go-PRIMA

Motivation

Urbanization is a global phenomenon that takes different forms in different regions of the world depending on the level of development and biophysical conditions. While the growth of cities in North America and Europe is currently slowing down, it continues to accelerate in Asia and Africa. The dependence of cities on their surrounding ecosystems has long been neglected, and little research has addressed the changes in agricultural land use, household behavior and wealth that accompany the transition from rural to urban areas. In sub-regions such as North Africa and the Middle East, growing climate insecurity and refugee flows are intensifying urbanization processes and putting increasing pressure on neighbouring (Mediterranean) countries in Europe.

Goals and approach

go-PRIMA aims to participate in the "Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area"(PRIMA). PRIMA is a ten-year program funded by the European Union in combination with the BMBF, which will launch a series of calls for large-scale projects starting in 2018. The programme is aimed at a region that is severely affected by climate change, urbanization and population growth. Funding will be provided for research into water management, agricultural systems and value chains in the agricultural and food sector in order to improve regional and local development, with sustainable solutions increasingly requiring integrated approaches.

As a collaborative research project, go-PRIMA brings together existing expertise and research approaches on the management of water, agricultural systems and agri-food value chains across different departments at the University of Kassel. go-PRIMA employs several postdocs to pool the capacities of different research groups, establish and expand networks with partners in the Mediterranean partner countries and conduct pilot studies on PRIMA's objectives. With this personnel capacity, the consortium will submit several applications to PRIMA calls in the coming years.

Innovations and prospects

go-PRIMA investigates rural-urban change processes under arid and semi-arid conditions in the Mediterranean region. Despite different geophysical and climatic conditions, this region today forms a broad boundary between very contrasting lifestyles (Southern Europe vs. North Africa and the Middle East) in terms of wealth, beliefs and governance systems. The guiding scientific questions are:

• How does the development of rural-urban transformation processes affect the availability of resources, including food and water?
• How can crop and livestock production systems be redesigned to make them more productive and resilient to social and environmental uncertainties?
• What are the consequences for ecosystem functions and services, and how will they be affected by different political and cultural contexts?