Search for models

Social and policy simulations, as well as serious games, are participatory processes through which diverse societal stakeholders collectively explore a complex reality and complex challenges. These participatory processes combine both social and natural science insights to foster experiential learning. They enable participants to make sense of the complexity associated with policy issues, and reflect on system inter-linkages and stakeholder plurality. These methods have become increasingly recognised for informing and guiding policy in complex settings, including sustainable development, climate change mitigation/adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

In the IIASA Strategic Initiative fairSTREAM, we create a toolkit of participatory methods that can be adapted to facilitate co-production of knowledge. Co-produced knowledge integrates diverse scientific and social discourses to create relevant and legitimate opportunities in the context of complex problems.  

Integrative qualitative system mapping (IQSM) enables the systematic and transparent integration of diverse qualitative data. It is particularly useful as a tool supporting mixed methods research addressing nexus issues in sustainable development.  

Role-play simulations are a transdisciplinary method for engaging diverse stakeholders beyond traditional policy- and decision-making communities in an informed and inclusive public debate around the governance of complex socio-environmental challenges. 

Scenarios as a decision-making tool help us to better understand the implications of a wide range of future possibilities considering existing development, strategies, and global interdependencies. Scenarios should be co-produced with their users, most often planner and decision makers.

By applying the multi-state model of population dynamics, including differential fertility, mortality and migration rates, POP has produced projections of the European and Asian population by age, sex and four levels of educational attainment, as well as population projections by age, sex, and level of educational attainment for the world. Additionally, new measures of aging, developed at IIASA, are presented for the world and world regions, and individual countries.

The 2014 update to IIASA's world population projections.

A dataset that allows users to browse, select, visualize and download demographic data and population projections.

Three different scenarios for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on the goals that could impact fertility and mortality rates and thus population growth are now available for downloading.

IIASA researchers have developed multi-dimensional/multi-state models to study population dynamics at the global, regional, national and sub-national level.

The Equity and Justice (EQU) Research Group has developed a number of decision-support and process-oriented methods. These tools help stakeholders and policy-makers make sense of the complex governance landscape, while clarifying trade-offs and synergies associated with alternative policy options. 

The BinD model is a new generation dynamic disaster-macroeconomic modeling framework that captures supply and demand-side constraints on a developing economy facing disaster risk.

In the framework of the Centre of Expertise on Population and Migration, a research partnership between IIASA's World Population Program and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, IIASA provides science-based knowledge on migration and demography to support EU policy.

Platform to assess the heterogeneity of disaster risk.

DYNAMMICs is a macroeconomic growth modeling framework that quantifies the many co-benefits of DRR investment for multiple hazards.

The Geo-Wiki Project is a global network of volunteers who participate in earth observation driven citizen science via the Geo-Wiki tool.

Design Thinking (DT) is a participatory approach that focuses on understanding user-design problems with a variety of “products” and to create and test innovative problem solutions - these may include physical goods but also non-physical products such as services, policy instruments etc.

A modeling framework for medium to long-term energy system planning, energy policy analysis, and scenario development