CANARI Europe: an innovative climate service to adapt European agriculture
Press release
Nantes and Toulouse, June 06, 2023
CANARI Europe: an innovative climate service to adapt European agriculture
In 2022, Europe faced the worst drought in 500 years [1]. This year water reserves remain at alarming levels and Spain is facing one of the worst droughts in its history [2]. To help European agricultural sectors adapt to climate change, CANARI Europe, the first open source web application for visualizing agro-climatic indicators is now online.
After a successful launch of CANARI for France, CANARI Europe extends to all of Europe and to the north of the Maghreb. Developed by Makina Corpus and Solagro, CANARI Europe has high spatial and temporal resolution of data, an improved interface and computing power adapted to the large volume of data and users.
CANARI Europe is now available in French, English, German, Spanish and Estonian. Faced with climatic hazards, CANARI (Climate Analysis for Agricultural Recommendations and Impacts) is a technological innovation allowing the agricultural sector to adapt and make the right decisions: towards which model of production and consumption should we aim? Which crops are preferred? The application is at the service of agricultural sectors to help them invent the agriculture of tomorrow.
Partnership and funding at European scale
CANARI Europe relies on Euro-cordex data, a program supported by the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) which aims to organize and coordinate an international framework for the production of regional climate projections.
After initial funding from ADEME (French ecological transition agency) and the French ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty to develop CANARI on the scale of France (launched in February 2022 at the Salon de l'Agriculture), CANARI Europe was financed by the 2050 investment fund. CANARI Europe also benefits from the support of the technical partners of the Life AgriAdapt program to facilitate its dissemination:
- Bodensee- Stiftung (Lake Constance Foundation), for Germany
- Eesti Maaülikool (Estonian University of Life Sciences), for Estonia
- Fundación Global Nature, foundation that has been working for 30 years in favor of biodiversity, for Spain
“Adapting to climate change is an imperative. To prevent farmers and breeders from being in denial or frustration, we must speak the same language and discuss solutions. Thanks to the level of precision and the quality of the information offered by CANARI Europe, they can gain autonomy and take concrete action. We also train the agricultural sector such as cooperatives in the use of the tool and in the interpretation of the results. “
Jordi Domingo Calabuig, Fundación Global Nature
A unique technological innovation in Europe
Thanks to an intuitive navigation, users benefit from an instantaneous calculation of agro-climatic indicators:
- Over the period 2021-2050 (near future) to better understand the future variability of the various climate parameters.
- But also over the period 2051-2100 (far future) to consider the very long term consequences.
Climate projections are available from 1985 to 2100 for a set of 120 ready-to-use indicators:
- 40 « generic » indicators: number of hot days, number of freezing
- 80 « specific » or agro-climatic indicators: risk of early shrivelling (soft wheat), cool night index (vineyard), last day of spring frost (arboriculture), etc.
“Until now, CANARI offered calculations on 5,706 grid points, covering metropolitan France. 94,220 grid points are now available across Europe and the North of the Maghreb, ie 16 times more! Despite the huge number of data and the complexity of the calculations, the application is very efficient, the display of the results takes only a few seconds.“
Pauline Millet, Project manager at Makina Corpus
CANARI Europe offers a multi-model approach and several climate scenarios: RCP 4.5 and 8.5, the IPCC scenarios (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for its fifth report, AR5, to model the future climate.
The application also gives users the possibility to freely modify the parameters of each proposed indicator: users can calibrate their request to their local issues and their territorial reality.
In France, more than 1,500 users have run calculations of agro-climatic indicators through CANARI: associations, general advisors, chambers of agriculture, agricultural cooperatives, institutions, ¾ are professionals in the agricultural sector.
“It is not a magic tool with an adaptation plan. Users must be supported by experts in adaptation, organizations able to demonstrate the potential of the tool and interpret the results. Adaptation must be a new skill for agricultural advisers, which requires funding and training to develop adaptation plan at farm levels.“
Nicolas Métayer, Deputy director at Solagro
About Solagro
Solagro is an associative company that puts its expertise at the service of agroecological, energy, climate and food transitions. Its multidisciplinary team specializes in engineering, training and applied research. It addresses the challenges that weigh on living organisms and the environment in a systemic manner, in a long-term vision.
About Makina Corpus
Web solutions developer company, Makina Corpus creates innovative web and mobile applications, relying exclusively on free software. The company specializes in the development of business applications, complex portals, spatial information processing and interactive cartography. Makina Corpus is now present in France and Belgium. With 50 employees, it addresses the French and Belgian markets. Its teams are present in Paris, Toulouse, Nantes and Brussels. Positioned on open source and innovation, Makina Corpus devotes 15% of its turnover to R&D and regularly collaborates with research laboratories.
Press contacts
Benjamin Augros, Press officer benjamin.augros@gmail.com, https://www.vos-relations-presse.info/
Amandine Boivin, Marketing Communications Manager, Makina Corpus,
amandine.boivin@makina-corpus.com- 06 87 34 19 24
Aurélie Delage – Communications manager, Solagro, presse@solagro.asso.fr
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Climate services in the Wine sector
Climate services may be defined as scientifically based information and products that enhance users’ knowledge and understanding about the impacts of climate on their decisions and actions.
