"Data-Driven Pathways to Agroecosystem One Health: Ecosystem Services, Challenges and Opportunities" - A BEYOND/NOA labelled special session
at the 5th ESP Europe Conference, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 21/11/2024
A BEYOND/NOA-labelled session titled “Operationalizing Ecosystem Services for Agroecosystem One Health: Data-driven Insights, Limits, and Interdisciplinary Prospects” was held as part of the 5th ESP Europe Conference on November 21st in Wageningen, The Netherlands. This session was co-organized with contributions from three major projects that BEYOND is involved in: the TRANSITION Project, Climaca, and SOILGUARD.
General Overview
Aligned with the overarching conference theme "Ecosystem Services: One Planet, One Health," which focused on exploring how the concept of ecosystem services can address the challenges of achieving the global vision of One Health, the event emphasized the interdependence of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Over 550 attendees participated in the conference, which marked a very special and emotional moment - the official stepping down of founder and chair Dolf de Groot, and the symbolic passing of the torch to a new caretaker governance tasked with charting the next steps for partnership.
Session Highlights
The BEYOND/NOA-labelled session was hosted by our Research Associates Dimitris Bormpoudakis and Nikolaos Stathopoulos, alongside our Research Director, Charalampos Kontoes. The session centered on data-driven insights, the limitations of current knowledge, and interdisciplinary perspectives on agroecosystem One Health and ecosystem services.
Both hosts and presenters successfully engaged the audience, sparking a productive discussion on how data can unlock new potential for agroecosystem management.
The session featured presentations on a range of critical topics, including:
- Holistic agroecosystem resilience
- Wellbeing and natural capital indicators
- Vector-borne diseases and ecosystem disservices estimation
- Multispecies health and digital agriculture
- Soil multifunctionality and biodiversity of organic versus conventional agriculture
- Climatic extremes and Earth Observation
In particular, our Research Associates approached the below topics based on their expertise, by oral presentations:
Dimitris Bormpoudakis presented on:
Advancing agroecosystem resilience holistically: Advancing a critical framework that links One Health, data-driven ecosystem science, and multispecies justice
Dimitrios Sainidis presented on:
From trapping mosquitos to ecosystem disservices estimation: High-resolution, AI-based mapping of mosquito-related epidemiological and entomological risk in agroecosystems and rural ecosystems
The session attracted the interest of 20 participants, primarily from the academic community and environmental practitioners, and end users.
Key Takeaways
Feedback from the session highlighted the need to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration, with particular emphasis on the key role of agroecosystems and soils for planetary One Health. Attendees had the opportunity to engage directly with BEYOND/NOA speakers, offering valuable feedback and suggestions regarding aspects of modelling vector-borne diseases, the potential of linking humanities and social science researchers for bringing data-driven science closer to the public, and how we can scale up sustainable approaches to agroecosystem management. Of particular interest was placed on critical, narrative-based analyses of digital agriculture and climate change projections for a deeper understanding between ecosystem (dis)services, One Health and society.
About the event: https://www.espconference.org/europe2024/home
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