HOLOSEU - A Comprehensive Digital Platform for Land Use Planning, Carbon Footprinting, and Decision Making in European Agriculture

Abstract

The European Council’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions by 80–95% by 2050 highlights the need for effective strategies in climate-resilient agriculture. However, current assessments face challenges due to high variability, technological limitations, and measurement issues. While modelling is promising, a comprehensive digital platform for landscape-based planning is crucial to ensure consistency in sustainable farming, future scenario projections and achieving socioeconomically viable sustainability goals like the UN SDGs and the EU Climate Action Plan.

The HOLOSEU project aims to develop an advanced decision-support tool for European agriculture, surpassing traditional digital platforms by integrating essential variables like soil and climate impacts. An evolution of the HOLOS-IE model, HOLOSEU incorporates new modules for agrobiodiversity and circularity to enable comprehensive scenario modelling across Europe. This robust platform integrates FAIR data from diverse sources - including soil, climate, drones, and satellites - using advanced programming, GIS, APIs, and statistical analysis to improve land use planning and decision-making.

HOLOS-IE V3.0, developed as an open-source component of HOLOSEU, features a dynamic soil and weather mapping tool and a user-friendly interface. Through real-time data access, living labs, and calibration, it aims to optimise resource use, enhance production economics, and support sustainable and competitive European agriculture. Key functionalities include GHG quantifications, carbon footprinting, and climate change simulation, offering actionable insights for stakeholders ranging from farmers to policymakers.

The project supports wide dissemination through software, training, publications, and workshops, promoting best practices, and potential carbon credits, and addressing social issues like gender equality. Collaboration with multidisciplinary European partners is central to HOLOSEU, ensuring model adaptability and scalability across diverse European agricultural scenarios.

 

Keywords

Agricultural Systems, Automation and Digitization, Alternative Farm Configuration, Decision-Support Tool, Carbon-neutral Farming.

 

 

Project coordinator

Dr. Ibrahim Khalil, University College Dublin, School of Agriculture and Food Science, Ireland (P1)

 

Partners

  • FINLAND: Mr. Otso Valta, Avoin Ry (P2)
  • ESTONIA: Dr. Joel Kuusk, University of Tartu (P3)
  • POLAND: Dr. Anna Walkiewicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Agrophysics (P4)
  • TURKEY: Prof. Tugrul Yakupoglu, Yozgat Bozok University (P5)
  • ROMANIA: Dr. Ana Cornelia Butcaru, University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (P6)
  • GERMANY: Prof. Jan Paul Lindner, University of Augsburg (P7)
  • GERMANY: Dr. Ariane Voglhuber-Slavinsky, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (P8)

 

Funding institutions

  • Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Ireland.
  • Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, Finland.
  • National Centre for Research and Development, Poland.
  • The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), Turkey.
  • Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), Romania.
  • Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, Germany.

 

Project duration

36 Months