Suchergebnisse

La Suisse a-t-elle une obligation d'adopter des normes juridiques dans le domaine des «entreprises et droits humains» tel que certains le conçoivent? Plus singulièrement, le législateur suisse a-t-il une obligation de soumettre les entreprises internationales domiciliées en Suisse à un devoir de précaution afin que celles-ci empêchent que leurs activités n'aient comme conséquences d'engendrer des violations des droits humains? Cet article identifie les défis relatifs à la détermination de la portée exacte de l'obligation internationale de légiférer dans le domaine particulièrement contesté et vaguement défini des «entreprises et des droits humains» (Business and Human Rights). Zusammenfassung Ist die Schweiz verpflichtet, Rechtsvorschriften im Bereich «Unternehmen und Menschenrechte» zu erlassen? Ist der Schweizer Gesetzgeber insbesondere gehalten, den multinationalen Schweizer Unternehmen eine Sorgfaltspflicht aufzuerlegen, um zu verhindern, dass es im Rahmen ihrer Tätigkeiten zu Menschenrechtsverletzungen kommt? Dieser Beitrag widmet sich den Herausforderungen, die sich bei der Festlegung des genauen Umfangs der internationalen Verpflichtung ergeben, im besonders umstrittenen und vagen Bereich «Unternehmen und Menschenrechte» zu legiferieren.

Il ne suffit plus, aujourd'hui, de comprendre le droit du travail selon une perspective exclusivement nationale. Idéalement, les juristes devraient connaître également les rapports qui existent entre le droit du travail suisse et le droit international et européen, et s'apercevoir de la densification normative dans ce domaine. L'analyse de la dimension internationale et européenne du droit du travail en Suisse est le but principal de l'ouvrage intitulé « Arbeitsrecht im internationalen Kontext – Völkerrechtliche und europarechtliche Einflüsse auf das schweizerische Arbeitsrecht », rédigé par Kurt Pärli, Tobias Baumgartner, Eylem Demir, Cornelia Junghanss, Sara Licci et Wesselina Uebe. Juristen und Juristinnen können heutzutage das schweizerische Arbeitsrecht kaum mehr nur aus innerstaatlicher Sicht benutzen und verstehen. Idealerweise kennen sie auch seine völker- und europarechtlichen Bezüge und können es in einem normativ dichten internationalen Kontext situieren. Die Analyse der internationalen Dimension des schweizerischen Arbeitsrechts ist die Hauptzielsetzung des Werkes mit dem Titel «Arbeitsrecht im internationalen Kontext – Völkerrechtliche und europarechtliche Einflüsse auf das schweizerische Arbeitsrecht», verfasst von Kurt Pärli, Tobias Baumgartner, Eylem Demir, Cornelia Junghanss, Sara Licci und Wesselina Uebe.

Fertile land and freshwater constitute two of the most fundamental resources for food production. These resources are affected by environmental, political, economic, and technical developments. Regional impacts may transmit to the world through increased trade. With a global forest and agricultural model, we quantify the impacts of increased demand for food due to population growth and economic development on potential land and water use until 2030. In particular, we investigate producer adaptation regarding crop and irrigation choice, agricultural market adjustments, and changes in the values of land and water. In the context of resource sustainability and food security, this study accounts for the spatial and operational heterogeneity of irrigation management to globally assess agricultural land and water use. Agricultural responses to population and economic growth include considerable increases in irrigated area and water use but reductions in the average water intensity. Different irrigation systems are preferred under different exogenous biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. Negligence of these adaptations would bias the burden of development on land and water scarcity. Without technical progress, substantial price adjustments for land, water, and food would be required to equilibrate supply and demand.

Fertile land and freshwater constitute two of the most fundamental resources for food production. These resources are affected by environmental, political, economic, and technical developments. Regional impacts may transmit to the world through increased trade. With a global forest and agricultural model, we quantify the impacts of increased demand for food due to population growth and economic development on potential land and water use until 2030. In particular, we investigate producer adaptation regarding crop and irrigation choice, agricultural market adjustments, and changes in the values of land and water. In the context of resource sustainability and food security, this study accounts for the spatial and operational heterogeneity of irrigation management to globally assess agricultural land and water use. Agricultural responses to population and economic growth include considerable increases in irrigated area and water use but reductions in the average water intensity. Different irrigation systems are preferred under different exogenous biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. Negligence of these adaptations would bias the burden of development on land and water scarcity. Without technical progress, substantial price adjustments for land, water, and food would be required to equilibrate supply and demand.

Climate change is a major driver of land use and ecosystems. Changes in climatic conditions will affect the quality and quantity of water resources. Autonomous adaptation by farmers can influence the compliance with the good ecological and chemical status according to the EU Water Framework Directive. We present results from an integrated impact modelling framework (IIMF) to analyze policy options for planned adaptation in agricultural land use and sustainable management of land and water resources until 2040. The IIMF consists of the bio-physical process model EPIC, the regional land use optimization model PASMA[grid], the quantitative precipitation/runoff TUW model, and the surface water emission model MONERIS. Stakeholder driven scenarios facilitate multi-actor knowledge transfer. Climate change scenarios are combined with socio-economic and policy pathways. The latter include water protection measures on fertilization management, soil and crop rotation management. The results show that the selected climate change and policy scenarios impact average agricultural gross margins by ±2%. However, regional impacts are more severe particularly under assumptions of decreasing precipitation patterns. The water protection policies can alleviate pressures compared to the business as usual scenario but do not lead to sufficient conditions in all watersheds. To conclude, the IIMF is able to capture the interfaces between water quality and land use and to cover multiple policy and climate scenarios. However, despite efforts to increase the robustness of data and model interfaces, uncertainties need to be tackled in subsequent studies.

Justifiable usage of large-scale crop model simulations requires transparent, comprehensive and spatially extensive evaluations of their performance and associated accuracy. Simulated crop yields of a Pan-European implementation of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) crop model were satisfactorily evaluated with reported regional yield data from EUROSTAT for four major crops, including winter wheat, rainfed and irrigated maize, spring barley and winter rye. European-wide land use, elevation, soil and daily meteorological gridded data were integrated in GIS and coupled with EPIC. Default EPIC crop and biophysical process parameter values were used with some minor adjustments according to suggestion from scientific literature. The model performance was improved by spatial calculations of crop sowing densities, potential heat units, operation schedules, and nutrient application rates. EPIC performed reasonable in the simulation of regional crop yields, with long-term averages predicted better than inter-annual variability: linear regression R2 ranged from 0.58 (maize) to 0.91 (spring barley) and relative estimation errors were between +-30% for most of the European regions. The modelled and reported crop yields demonstrated similar responses to driving meteorological variables. However, EPIC performed better in dry compared to wet years. A yield sensitivity analysis of crop nutrient and irrigation management factors and cultivar specific characteristics for contrasting regions in Europe revealed a range in model response and attainable yields. We also show that modelled crop yield is strongly dependent on the chosen PET method. The simulated crop yield variability was lower compared to reported crop yields. This assessment should contribute to the availability of harmonised and transparently evaluated agricultural modelling tools in the EU as well as the establishment of modelling benchmark as a requirement for sound and ongoing policy evaluations in the agricultural and environmental domains.

Justifiable usage of large-scale crop model simulations requires transparent, comprehensive and spatially extensive evaluations of their performance and associated accuracy. Simulated crop yields of a Pan-European implementation of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) crop model were satisfactorily evaluated with reported regional yield data from EUROSTAT for four major crops, including winter wheat, rainfed and irrigated maize, spring barley and winter rye. European-wide land use, elevation, soil and daily meteorological gridded data were integrated in GIS and coupled with EPIC. Default EPIC crop and biophysical process parameter values were used with some minor adjustments according to suggestion from scientific literature. The model performance was improved by spatial calculations of crop sowing densities, potential heat units, operation schedules, and nutrient application rates. EPIC performed reasonable in the simulation of regional crop yields, with long-term averages predicted better than inter-annual variability: linear regression R2 ranged from 0.58 (maize) to 0.91 (spring barley) and relative estimation errors were between +-30% for most of the European regions. The modelled and reported crop yields demonstrated similar responses to driving meteorological variables. However, EPIC performed better in dry compared to wet years. A yield sensitivity analysis of crop nutrient and irrigation management factors and cultivar specific characteristics for contrasting regions in Europe revealed a range in model response and attainable yields. We also show that modelled crop yield is strongly dependent on the chosen PET method. The simulated crop yield variability was lower compared to reported crop yields. This assessment should contribute to the availability of harmonised and transparently evaluated agricultural modelling tools in the EU as well as the establishment of modelling benchmark as a requirement for sound and ongoing policy evaluations in the agricultural and environmental domains.

Regional monitoring, reporting and verification of soil organic carbon change occurring in managed cropland are indispensable to support carbon-related policies. Rapidly evolving gridded agronomic models can facilitate these efforts throughout Europe. However, their performance in modelling soil carbon dynamics at regional scale is yet unexplored. Importantly, as such models are often driven by large-scale inputs, they need to be benchmarked against field experiments. We elucidate the level of detail that needs to be incorporated in gridded models to robustly estimate regional soil carbon dynamics in managed cropland, testing the approach for regions in the Czech Republic. We first calibrated the biogeochemical Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model against long-term experiments. Subsequently, we examined the EPIC model within a top-down gridded modelling framework constructed for European agricultural soils from Europe-wide datasets and regional land-use statistics. We explored the top-down, as opposed to a bottom-up, modelling approach for reporting agronomically relevant and verifiable soil carbon dynamics. In comparison with a no-input baseline, the regional EPIC model suggested soil carbon changes (~0.1–0.5 Mg C ha−1 y−1) consistent with empirical-based studies for all studied agricultural practices. However, inaccurate soil information, crop management inputs, or inappropriate model calibration may undermine regional modelling of cropland management effect on carbon since each of the three components carry uncertainty (~0.5–1.5 Mg C ha−1 y−1) that is substantially larger than the actual effect of agricultural practices relative to the no-input baseline. Besides, inaccurate soil data obtained from the background datasets biased the simulated carbon trends compared to observations, thus hampering the model's verifiability at the locations of field experiments. Encouragingly, the top-down agricultural management derived from regional land-use statistics proved suitable for the estimation of soil carbon dynamics consistently with actual field practices. Despite sensitivity to biophysical parameters, we found a robust scalability of the soil organic carbon routine for various climatic regions and soil types represented in the Czech experiments. The model performed better than the tier 1 methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which indicates a great potential for improved carbon change modelling over larger political regions.

Regional monitoring, reporting and verification of soil organic carbon change occurring in managed cropland are indispensable to support carbon-related policies. Rapidly evolving gridded agronomic models can facilitate these efforts throughout Europe. However, their performance in modelling soil carbon dynamics at regional scale is yet unexplored. Importantly, as such models are often driven by large-scale inputs, they need to be benchmarked against field experiments. We elucidate the level of detail that needs to be incorporated in gridded models to robustly estimate regional soil carbon dynamics in managed cropland, testing the approach for regions in the Czech Republic. We first calibrated the biogeochemical Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model against long-term experiments. Subsequently, we examined the EPIC model within a top-down gridded modelling framework constructed for European agricultural soils from Europe-wide datasets and regional land-use statistics. We explored the top-down, as opposed to a bottom-up, modelling approach for reporting agronomically relevant and verifiable soil carbon dynamics. In comparison with a no-input baseline, the regional EPIC model suggested soil carbon changes (~0.1–0.5 Mg C ha−1 y−1) consistent with empirical-based studies for all studied agricultural practices. However, inaccurate soil information, crop management inputs, or inappropriate model calibration may undermine regional modelling of cropland management effect on carbon since each of the three components carry uncertainty (~0.5–1.5 Mg C ha−1 y−1) that is substantially larger than the actual effect of agricultural practices relative to the no-input baseline. Besides, inaccurate soil data obtained from the background datasets biased the simulated carbon trends compared to observations, thus hampering the model's verifiability at the locations of field experiments. Encouragingly, the top-down agricultural management derived from regional land-use statistics proved suitable for the estimation of soil carbon dynamics consistently with actual field practices. Despite sensitivity to biophysical parameters, we found a robust scalability of the soil organic carbon routine for various climatic regions and soil types represented in the Czech experiments. The model performed better than the tier 1 methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which indicates a great potential for improved carbon change modelling over larger political regions.

The Energy Modeling Forum 28 (EMF28) performed a large-scale model comparison exercise to illustrate different technology pathways for cutting European greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Focusing on selected countries (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and UK), this paper first analyzes climate and energy policy objectives and debates in the respective countries. It then compares EMF28 model results to the short-term projections of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) and the long-term transformation pathway given in the European Commission's "Energy Roadmap 2050". It concludes that there is sufficient agreement with the NREAPs and national policies to accept the model results as conceivable scenarios. The scenarios suggest that in the future a variety of different national energy mixes will continue to reflect the different resource bases and preferences of individual Member States. In order to ensure a cost-efficient transformation, it is important to improve coordination between Member State policies and those at the EU level.

ZusammenfassungDie meisten Flüsse der Erde sind durch interagierende soziale und natürliche Prozesse geformt und verändert worden. Als industrialisierte Flusslandschaften (Industrialized Riverine Landscapes – IRL) sind sie Teil unserer kritischen Infrastruktur geworden, entscheidend für den Nexus Wasser-Energie-Nahrung, aber auch geprägt durch Extremereignisse und anfällig für den Biodiversitätsverlust im Zuge des globalen Wandels. Diese Situation stellt das Management von Flusslandschaften vor große Herausforderungen und erfordert dringend einen interdisziplinären Ansatz, der Natur‑, Sozial- und Ingenieurwissenschaften integriert, um die Ursachen und den Verlauf des Wandels von Flusssystemen zu analysieren und zu Lösungsansätzen beizutragen. Das FWF-Doktoratsprogramm IRL baut auf der Doktoratsschule "HR21 – Human Rivers Systems in the 21st century" (hr21.boku.ac.at) an der BOKU Wien auf und erforscht Flusslandschaften als gekoppelte sozio-ökohydrologische Systeme (SEHS). Im Rahmen von Promotionsprojekten werden die Ursachen des Wandels und der Wandel selbst analysiert und mögliche Zukunftsszenarien dargestellt. Die Erforschung von Flüssen als SEHS bringt neue Einsichten in die Koevolution von Natur und Gesellschaft als Wissensgrundlage in eine nachhaltigere Zukunft. Die Doktoratsschule ist in vier Forschungscluster gegliedert, die sich an wesentlichen Systemgrößen der aktuellen Fluss- und Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft orientieren: (1) Konnektivität, (2) Governance und Planung, (3) Metabolismus und (4) Vulnerabilität. Die DoktorandInnen forschen gemeinsam mit Teams aus BOKU-WissenschaftlerInnen und internationalen KooperationspartnerInnen mit dem Ziel, ein umfassendes Verständnis der Kopplung von natürlichen mit sozialen Systemen zu erhalten. Drei Forschungsfelder, die gleichzeitig drängende Probleme in Flusslandschaften und für die Gesellschaft darstellen, bilden den thematischen Schwerpunkt der fünfzehn neuen Doktoratsprojekte: (1) Extremereignisse, (2) Infrastruktur und Urbanisierung und (3) der Nexus Wasser-Energie-Nahrung.