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Although dye plants were a key element in the medieval cloth industry, their use has rarely been documented through archaeobotanical studies. This paper describes and discusses new archaeobotanical finds related to textile dyeing in the southern Low Countries, which was among the most important areas of cloth production and export in Europe during the late medieval period. Remains of weld, madder and woad, the three main medieval dye plant species, were identified via archaeobotanical analysis and high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). The remains were found in river deposits, dating between the 10th/12th and 15th century, from two medieval cloth-producing towns, Brussels and Mechelen. Most likely, the finds must be interpreted as waste discarded by textile dyers, which were often concentrated along the urban riverbanks. This study not only documents the use of dye plants in both cities, but also demonstrates the importance of archaeobotanical analyses of fluvial deposits for the reconstruction of artisanal activities within ancient towns. The assemblages are confronted with historic sources and mapped with other medieval remains of dye plants in the region.

In view of better linking conservation and sustainable development, it is imperative to optimize the transfer of biodiversity-related knowledge and technology from resource-rich countries to developing countries. All countries signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity are expected to report on their progress towards achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. However, weak data coverage and the technicality or even unavailability of indicators present major barriers to the monitoring of biodiversity as well as the development of adequate biodiversity policies and management plans in many countries of the global South, hence increasing the North-South knowledge and capacity gap. Capacity development in these countries may hence substantially enrich global biodiversity monitoring and policy. In this effort, ensuring that monitoring programs are realistic and sufficiently embedded in policy remains a challenge. To contribute to the mainstreaming of biodiversity into development cooperation, we developed a capacity development concept that links scientific data to policy development. To guarantee shared ownership, academic institutes and organisations or authorities with responsibilities in biodiversity policy were invited to jointly submit competitive “Monitoring, Reporting and Verification” (MRV) project applications. It appeared that especially ground truthing, economic valuation of biodiversity,and the application of modern technologies in biodiversity monitoring were missing capacities in the global South. Efforts are also required to increase the understanding and use of indicators to avoid them remaining a theoretical concept. As is observed with MRV in the carbon context, increased involvement of local communities is recommended in the global MRV framework, including techniques such as community-based Mapping, Measuring and Monitoring.

Biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic pressures, in particular in biodiversity-rich developing countries. Development cooperation actors, who traditionally focus on the improvement of socio-economic conditions in the South, are increasingly acknowledging the linkages between poverty and biodiversity, e.g. by referring to the ecosystem services framework. However, there are many different framings which stress the need for biodiversity integration and which influence how biodiversity and development are and/or should be linked. Moreover, there is a gap between the lip service paid to biodiversity integration and the reality of development cooperation interventions. This study analyses how biodiversity framings are reflected in environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice, and how these framings influence EIA and decision-making. The findings, based on an in-depth qualitative analysis of World Bank EIAs undertaken in West Africa, indicate the incoherent quality but also the dominance of the‘utilitarian’ and‘corrective’ framings, which respectively stress human use of nature and mitigation of negative unintended development impacts. Identifying and highlighting these discursive trends leads to increased awareness of the importance of biodiversity among all development actors in North and South. However, some framings may lead to an overly narrow human-centred approach which downplays the intrinsic value of biodiversity. This study proposes recommendations for an improved integration of biodiversity in development cooperation, including the need for more systematic baseline studies in EIAs.

Floating photovoltaic installations (FPV) are among the promising emerging marine renewable energy systems contributing to future global energy transition strategies. FPVs can be integrated within existing offshore wind farms, contributing to more efficient use of marine space. This complementarity has gained increasing attention as a sustainable approach to enhance green energy production while reducing offshore grid infrastructure costs, particularly in the North Sea. This study presents a first assessment to quantify the mid- and far-field hydrodynamic effects of FPVs (elevated design) deployed within an existing offshore wind farm (OWF) in the Belgian part of the North Sea. A subgrid-scale parameterization was adopted into the 3D hydrodynamic model COHERENS to assess impacts on four key hydrodynamic metrics: surface irradiance reduction due to shading, changes in current velocity fields, turbulent kinetic energy production, and variations in current-induced bottom shear stress. Four scenarios were compared: a baseline without structures, a scenario with only offshore wind turbines and two combined wind and photovoltaic configurations (sparse and dense). At farm scale, simulations showed small effects of FPV shading on sea surface temperature (< 0.1°C), but significant reductions in current speed, increased turbulent kinetic energy mainly beneath the floaters, and a noticeable impact on bottom shear stress. This hydrodynamic modeling study constitutes a first step toward a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of FPVs, particularly in relation to their biogeochemical effects on the water column and benthic habitats. The findings provide valuable insights to support sustainable marine spatial planning, environmental assessments, and industrial design strategies in the North Sea and beyond.

Societies rely on a secure, responsible and affordable supply of resources to meet their basic needs, in order to live life in a safe and healthy environment. The natural resources from the subsurface, i.e. groundwater, geo-energy and raw materials, represent essential elements in this provision. Safety from catastrophic events, such as those linked to earthquakes, or continuous ones, such as subsidence, can be improved by understanding the causes, frequency or rates of processes, and their impacts. These applied goals require a correct and intimate understanding of the regional geology. While geological surveys and other organisations working on the subsurface were initially very much focussed on national supply of resources, issues such as environmental consequences have increasingly come to the forefront. Europe has now become the relevant scale when considering import or export of raw materials. This results in an increasing pressure to place regional knowledge in a cross-border or pan-European context. To support cross-border, thematic research, the European Commission issued a call for an ERA-NET to which a consortium of 33 national and 15 regional organisations responded. An ERA-NET is a project that internally organises a competitive call for projects. In 2017, GeoERA officially started. After an internal call for project proposals, 15 projects were approved that receive about 30% top-up funding under H2020. The remainder of the resources comes from different sources of funding, totalling the budget to 30.3 M€. Projects are funded under the themes Geo-Energy, Raw Materials, and Ground Water. A fourth theme, Data Infrastructure, will realise the shared ambition of all projects to jointly store and publish their data on-line as an extension of country specific databases (e.g. DOV, Gisel). The starting date of the GeoERA research projects granted funding is 1 July 2018, and the projects will run for three years. Belgian and Flemish institutes involved are: the Geological Survey of Belgium (GSB), the Bureau for Environment and Spatial Development – Flanders (VPO), the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN). Although not involved as official partner, the Geological Survey of Wallonia supports the initiative by means of data provision. The GSB is involved in seven projects, VITO, as linked third partyof VPO in two projects, VPO itself in one project, and VMM in three projects of which two will be elaborated in close cooperation with SCK-CEN, the linked third party of VMM. Together with VPO-VITO, the GSB is coordinator of GeoConnect³d, a strongly crossthematic Geo-Energy project that aims to disclose geological information for policy support and subsurface management. Other funded Geo-Energy projects in which the GSB is involved are MUSE, a project on shallow geothermal energy in European urban areas, and HIKE, on induced hazards and impacts related to the exploitation of subsurface resources throughout Europe. Under the theme Raw Materials the GSB participates in Mintell4EU, which aims to improve the European knowledge base on raw materials, as well as in FRAME, that is designed to research the critical and strategic raw materials in Europe. For groundwater the GSBeis directly involved in the HOVER project, mainly on data collection related to natural springs. VMM is also involved in HOVER, but in a work package on the distinction between anthropogenic and geogenic causes of groundwater contamination (especially how to deal with it in groundwater policy and management) with substances like arsenic. Moreover, VMM is, together with SCK-CEN, participating and leading a work package in two other Ground Water projects, namely VoGERA on investigating the vulnerability of shallow groundwater resources to deep subsurface energy-related activities, and RESOURces about harmonization of information about Europe’s groundwater resources through cross-border demonstration projects. Finally, the GIP-P project, where the GSB is work package leader, will establish a common platform for organising, disseminating and sustaining the digital results of the GeoERA projects. GeoERA is more than the occasional H2020 project. The combined efforts by the Belgian and Flemish institutes to engage in 10 different projects is a cooperative approach, with clear ambitions to demonstrate how cross-thematic research links can be set-up by different institutes, and how these can provide fruitful results for policy makers and other stakeholders. This is a notable effort in a project that is about establishing and demonstrating the added value of a European geological surveys research area, and finding how to optimally link regional, national and European efforts and interests. Acknowledgements This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731166

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