Given the environmental footprints of the conventional agriculture, it is imperative to test and validate alternative production systems, with lower environmental impacts to mitigate and adapt our production systems. In this study, we identified six production systems, four in Italy and two in Denmark, to assess the environmental footprint for comparison among the production systems and additionally with conventional production systems. SimaPro 8.4 software was used to carry out the life cycle impact assessment. Among other indicators, three significantly important indicators, namely global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication, were used as the proxy for life cycle impact assessment. In Italy, the production systems compared were silvopastoral, organic, traditional, and conventional olive production systems, whereas in Denmark, combined food and energy production system was compared with the conventional wheat production system. Among the six production systems, conventional wheat production system in Denmark accounted for highest global warming potential, acidification, and eutrophication. In Italy, global warming potential was highest in traditional agroforestry and lowest in the silvopastoral system whereas acidification and eutrophication were lowest in the traditional production system with high acidification effects from the silvopastoral system. In Italy, machinery use contributed the highest greenhouse gas emissions in silvopastoral and organic production systems, while the large contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer was recorded in the traditional and conventional production systems. In Denmark, the combined food and energy system had lower environmental impacts compared to the conventional wheat production system according to the three indicators. For both systems in Denmark, the main contribution to greenhouse gas emission was due to fertilizer and manure application. The study showed that integrated food and non-food systems are more environmentally friendly and less polluting compared to the conventional wheat production system in Denmark with use of chemical fertilizers and irrigation. The study can contribute to informed decision making by the land managers and policy makers for promotion of environmentally friendly food and non-food production practices, to meet the European Union targets of providing biomass-based materials and energy to contribute to the bio-based economy in Europe and beyond.

Monitoring drought helps to reduce their economic and environmental impacts by enabling early warnings and better resource management planning. In Europe, there are several operational monitoring systems operating at national and regional scales. However, such monitoring systems are rarely validated, which complicates the decision-making process. Therefore, we evaluated six national drought monitoring products in Central Europe using a novel extreme event impact database compiled from national newspaper reports over the period 2000–2023. The drought monitoring indices used in the countries include the standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), and standardized relative soil moisture with different aggregation periods. The area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) is used to assess the ability of the drought indices to detect impact occurrence. Spearman correlation coefficients (r) between the severity of the drought index and the number of reported impacts are used to assess their ability to capture impact severity. The highest AUC values were obtained for the drought monitoring products of Czechia, Croatia, and Slovenia ( $$AUC>0.8$$ A U C > 0.8 ) while the lowest values were obtained for the monitoring product of Austria ( $$AUC<0.7$$ A U C < 0.7 ). Impact severity was best captured in Poland (for some indices $$r>0.6$$ r > 0.6 ), and worst in Slovakia, Slovenia, and Austria ( $$r<0.4$$ r < 0.4 ). With an increasing aggregation period, the correlation generally decreases, while the AUC values show a non-linear pattern, peaking at an intermediate integration time of three to 6 months. The results of this study help to understand the strengths and weaknesses of drought monitoring products in each country and support the development of a common drought monitoring framework for Central Europe.