Themes

1. Climate scenarios
The theme 'Climate scenarios' covers the role of terrestrial, atmospheric and oceanic processes in the climate system, and the construction of specific, tailor-made climate change scenarios for different sectors. It aims to improve our understanding of the climate system by supporting measurements and modelling of vital climate system processes. Climate scenarios, time series and (paleo-) reconstructions are developed and tailored to support (cross) - sector vulnerability studies, adaptation studies and spatial planning policies.

 

Research is focussed on Mitigation strategies with opportunities and consequences for land use and land management. It is a major aim to obtain a clearer picture regarding greenhouse gas emissions or sequestrations related to forestry, nature and agriculture systems. The implications of renewable energy for spatial planning, such as bio-energy, are also a major research topic in this theme.

 

The CcSP programme introduces a 'climate proofing' approach for Adaptation from a regional and sector perspectives. Special attention is paid to sectors and regions such as transport, nature conservation and the Rhine river basin. The idea is to focus research on combinations of infrastructural, financial and institutional adaptation strategies.

The projects under the theme 'Integration' are meant to integrate activities within the former three themes with the aim to generate comprehensive decision support frameworks for policy making. The theme also enhances consistency across the whole programme.

The main objective of the theme 'Communication' is to allow a large spectrum of stakeholders to participate in the research through a dialogue-type of participative setting in all main stages of the programme. When the stakeholders and other key target groups are involved, the practical knowledge of the stakeholders can be used in formulating of the research questions and hence to increase the practical applicability of the research results.