Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

trans4num Decision support tool

Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland

The trans4num Decision Support Tool (DST) bridges the gap between farm-level nutrient management and landscape-scale environmental impacts. By linking field-level actions to broader outcomes, it helps farmers, advisors and policymakers plan and optimise nature-based solutions (NBS), visualise trade-offs, and collaboratively identify efficient, regionally adapted strategies for sustainable agriculture.

The need

Agricultural nutrient management decisions are usually made at farm or field level, while impacts such as nitrogen leaching, water pollution, biodiversity loss and soil degradation occur across landscapes. The DST was developed to bridge this mismatch by:

  • linking field actions to landscape outcomes;
  • visualising trade-offs between environmental objectives and agricultural productivity across different spatial scales;
  • supporting the planning and implementation of NBS at landscape level; and
  • fostering collaboration between farmers, advisors, policymakers and the wider bioeconomy sector.

The benefits

For farmers and farmer associations

  • Demonstrates how field management influences landscape outcomes.
  • Identifies new value chains, such as perennial grass or catch crops linked to green biorefineries.
  • Evaluates realistic crop rotations rather than single-year crops or unrealistic farm redesigns.
  • Supports cooperative decision-making across shared landscapes.

For advisors and policymakers
The DST facilitates dialogue between stakeholders, visualises environmental and economic trade-offs, strengthens advisory services by translating technical outputs into practical recommendations, supports collaborative policy design, and helps assess which policy options are feasible under real farming conditions.

Additional information

trans4num solution

The DST is a spatially explicit, data-driven optimisation tool that evaluates the impacts of NBS under geographically varying conditions. Using mixed-integer programming, it allocates crop rotations and management strategies across landscapes. Transition matrices quantify how management changes affect nitrogen losses, yields and economic returns for different soil types, while field-level spatial data capture geographical variability. The tool combines a React-based interface with a Python backend and processes tabular and spatial datasets.

The DST supports discussion rather than prescribing decisions. Users first define regional objectives and constraints, after which the model identifies the most efficient spatial allocation of measures. If objectives are unrealistic, the tool highlights this. Outputs include optimisation maps, crop-share comparisons, radar charts comparing economic and environmental performance, and regional nitrogen balances.

Challenges / limitations

The DST is designed primarily for facilitated workshops rather than individual farm use. Applying it to new regions requires substantial local data, particularly transition matrices describing NBS performance under local conditions.

Resources needed

Implementation requires spatial agricultural datasets, clearly defined regional objectives, geographically explicit information on NBS effects, transition matrices describing management impacts, and a trusted facilitator such as a modeller, researcher or advisor.

Transferability

Developed for the Limfjord region in Denmark, the DST can be transferred to other regions by adapting objectives, constraints and local datasets. It was co-designed through transdisciplinary workshops with farmers, advisors and planners, and tested in Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK, demonstrating its value for collaborative landscape planning.

Source Project
Transformation for sustainable nutrient supply and management
Ongoing | 2022-2026
Main funding source
Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, The United Kingdom, China
Project details

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