Related EU Projects

GRACC can be considered as a reasonably successful project having developed the first UK specific code of best practice for green roofs, together with supporting documents, and demonstrated effective engagement of a national body representing the roofing industry. The project’s work should support the use of green roofs which can be expected to reduce flash flood events. However, the project was unable to complete the development of a Supplementary Planning Document for local authorities or a pan-European green roof code for reasons largely out of its control.

The project successfully developed a UK-specific Code for Green Roofs. The Code sets out minimum standards for the specification of green roofs that will help to address climate change. It specifies that the depth of substrate material used should be at least 80mm. This is essential to ensure sufficient water retention to help reduce temperatures in urban environments, reduce the heating and cooling needs of buildings and provide increased biodiversity value.

The project worked successfully to engage the key stakeholders – particularly the roof contracting industry, but also local authorities and other government agencies - effectively in the elaboration of the Code. This should improve longer term acceptance and use of the Code and also helped raise awareness of the Code and green roofs more generally.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showFile&rep=file&fil=GRO_Green_Roof_Code.pdf

http://www.greenroofguide.co.uk/

The project eartH2Observe brings together the findings from European Framework Programme (FP) projects DEWFORA, GLOWASIS, WATCH, GEOWOW and others. It has integrated available global earth observations (EO), in situ datasets and models and constructed a global water resources re-analysis dataset of significant length (several decades). The resulting data enabled improved insights on the full extent of available water and existing pressures on global water resources in all parts of the water cycle.

The project supported efficient and globally consistent water management and decision making by providing comprehensive multi-scale (regional, continental and global) water resources observations. It has also tested new EO data sources, extended existing processing algorithms and combined data from multiple satellite missions in order to improve the overall resolution and reliability of EO data included in the re-analysis dataset. The usability and operational value of the developed data was verified and demonstrated in a number of case-studies across the world, which aimed to improve the efficiency of regional water distribution. The case-studies were conducted together with local end-users and stakeholders. Regions of interest cover multiple continents, a variety of hydrological, climatological and governance conditions and differ in the degree of data richness (e.g. the Mediterranean and Baltic region, Ethiopia, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh).

The data was disseminated through an open data Water Cycle Integrator portal to ensure an increased availability of global water resources information on both regional and global scale. The data portal was the European contributor to the existing GEOSS water cycle platforms and communities. Project results were actively disseminated using a combination of traditional methods (workshops, papers, website and conferences) and novel methods such as E-learning courses and webinars that promote the use of the developed dataset.

Periodic Report Summaries:

Periodic Summary Report 1 - http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/176873_en.html

Periodic Summary Report 2 – http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/201682_en.html

Dissemination material:

Leaflet number 1 - http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/603/603608/periodic1-e2o_leaflet-no1_en_web.pdf

Newsletter issue 1 - Link

Newsletter issue 2 - Link

Publications:

Publication - Link

Publication - Link

Publication - Link

Public Deliverables:

D2.2 – Review Report on European Policies - Link

D2.3 – Review Report on stakeholders and relevant policies in non-European case study river basins - Link

D2.4 – Gap analysis of data requirements in support of European policies - Link

D2.5 – Gap analysis of input data requirements in support of decision making of water allocation in (transboundary) basins - Link

D2.6 – Report on global scale assessment of physical and social water scarcity - Link

D3.1 – Inventory of Earth Observation datasets - Link

D3.2 – Draft Report on EO Datasets - Link

D3.3 – Release 1 of EO datasets - Link

D3.4 – Report of the Joint Workshop on WPs 3-4-5-6 - Link

D3.6 – Release 2 of EO Datasets - Link

D4.1 – Documentation on the baseline performance of the v1 E2O data - Link

D4.2 – Report on precipitation error modeling and ensemble error propagation using LSM and GHM models - Link

D5.1 – Report on the current state-of-the-art Water Resources Reanalysis (WRR1-tier 1) - Link
D8.7 – Policy Brief No. 1 -Link

The EU-funded GROOM (Gliders for research, ocean observation and management) project set out to fill gaps in current marine research infrastructures (RIs) for the benefit of science, industry and society. The new European infrastructure is based on several dedicated gliderports for the maintenance and operation of European gliders. GROOM scientists investigated and documented the advantages of using gliders for ocean prediction and optimal sampling in the OOSs as well as the policy and management of data collected by gliders. Authorities were approached regarding safety and legal aspects of glider operations and possible financial models were reviewed. In addition, the team carried out studies on performing synergistic experiments with other platforms and the testing of new sensors.

Project partners studied the innovation aspect of operating gliders. They analysed a variety of novel sensors available in the market and under development, as well as their readiness for gliders. These sensors pave the way for broad perspectives in the design of experiments with gliders for physical, chemical and biological ocean research. Data flow and work flow protocols and formats were developed. GROOM also defined and implemented a dedicated data management system for gliders in Europe. Trial glider deployments were undertaken to test and assess the designed fleet operation techniques. Synergies with other ocean observing platforms were also explored, including testing sensor deployment. The team analysed existing European glider infrastructure and defined a future European infrastructure for gliders based on the current state of play.

GROOM drew up a roadmap to establish and implement a European RI during the period 2015-2020. It will be most useful for academic oceanographic research and operational oceanography systems, which provide crucial information on marine activities to the commercial sector, governmental organisations and recreational users.

Data flow within the Glider European Research Infrastructure -  http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/284/284321/final1-geri-dataflow.pdf

Helping marine  science reach new depths -  http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/284/284321/final1-groom-international-innovation-2volets.pdf

Modular Organization of the Glider European Research Infrastructure - http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/284/284321/final1-geri-modular-organization.pdf

GROOM Deliverables (in general – mainly minutes of meetings etc.) - http://www.groom-fp7.eu/doku.php?id=public:deliverables