Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy
 

The Rural, Water and Ecosystems Resources Unit is one of seven institutes that constitute the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, which is an own Directorate General of the Commission providing research-based policy support to the development and the implementation of European policies. The Agri-Environment Action is part of the Rural, Water and Ecosystems Resources Unit, whose mission is to carry out research in support of EU policies that protect soil resources and regulate the environmental impacts of waste management strategies. This relates especially to policies in the fields of Environment and Sustainability and Agriculture, such as the Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In this framework the Agri-Environment Action provides expertise, techniques and tools for assessing, quantifying and monitoring the evolution of agri-environmental conditions. The activity focuses on the spatial dimension (i.e. integration of geographical information, geo-spatial modelling and analysis), in particular developing methods for elaborating indicators to assess the integration of environmental concern into the agricultural policy.