered: scientific evaluations will be performed and ranked by experts selected from within a pool of international experts, while funding agencies will then have to decide taking into account scientific ranking, funding availability and cross-financing capacities.
Paving the way to synergistic approaches to adaptation to climate change impacts, it raise great hopes among the scientists and policy makers of the Mediterranean basin who are fully aware that they are suffering from a too fragmented approach. The CIRCLE-Med group is firmly decided not to disappoint them.
Many natural wetlands can be found in the Mediterranean coastal regions. These highly valuable ecosystems are highly threatened by global change and human activity. Here we can see pink flamingos in the ‘Parc Naturel de Camargue’, in the region of estuary of Rhone River, France. © Parc Naturel de Camargue.