Rural landscapes in Europe fulfil many functions. Land use is more and more regarded as an integral part of sustainable rural development. At all times agricultural land use provided food and other primary goods. But increasingly also the functions, goods and services which are jointly produced by agricultural land use are considered as highly important. The concept of multifunctionality includes the various contributions of agricultural land use to the economic, environmental and social functions of rural landscapes. At the same time the reforms of the Common Agricultural Policies set up the policy framework for an improved implementation of multifunctional agriculture as an instrument to achieve sustainable rural development.

In order to assess the impact of the existing and future agricultural policy options on the degree of multifunctionality reached in different European countries, at different geophysical sites and in different urban-rural configurations, specific tools are required. MEA-Scope is a Research Project within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission which developed such a tool for the ex-ante assessment of policies impact on the multifunctionality of agriculture.

The MEA-Scope modelling approach was build upon three pre-existing core models: AgriPolis, MODAM and FASSET. Additional tools were developed to store, interchange and visualise the data required by the core models. Each of the models had specific tasks within the approach:

1. Data collection:
all partners
2. Regionalisation:
spatially allocate typical farms and sites
(DJF & IAMO)
3. Agripolis (IAMO):
reflects long term structural change
4. MODAM (ZALF):
delivers detailed production structures, analyses of agro-environmental programs and environmental impact assessment
5. FASSET (DJF formerly DIAS):
Process based simulation model of nitrate leaching and greenhouse gas emissions

Helpful links:

• The MEA-Scope project page
• Homepage of the model FASSET
• The Agripolis model documentation (at www.ecologyandsociety.org)
• The IAMO homepage
• The DJF homepage