A web-based GIS tool for environmental footprint estimation of agribusinesses

The deterioration of environmental quality and vulnerability to climate change of the Balkan Peninsula are escalated by the lack of specific financial and strategic measures that can promote sustainable resource management. Environmental problems of the Balkan countries need to be addressed under a unified context targeting the development of common strategies to improve environmental quality and reach European and international markets. To this end, the INTERREG project “Towards farms with zero carbon-, waste- and water-footprint. Roadmap for sustainable management strategies for Balkan agricultural sector-BalkanROAD” aims to provide Balkan agribusinesses with protocols and Information Technology tools conformed to the particularities of the Balkan Peninsula, in order to promote products of high quality and value to the European and international market. Within the project’s framework, a web-based GIS application tool was developed, namely ROAD, that assesses all production and processing stages, namely from field to the market, capable to identify processes that can be improved and provide alternatives for reducing carbon, waste and water footprint of the final marketable products. In this work we describe the ROAD tool implementation steps, as well as some of its key functionalities.