ADAPTER
The project is being funded by the Förderlinie Wissenschaftstransfer from the Impulse and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association. It is a joint research project of GERICS and the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG-3) of Forschungszentrum Jülich.
The ADAPTER (ADAPT tERrestrial systems) project, in intensive dialogue with key agricultural partners and practitioners, will deliver innovative simulation-based products to support optimal adaptation to both short-term weather variability and weather extremes and to long-term regional climate change.
The overarching goal of ADAPTER is to create a broader information base for agriculture. The aim is to make better informed choices towards more sustainable, weather and climate resilient agriculture. This is achieved within two main focuses:
- Optimization of the management of current agricultural production such as irrigation and fertilizer requirements as well as sowing and harvesting times by means of hourly, almost parcel-sharp, area-wide forecasts of relevant parameters for the next 10 to 15 days. At the same time, users are to be equipped with soil moisture sensors as part of a Citizen Science approach, whose data are included in the forecasts and thus make them more precise. Prepared forecast results and observation data should be available locally and interactively via the ADAPTER product platform.
- Support in the development of appropriate adaptation strategies for regional climate change. To this end, a network of practitioners is to be gradually built up with the actors. In addition, interactive tools will be developed that combine scientific findings - such as regional climate projections - with field knowledge and promote the development of suitable options for action and adaptation strategies.
For this purpose, GERICS develops relevant information on long-term climate changes from regional climate simulations for agriculture. The associated changes in weather variability and extremes as well as their effects on agriculture will also be worked out together with selected key partners.
The transdisciplinary processes of jointly developing products with practice partners is accompanied by continuous evaluation. Process evaluation is the subject of current research. The accompanying social science research in ADAPTER is carried out as a case study in the NorQuATrans project. The project NorQuATrans - Normativity, Objectivity and Quality Assurance of Transdisciplinary Processes - examines interactions between science and society and develops evaluation frameworks for transdisciplinary processes.