MONitoring and Assessing prevention and restoration soLutIons to combat deSertificAtion (MONALISA) HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01
The main goal of MONALISA is to identify, showcase the socio-economic and environmental effectiveness, and promote the expansion of innovative
and tailored solutions to prevent and reverse land degradation and desertification (LDD). This will be achieved through the integration of
scientific and local knowledge, emerging from newly established as well as enduring social learning spaces among interdependent stakeholders
and researchers from diverse disciplines and multi-sectoral systems employing a transdisciplinary approach. This integration will be carried out
in four Living Labs (LLs) and two Lighthouses (LHs) located in the Mediterranean (European and no-European), encompassing different levels of
aridity across five countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia, Palestine). In the LLs and LHs, the following solutions to prevent and restore LDD
will be assessed and scaled-out: innovative grazing systems (e.g., virtual fencing), microbial-based solutions (e.g., biofertilizers and symbiotic
N-fixing rhizobia), conservation agriculture practices (e.g., cover crops and reduced tillage), ecological restoration practices (e.g, harvesting
and seeding of residual plant material in protected grasslands, green infrastructures), water harvesting techniques, treated wastewater reuse in agriculture.
Among the most important outputs, MONALISA will develop a multi-modular practices-oriented Decision Support System composed of several web-based applications
by leveraging innovative data and technologies, including those from remote sensing and by using Artificial Intelligence technologies. MONALISA will focus on
new business opportunities with (and not only for) stakeholders, emerging from the cost-benefit and market analysis and the promotion of public and private
investments on the innovative solutions. This will promote the adoption of sustainable and environmental-friendly solutions against LDD contributing to
support the economic growth of European and Mediterranean drylands.
Initiation date: 01/09/2024
Duration: 48 months
