New tools and approaches to promote soil and water bioengineering in the Mediterranean

Soil loss and erosion is a major environmental problem in the Mediterranean. Soil and water bioengineering uses plants and/or parts of plants along with inert material to create solutions to fulfill soil conservation objectives combined with an ecological rehabilitation approach. The ECOMED project developed novel approaches and tools to specialize the soil and water bioengineering sector within the Mediterranean. The first activity was the Sector Needs Analysis were the responses to an online questionnaire of 110 stakeholders from the region were analyzed. The main conclusion was the need to specialize the soil and water bioengineering sector in the Mediterranean. In addition, 21 soil and water bioengineering case studies in the Mediterranean were reviewed. Many works of this type are implemented in the region, but have flaws because of the lack of training material, design routines, protocols, specific to the region. The second activity developed New Design Routines and Protocols. Specifically, three protocols, one template and one plant database were developed for the region. Finally, in the Training Material activity, six educational modules along with a handbook (that contained modules, protocols, template and case studies) were developed. Overall the ECOMED project generated new and novel material and tools that were lacking in the region to enhance the specialization process of the soil and water bioengineering sector. These should increase the adoption of soil and water bioengineering techniques with better trained and new professionals as well as improve the work performance of these interventions.