Adaptation options to climate change impacts in european agriculture

Abstract

Ongoing climate change will significantly change agricultural production conditions in Europe during the next decades. An early recognition of risks and implementation of adaptation strategies is crucial as anticipatory and precautionary, adaptation is more effective and less costly than forced, last minute, emergency adaptation or retrofitting. Results of climate change impact and adaptation studies often show considerable different results, depending on the spatial scale of regionalization. However, for a decision maker, only a high spatial resolution of related study results is useful as it can represent local conditions and its spatial variability much better. Therefore the ADAGIO project (adagio-eu.org) was designed to focus on regional studies in order to uncover regional specific problems. In this context a bottom-up approach is used beside the top-down approach of using scientific studies, involving regional experts and farmers in the evaluation of potential regional vulnerabilities and adaptation options. Results of the regional studies and gathered feedback from experts and farmers show in general that (increasing) drought and heat is the main factor of agricultural vulnerability not only in the Mediterranean region, but also in the Central and Eastern European regions. Another important aspect is that the increasing risk of pest and diseases may play a more important role for agricultural vulnerability than assumed before, however, till now this field is only rarely investigated in Europe. An important aspect is also that there are increasing regional differences in the crop production potential in Europe due to climate change and that positive or negative impacted agricultural systems can vary in a relatively small spatial scale, depending on the specific limiting environmental conditions such as climate or soil conditions (especially in complex terrain). Although dominating risks such as increasing drought and/or heat are similar in most regions, the vulnerabilities in the different regions are very much influenced by characteristics of the dominating agroecosystems and prevailing socio-economic conditions. Most important adaptation options in Europe concern changes in crop and soil management, pest and disease management as well as land use options at different scales. The feasibility of many adaptation options, however, is strongly influenced by regional socio-economic conditions, which can vary significantly within regions and countries in Europe. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.