Integrated assessment of agricultural and environmental
policies – towards a computerized framework for the EU
(SEAMLESS-IF)

Martin van Ittersuma, Frank Ewerta, Johanna Alkan Olssonb, Erling Andersenc, Irina Bezlepkinad,
Floor Brouwere, Marcello Donatellif, Guillermo Flichmang, Thomas Heckeleih, Lennart Olssonb,
Alfons Oude Lansinkd, Andrea Rizzolii, Tamme van der Walj, Jacques Weryk
a Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands (seamless.office@wur.nl)
bLUCSUS, Univ. of Lund, Sweden; cFLD, KVL, Copenhagen, Denmark;dWageningen Univ., The Netherlands; eLEI,
Wageningen UR, The Hague, The Netherlands; fCRA-ISCI,Bologna, Italy; gIAMM-CIHEAM, Montpellier, France;
hUniv. of Bonn, Germany; iIDSIA-SUPSIA, Lugano, Switzerland; jAlterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands; kINRA,
Montpellier, France

Abstract: Agricultural systems continuously evolve and are forced to change as a result of a range of global
and local driving forces. Agricultural and environmental policies are increasingly designed to contribute to
the sustainability of agricultural systems and to enhance contributions of agricultural systems to sustainable
development at large. The effectiveness and efficiency of such polices in realizing desired contributions
could be greatly enhanced if it were possible to perform ex-ante assessments. The European Commission has
recently introduced impact assessment of its policies as an essential step in policy development. This paper
presents the design and first prototype of a computerized integrated framework to assess, ex-ante,
agricultural and environmental policies across a range of scales, from field-farm to region, EU25 and globe.
In this large integrated project 30 research groups work jointly on developing the SEAMLESS Integrated
Framework. Key requirements of the framework are that it is open, generic and transparent. This puts
stringent requirements on the software backbone of the project and on a modular set-up. The framework is
developed in close interaction with the targeted prime users, including the European Commission.

Keywords: integrated assessment, sustainable development, agricultural systems, software framework,
model components, ontology

1. INTRODUCTION
Agricultural systems around the globe
continuously change as a result of enlarging trade
blocks, globalisation and liberalization,
introduction of novel agro-technologies, changing
societal demands and climate change. Despite the
trend for liberalization, there is consensus in the
policy domain that policies are needed to support
sustainability within the agricultural sectors and
even more importantly to enhance the contribution
of agricultural systems to sustainable development
of societies at large. Agricultural, environmental
and rural development policies must contribute to
these aims, in a cost-effective and efficient
manner. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses
of new policies prior to their introduction, i.e. ex-
ante integrated assessment, is vital to target
policies at sustainable development. The European
Commission, for instance, has introduced Impact
Assessment of its policies as an essential step in
the development and introduction of new policies
since 2003 (EC, 2005). It explicitly calls for
assessment of the economic, environmental and
social impacts of policies and consultation with
stakeholders. By nature it implies a demand for
multi- and interdisciplinary research and tools,
which allow inclusion and evaluation of views of
different stakeholders.
Today actual use of research tools in the policy
domain for impact or integrated assessment is still
limited. Most of the approaches developed by
research which could potentially play a role are
still largely disciplinary and focused on specific
issues and hierarchical levels. Hence their use to
assess policies and innovations, which by
definition affect different hierarchical levels (e.g.
the globe, developing countries, EU25,
administrative region in a country, specific farms

and fields) and across economic, environmental
and social domains, is restricted. The gap between
analysis at micro level (farms) and macro level
(region or market) is still largely unresolved. Also,
as most of the research models are issue-specific,
possibilities for re-use in other assessments are
limited, whereas political agendas can evolve
rapidly. A further issue that limits integrated use
of different research models and tools is their ad-
hoc solutions in terms of software. Naturally this
has a strong impact on the possibility to re-use
existing research tools and to maintain them.
Lastly, end users and the way they will use the
tools are often not clearly identified and
determined.
Integrated assessment and modelling (IAM) has
been proposed by research as a means of
enhancing the management of complex
environmental systems. It is based on systems
thinking and a way to consider the different
aspects (biophysical, institutional, social and
economic) of a system under study (Harris, 2002;
Parker et al., 2002). IAM is an analytical approach
that seeks to gain insight from the analysis of
interactions. IAM has been defined as “an
interdisciplinary and participatory process
combining, interpreting and communicating
knowledge from diverse scientific disciplines to
allow a better understanding of complex
phenomena” (Rothman and Robinson, 1997).
The current paper introduces and presents the aims
of the SEAMLESS Integrated Framework
(SEAMLESS-IF) for an ex-ante, integrated
assessment of agricultural and environmental
policies and agro-technical innovations in the
EU25. SEAMLESS stands for System for
Environmental and Agricultural Modelling;
Linking European Science and Society. The main
features of its first prototype are presented.

2. SEAMLESS INTEGRATED
FRAMEWORK (SEAMLESS-IF)
2.1 Aims of SEAMLESS-IF
SEAMLESS aims at developing a computerized,
integrated framework (SEAMLESS-IF) to assess
and compare, ex-ante, alternative agricultural and
environmental policy options, allowing:
1. Analysis at the full range of hierarchical
levels (farm to EU and global), whilst
focusing on the most important issues at each
level;
2. Analysis of the environmental, economic and
social contributions of a multifunctional
agriculture towards sustainable rural
development.
3. Analysis of a broad range of issues and
drivers of change, such as climate change,
environmental policies, rural development
options, an enlarging EU, international
competition and effects on developing
countries.
SEAMLESS-IF will have the following specific
features and capabilities:
1. A multi-perspective set of economic, social
and environmental indicators of the
sustainability and multifunctionality of
systems, policies and innovations in
agriculture and agroforestry, derived through
so-called indicator frameworks facilitating
interactive and systematic selection of
indicators with users and stakeholders.
2. Quantitative models, tools and databases for
integrated evaluation of agricultural systems
at multiple scales and for varying time
horizons.
3. A software architecture, SeamFrame, that
allows reusability of indicators, models, data
and knowledge, also ensuring transparency of
models and developed procedures.
SEAMLESS-IF is applied and tested in two Test
Cases, one focusing on assessment of Common
Agricultural Policy reforms and trade
liberalisations as a consequence of WTO
negotiations, and a second on assessing local
implementations of environmental directives and
consequences of agro-technical innovations.
In short, SEAMLESS-IF aims to facilitate
translation of policy options into alternative
scenarios that can be assessed through a set of
indicators that capture the key economic,
environmental, social and institutional issues of
the questions at stake. The indicators in turn are
assessed using selected linkages of quantitative
models. These models have been designed to
simulate aspects of agricultural systems at specific
levels of organisation, i.e., point or field scale,
farm, region, EU and world. SEAMLESS aims at
an integrated use of these, partly, existing models.
SEAMLESS also assembles pan-European
databases for environmental, economic and social
issues. Some indicators, particularly social and
institutional ones, will be assessed directly from
data.
Linkage of models designed for different scales
and from biophysical and economic domains
requires software architecture, and a design and
technical implementation of models that allows
this. The software backbone of the project,
SeamFrame, serves that purpose.
Scientifically, the project aims at facilitating a
breakthrough in the integrated use of models,