Research

Against this background the overall objective of D4AgEcol is to identify the appropriate digital tools and technologies for the transition to agroecological farming systems and suggest measures to adapt and exploit their potentials to the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems. The project is driven by the vision of the rapid digitalisation of agriculture, which strengthens the agricultural sector. However, in order to capitalize the potentials of agroecology, policy intervention is necessary to enable the implementation of digital tools, which foster agroecological systems. D4AgEcol will provide a balanced assessment of relevant digital tools and technologies for multiple farming systems, while considering its impacts on the agroecology. In addition, potential trade-offs, and concerns of stakeholders and citizens will be identified. Necessary policy interventions will be demonstrated in national and European roadmaps for promoting agroecology with digitalisation in the EU and more detailed in seven European regions covering the broad spectrum of European agricultural farming systems in the most relevant pedo-climatic zones. The results of this project will be relevant for farmers, stakeholders, and policy makers at different scales - from regional to national and European level. The benefits for farmers and stakeholders will be to identify promising digital tools and technologies in their environment. For policy makers information about necessary policy frameworks and potentials for policy interventions will be useful to develop the digitalisation as an enabler of agroecology in Europe.

The project serves to further develop the core competencies of the participating research groups in the field of research into innovative concepts/control mechanisms for sustainable agricultural production, taking into account climate and soil protection. In particular, the project investigates how improved climate and soil protection can be implemented via result-oriented control mechanisms. The project will develop feasible concepts for the potential design of such approaches. Following this objective, the research questions are: Which result-oriented approaches exist and how can these approaches be transferred to the protected goods under investigation? Which target indicators can represent outcome-based provision and which area targets are potentially achievable? How can indicators be operationalized, captured, and measured on farms? The purpose of the assignment is to gain new insights into outcome-based approaches to the provision of soil and climate public goods by agriculture. The research questions will be addressed in a generally valid and reproducible manner through the application of scientific methods (e.g., literature review, farm manager/expert interviews). It is planned to publish the results of the work scientifically; this ensures that the knowledge generated within the framework of this contract is made available to the scientific community in the best possible way for the purposes of teaching and research and, if necessary, to the public (third mission), as long as there are no reasons worthy of consideration in individual contracts that prevent this.

Austria's landscape has been shaped by agriculture for centuries. Agriculture is primarily responsible for shaping the living space in rural regions. In addition to food production, the management of the landscape by agriculture can be considered a cultural asset. In alpine regions, it extends to high altitudes. Alpine pastures and grasslands represent a unique natural asset worthy of protection in terms of nature conservation. Some alpine pastures in Austria have been included in the border zones of national parks. The clash of different strategies for the conservation of the cultural and natural assets of alpine pastures can lead to conflicts of use. Since both nature conservation and agriculture are supported by public funds and alpine pastures are a tourist attraction, societal expectations play a crucial role in shaping utilization strategies. The aim of this project is to better understand societal preferences for the design of such natural and cultural assets and to work out how these - at first sight contradictory - preferences can be better reconciled to achieve an optimum of both assets. The knowledge gained should contribute to the sustainable development of sustainable natural and living spaces. They facilitate agricultural management with regard to the amenities of alpine landscapes and the sustainability of their production. The demands of local people and visitors can then trigger local value creation and the development of a resilient regional offer. The Eisenwurzen region, member of the International Network for Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER), with its alpine pastures and the Kalkalpen National Park, is selected as a case study. Taking into account previous findings, scientific literature, local expert knowledge and the preferences of the regional population, a multi-stage participatory approach is developed. Based on a three-step procedure, features of the design of alpine pastures and their natural and cultural assets are first identified. Different designs of these features are then combined into fictitious future land use scenarios and evaluated by the local population using stated-preference methods to elicit their marginal willingness to pay. The results will be presented in the region and discussed with local stakeholders. The developed method will be designed to be transferable for use in other regions. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)