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International audience; This paper looks at three contaminated communities in southern Europe facing pollution from industrial and mining activity and analyses forms of avoidance behaviour, using both economic and sociological approaches. Based on a quantitative household survey, we show that avoidance behaviour is mainly explained by residential location and socio-economic characteristics. Pollution perception is not statistically correlated to most avoidance behaviour. From in-depth qualitative interviews, we learn more about people’s risk perception and whether and why people adopt avoidance behaviour, including discovering some inventive solutions. To conclude, our results cast doubt on the efficacy of current public advisory communications.

ABSTRACT: Climate change will impact renewable resources and electricity demand, usually not jointly considered when designing future decarbonized power systems. This paper assesses how sensitive the Portuguese carbon-neutral power sector is to climate change by 2050 and what are the implications for the formally approved Portuguese Carbon Neutrality Roadmap. The future capacity factors for wind, solar and hydropower and electricity demand response to temperature are estimated for 22 climate projections along the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5. The eTIMES_PT optimization model is used to assess its combined impact on the cost-optimal configuration of the power sector by 2050. Results show that climate change lowers hydropower generation by 20% (in median terms). Improving spatial and temporal resolution and including future climate patterns, results also in lower cost-effectiveness of solar photovoltaic vis-a-vis the Carbon Neutrality Roadmap. While future climate does not impact onshore wind production, offshore wind power generation is positively affected, being a climate-resilient carbon-neutral option for Portugal. Annual electricity unitary costs at final users (excluding taxes and levies) only increase up to 4% with climate change, but seasonal costs have higher variability. This analysis highlights that climate change affects the cost-optimal annual carbon-neutral power sector and needs to be included in energy planning. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

AbstractEuropean small‐scale fisheries are confronted with several challenges, notably a decrease in the number of people engaged in capture fishing, growing competition from less expensive extra‐European Union markets, rising operational costs, strict regulations and the depletion of fishing stocks. Many small‐scale fishers must adapt to change to maintain or increase their income using different business strategies. In this respect, we argue that new and diversified institutional arrangements combined with building social capital can help reach long‐term economic sustainability for small‐scale fisheries businesses, as well as the social‐ecological resilience of coastal areas. In order to understand and analyse the multiplicity of strategies applied by small‐scale fishers–including expansion towards non–productivist activities, this article examines the role of new institutional arrangements based on small‐scale, traditional, quality‐orientated, multifunctional business strategies and non‐fishing activities. Using a case‐study approach, we analyse–in three different European fishery contexts (Greece, Italy and the UK)–how the interplay between building adaptive arrangements and the creation of social capital in selected small‐scale fisheries provides relevant prerequisites for resilience.

2020 marked the 10th anniversary of the Xynthia storm that hit Western Europe at the end of February 2010. In France it triggered an unprecedented coastal flooding event, with most human and material damage concentrated on the Atlantic coast in the Vendée and Charente Maritime region. A range of reforms and measures followed to manage the risk of coastal flooding at the local and national levels. What conclusions can be drawn from these actions 10 years later? Did Xynthia mark a turning point in the doctrine of coastal flood risk management in France, in a similar way the 1953 storm and associated floods did for the Netherlands? To answer these questions we carried out a two-step analysis. First we compiled, classified and analysed all the recommendations and other “lessons learned” that were made public following the Xynthia storm. Second we looked into local risk management plans and strategies and conducted a series of semi-structured interviews in Charente Maritime to identify current flood risk mitigation practices. We analysed these in light of the identified recommendations. These analyses allow us both to take stock of the past ten years and to identify the acceleration effects attributable to storm Xynthia as well as the effects of lock-in and other elements hindering a more in-depth reform of coastal flood risk management in France. More importantly these analyses allow us to reflect on the process of stocktaking itself, its potential pitfalls and the need for the development of an analytical corpus. Learning to take stock of events that are considered “extraordinary” today is a necessary step to manage climate risks on the coast that are likely to become “ordinary” in the future. publishedVersion

International audience; The objective of this article is to apply the Multi Level Perspective (MLP) to a transition case of agricultural sustainability that occurs from the development of an agroecological innovation. To the temporal and multilevel perspective given by MLP, we conjugate the concept of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), with the intention of reconciling a territorial dimension to the analysis. The empirical setting is the Douro wine region in Portugal, in which an innovation denominated Ecological Infrastructure (EI) has been disseminated. Methodologically, we conducted structured personal interviews with farmers or farm managers, representatives of commercial grape and wine farms. We found that there is a transition principle led by corporate farmers who trade in the global market. This transition principle is grounded in the mobilization of a territorial AKIS that allowed the development of the cognitive and technical framework that structured the sector for its articulation to market demands. However, this AKIS is not equally mobilized by the different farmers, which manifests itself in different innovation adoption responses. The case makes it clear how sociotechnical landscape pressures, represented by the market, can create different responses in the local regime.; O objetivo deste artigo é aplicar a Multi Level Perspective (MLP) a um caso de transição para a sustentabilidade da agricultura que ocorre a partir do desenvolvimento de uma inovação agroecológica. À perspectiva temporal e multinível dada pela MLP, conjugamos o conceito de Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), com a intenção de conciliar uma dimensão territorial para a análise. O cenário empírico é a região vitivinícola do Douro, em Portugal, na qual se disseminou uma inovação denominada Infraestrutura Ecológica (IE). Metodologicamente, fizemos entrevistas pessoais estruturadas, realizadas com agricultores ou gestores agrícolas, representantes de explorações comerciais de uva e vinho. Constatamos que há um princípio de transição liderado por agricultores corporativos que comercializam no mercado global. Este princípio de transição está alicerçado na mobilização de um AKIS territorial que permitiu o desenvolvimento do arcabouço cognitivo e técnico que estruturou o setor para sua articulação às demandas de mercado. Entretanto, este AKIS não é igualmente mobilizado pelos diferentes agricultores, o que se manifesta em distintas respostas de adoção da inovação. O caso explicita como as pressões de paisagem sociotécnica, representada pelo mercado, podem criar diferentes respostas no regime local.

International audience; Cereal-legume intercropping is known to improve the sustainability of crop production. However, it remains uncommon on commercial farms in Europe due to a number of socio-technical lock-ins and the many practical issues raised when integrating intercrops in cropping systems (e.g. which species, cultivars, sowing densities). Crop modelling is an option to explore integration scenarios and support farmers' decisions. However, available crop models are not able to simulate bundles of ecosystem services provided by a large diversity of binary cereallegume intercropping scenarios. To address this challenge, we developed a hybrid modelling chain that combines process-based, statistical and knowledge-based models to benefit from the strengths of these three different modelling approaches. The chain (i) simulates potential biomass of the sole cereal and legume crops independently using the crop model STICS; (ii) uses statistical interaction models built in R to convert potential biomass in sole cropping into attainable biomass in intercropping by considering competition effects among species, using a field trial database; (iii) converts attainable biomass into actual biomass by considering pest damage using a knowledge-based multi-attribute DEXi model, and also assesses control of pests (i.e. weeds, insects and diseases); and (iv) uses another set of multi-attribute models to assess five additional ecosystem services (i.e. cereal and legume grain yields, cereal protein content, nitrogen supply to the following crop and impact on soil structure) from the actual biomass of the intercrop at harvest and/or cropping system features. The chain was calibrated for grain cereal-legume intercrops sown simultaneously in a random pattern under low-input French conditions. We used an expert-based approach to assess the performances of each model and evaluate the accuracy of the entire modelling chain. In 18 simulated scenarios, 79% of the predicted levels of ecosystem services were consistent with experts' opinion. Predictions were more accurate for intercropping scenarios that included species from the trial database used to build linear interaction models (relative RMSE of 27-31%) but remained satisfactory for other intercropped species (relative RMSE of 32-37%). This is the first modelling chain able to assess bundles of ecosystem services provided by multiple cereal-legume intercrops in function of their cropping system contexts. This chain is intended to be included in an educational tool that is used face to face with farmers or students to design cropping systems that include intercrops.

International audience; To identify whether EU certified food – here organic and geographical indications – is more sustainable than a conventional reference, we developed 25 indicators covering the three sustainability pillars. Original data was collected on 52 products at farm, processing and retail levels, allowing the estimation of circa 2000 indicator values. Most strikingly, we show that, in our sample, certified food outperforms its non-certified reference on most economic and social indicators. On major environmental indicators – carbon and water footprint – their performance is similar. Although certified food is 61% more expensive, the extra-performance per euro is similar to classical policy interventions to improve diet sustainability such as subsidies or taxes. Cumulatively, our findings legitimate the recent initiatives by standards to cover broader sustainability aspects.