Back to search

Gota D'Água

2020-2-PT02-KA105-0071092020Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: PT|TR|ES|EL|MT|IT|HR · Grant: €36,468
ICT - new technologies - digital competencesCivic engagement / responsible citizenshipEnvironment and climate change

Objectives

Gota DÁgua is a contribution to the biggest challenge that the next generations will have to face. Climate change is not a threat to the future. They are already part of the daily lives of multiple local communities in Europe who are desperately looking for strategies to mitigate their effects. The scarcity of water in the regions of Alentejo, Crete, Malta, Marmara, Lazio, Dalmatia, and Extremadura is already a reality that affects its populations and threatens the future of its young people. And it is in the name of the future of these young people that six organizations from these regions joined forces around this project that goes beyond raising awareness of environmental issues. These six organizations belong to countries in southern Europe, work with disadvantaged young people, and operate in the ecological and technological training domains. Our experience makes us understand that the growing scarcity and management of water resources in countries bordering the Mediterranean, threatens not only the maintenance of local habitats, but the very presence of populations, further contributing to the demographic desertification of the territories in which we live and act. Our young people have a right to know how climate change will affect their future. Young people need to be heard about these problems. And young people must be empowered and encouraged to be part of the solution. The main asset of the project is that it seeks to develop solutions with an impact on the life of local communities, around the priority of water resources management, and that depend on the active participation and leadership of young people. Our main objectives are: 1. Support disadvantaged young people through training in digital skills and international exchange opportunities; 2. Promote behavioral and active citizenship skills, encouraging proactivity and social entrepreneurship in social and environmental issues. 3. Give young people the possibility to create solutions to real problems in local communities. It includes the creation of thermal maps for Castro Verde, the creation of intelligent public irrigation systems, and the creation of a monitoring and drinking system for the local birds; 4. Encourage young people to think critically about their role in the face of problems that threaten their future. Reinforce the feeling of belonging to the European project in its social and environmental cohesion dimensions. 5. Reduce the digital gap in rural regions, particularly at a critical time like this, through the introduction of new concepts and skills such as 3D modelling and printing, programming, or physical computing. 6. Reinforce the European dimension of participating organizations, sharing best practices in the fields of digital skills, community work, project management, and strengthening internationalization. We will create tools that allow a community threatened by growing scarcity to be able to manage the water resources at low cost and more efficiently. We will help public decision-makers to decide which areas need more shade and green spaces by measuring thermal variations and generating urban thermal maps using LORA weather stations. We will resort to programming, using Arduinos and sensors and using relays to implement irrigation systems in public spaces that are more efficient and dependent on the real needs of water in the soil. We are going to introduce to local farmers precision farming tools by aerial mapping of infrared and other light frequencies that allow a more efficient water management in their agricultural properties. We will use 3D modeling, 3D printing, Arduino, electronics and LORA to create automatic drinking fountains that monitor and satisfy the needs of wild species also threatened by climate change. The recent crisis that we are going through (Covid19) demonstrates the need to strengthen community resilience to deal with catastrophe situations. Not only in exceptional and acute moments, but mainly for the most lasting crises, which demand innovative solutions, and which stimulate community-based collaboration. Digital fabrication, collaboration within networks, the ubiquity of the digital in empowering communities, have gained new centrality and relevance in this context. But affections, empathy, and solidarity remain the most significant strongholds of human talent. Together citizenship, solidarity, creativity, and digital are the most powerful answer to the challenges we face. Gota D’Água is a testament to that. The destiny and resilience of a people, which has always valued the element of greatest scarcity, encloses in its own name. Gota Dágua is also the title of a popular song from Alentejo, from Cante Alentejano. A song with an overwhelming wisdom and simplicity, which serves as a motto and inspiration for this project presented here.

Project partners (7)