JRC Summer School on the evaluation of air, soil and water pollution in support to the European Green Deal: a holistic approach

1. 4 Sep 2023, 09:00 - 17:00 (CEST)

   Day 1

   Opening

   Welcome speech: the Rector of Novi Sad University (tbd)

   Environment and Climate in EU Enlargement, EC/JRC project: Claudio Belis, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Clean Air and Climate Unit (project leader)

   The role of science in WB region: Miroslav Veskovic, Novi Sad University (tbc)

    

   Round table: introduction of the participants

    

   Session 1:  Air emissions and impacts.

   a) Emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere could be harmful for human health and ecosystems, and change the climate. Moreover, pollutant deposition and runoff result in the discharge to soil and water, which could increase their level of pollution.

    

   • Introduction to Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), which is a multipurpose, independent, global database of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, air and toxic pollutants.
   • Presentation of EDGAR methodology to estimate emissions for specific sectors.
   • Overview on EDGAR methodology for emissions distribution and insight on how to create emissions gridmaps to be used as input to chemical transport models.
   • Practical applications.

   Each day: coffee break in the morning (20 min), lunch break (1h and 30 min), coffee break in the afternoon (20 min).

    

    

2. 5 Sep 2023, 09:00 - 17:00 (CEST)

   Day 2

   Session 1:  Air emissions and impacts. (Continuation)

   b)The JRC-FASST tool was developed at JRC’s Clean Air and Climate Unit, and allows the user to evaluate how air pollutant emissions affect large-scale concentrations and their impact on human health (mortality, years of life lost) and crop yields. The tool is specifically designed to compare a scenario (policy case) with a counterfactual case (baseline). The target policy domains are national to regional air quality policies, or air pollutant scenarios linked to other policy domains (e.g. climate policy).

    

   • Presentations on issues related to air quality impacts.
   • Introduction to the JRC-FASST tool and the underlying model approaches, validity and limitations.
   • JRC presentation of case studies and results obtained.
   • Practical introduction to the tool user interface.
   • Exercises for the participants, with a focus on evaluation of the air quality impacts of policy measures in the Western Balkans.

    

   Session 2: Soil health.

   New monitoring tools, methods and approaches to quantify and manage spatial and temporal variability of soil parameters.

    

   • Direct and indirect monitoring tools and techniques for assessing soil health, with hands-on field sampling experience
   • Explore spatial variability in soil properties, learning to account for site-specific factors and improve management decisions
   • Delve into temporal variability, understanding how soil parameters changes over time
   • Implications for precision agriculture and soil health decision support.
3. 6 Sep 2023, 09:00 - 17:00 (CEST)

   Day 3

   Session 2: Soil health. (Continuation)

   New monitoring tools, methods and approaches to quantify and manage spatial and temporal variability of soil parameters.

    

   • Master soil modeling, integrating data to predict and manage soil for long-term productivity and ecosystem preservation
   • Soil pollution in perspective of an integrated approach between air-water-soil
   • Land degradation: an integrated perspective on land resources (agriculture-urban-forest) and their sustainable management. 
4. 7 Sep 2023, 09:00 - 17:00 (CEST)

   Day 4

   Session 3 Water quality.

   Novel methods for improving the quality of water, overview on advanced measurement techniques and fieldwork. The implementation of new methods such as advanced molecular and cellular-based technologies is of utmost importance to improve the water quality; technologies e.g. metagenomics and bioassays, aim to improve the monitoring methods, knowledge of the aquatic environments, which are essential for their protection and preservation.

    

   1. Introductory and experimental part.

   • Sampling campaign: water-sampling method.
   • Test for microbiological parameter under the Bathing Water Directive.
   • Filtration and DNA extraction.
   • PCR for 16S rDNA  (ribosomal DNA):  the first step for metagenomics and PCR for the detection of an antibiotic  resistant gene.
5. 8 Sep 2023, 09:00 - 15:00 (CEST)

   Day 5

   Session 3 Water quality. (Continuation)

    

   b) Description of the techniques and their applications. Discussion of the results.

   • Short introduction to the Antimicrobial Resistance and cyanobacterial and algal bloom.
   • Bioassay to detect the estrogenicity in the European Water Framework Directive.
   • Differences between PCR and quantitative PCR, and novel approach:  the digital PCR.
   • Metagenomics: microbial composition and shotgun.

    

   Session 4 Closing

    

   • Integration and synergy.
   • Lessons learned.

Practical information