Germany

Key German collaborations in 2013 included multiple projects with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research Impact, and influential policy-relevant studies with the German Advisory Council on Global Change.

Map of Germany

Map of Germany

Research activities in 2013 combined IIASA's expertise in systems analysis with skills of German researchers to explore technological change, inter-comparisons of agricultural models and climate impact models, and risk insurance among others. Six young scientists from Germany or based in Germany participated in IIASA's young scientists programs in 2013.

Germany


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2°C global warming impacts in Europe

The Agro-Ecological Systems (AES) team joined the IMPACT2C project which explores the likely impacts of a 2°C rise in global mean temperature in Europe and in three vulnerable areas in other parts of the world outside Europe: Bangladesh, Africa, and the Maldives. more

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Climate mitigation, negative emissions technology, and BECCS

The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program's Policy and Science Interface (PSI) team has been considering how to mitigate climate change through the use of carbon-neutral bio-energy (BE), combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS), to produce negative-emissions conditions. more

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Eco-evolutionary dynamics of living systems: Applications

Predicting how living systems respond to changing conditions is difficult, as such responses are often at odds with human intuition. Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) research contributed to a mounting body of literature showing that eco-evolutionary dynamics can potentially exacerbate the worldwide biodiversity crises by causing secondary species extinctions. more

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Gridded crop modeling

Progress with EPIC crop modeling in 2013 allowed the Agro-Economic Systems (AES) group to join the international Ag-GRID initiative which aims to improve global gridded crop modeling. more

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Multiple objectives, tradeoffs, and games

In multiple objectives, trade-offs, and games, development of a user-friendly prototype software tool for Multiple-Criteria Model Analysis (MCMA) was completed, the co-benefits of key energy sustainability objectives were revealed, and decision-support system (DSS) with multiple objectives of energy users, producers, and legislative authorities were designed. more

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New LANDFLOW model extensions developed

The LANDFLOW model, developed at IIASA, was applied to estimate how deforestation is connected to agricultural production in each country and how it relates to EU consumption via international trade. more

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New studies map future climate impacts across sectors

The Methods for Economic Decision making under Uncertainty (MEDU) group contributed to the first results of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), a pioneering collaboration within the international scientific community. more

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Optimal economic growth

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) researchers in 2013 worked on developing new economic growth models capable of generating “green growth” and sustainable development solutions. more

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Optimal management of heterogeneous resources

Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) researchers study optimal management of heterogeneous resources, such as fish and forests, which is an important tool for advising policymakers on the best strategies for managing the environment. more

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Outreach and dissemination

There was substantial outreach activity by the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program in 2013 with respect to summarizing and disseminating previous multi-year research projects and assessment activities plus the editing of a book, three special journal issues, and publication of 40 articles and book chapters. more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

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Stochastic optimization and robust solutions

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program has been been developing quantile-based stochastic optimization methods to produce solutions that are robust against growing economic, social, environmental risks with respect to all potential uncertainties. more

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Sustainable Forest Management - Certification

The Policy Science Interface (PSI) group of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program worked with ESM's Earth Observation Systems (EOS) to develop a new methodology to support assessment of, and decision making for, future forest management certification. more

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Technological change and diffusion

In collaboration with the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program under a research contract and in collaboration with the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, Japan, an endogenous model formulation for technology diffusion constraints was developed and parameterized. more

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Technology-scaling methodology and modeling

In collaboration with the Energy (ENE) Program and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research (PIK), Germany, the Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) Program applied its new technology scaling methodology to climate policy scenarios. more

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Terrestrial ecosystems full verified GHG budget

As the methods used to measure and inventory GHG emissions have significant uncertainties and gaps, the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program has been developing an advanced methodology of a Terrestrial Ecosystems Full Verified GHG Budget. more

Europe


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2°C global warming impacts in Europe

The Agro-Ecological Systems (AES) team joined the IMPACT2C project which explores the likely impacts of a 2°C rise in global mean temperature in Europe and in three vulnerable areas in other parts of the world outside Europe: Bangladesh, Africa, and the Maldives. more

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Advanced techniques for extreme event risk

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) staff introduced a new method to up-scale dependent loss distributions from natural hazards to higher spatial levels, explicitly incorporating their dependency structure over the aggregation process. more

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Agent-based modeling

Since 2011 the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program has been developing an agent-based model (ABM) “Dream Valley” which is able to simulate the economic, social, and environmental interactions and dynamics of a region. more

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Big data analysis

Currently emerging “big data” techniques are reshaping many fields of science into data science. The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program in 2013 began developing tools to gain added value from large data clusters. more

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Climate change will raise electricity prices

Changes in water availability and water temperature under climate change are likely to lead to higher electricity prices for most of Europe, according to a new study by IIASA's Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS). more

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Ecosystem services and bio-energy potential in the Alpine Space

In 2013 the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program's Policy Science Interface (PSI) group together with ESM Forest Ecosystems Management (FEM) continued their involvement in the recharge.green project that aims to analyze bio-energy potential and impacts in the Alps from biomass, solar, wind, and hydro. more

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Education and environmental vulnerability

As part of a larger project, Forecasting Societies’ Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change, a Special Feature entitled Education and Differential Vulnerability to Natural Disasters was published in the journal, Ecology & Society. more

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Energy security

Research on energy security by the Energy Program (ENE) centers around applying the formal conceptual framework for evaluating energy security in long-term energy scenarios. The framework was established by ENE researcher Jessica Jewell in collaboration with colleagues from the Central European University (CEU, Hungary). more

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Eurasian economic integration

The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program is coordinating a project which aims at an open and in-depth discussion and analysis of dimensions of economic integration covering Russia, its neighbors, and the European Union, as well as in a larger trans-continental framework where integration extends also to the key Asian players more

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European consumption impacts world forests

Agricultural products imported to Europe accounted for more than one-third of global deforestation associated with international agricultural trade, according to a new policy-oriented report prepared by a European consortium including IIASA, and published by the European Commission. more

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Forest fires and adaptation options in Europe

Research addressed the assessment of adaptation options to forest fires in Europe under projected climate change - a pioneering attempt to quantify impacts of reactive and preventive adaptation strategies within one modeling framework at a regional scale. more

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Integrated modeling and qualitative analysis

As environmental problems do not respect disciplinary boundaries, integrated assessment modeling, pioneered by IIASA, is a useful adjunct to environmental policy analysis, integrating knowledge from more than one domain into a single framework. more

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International model intercomparison project, AMPERE

Within the framework of the AMPERE project, ENE in 2013 led the multi-model comparison effort involving international partners from Asia, the United States and Europe to evaluate the impact of near-term climate policies. more

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International model intercomparison projects

The Energy (ENE) Program has been at the forefront of several research efforts for the wider science community. These include the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and two international model inter-comparison projects that were successfully completed in 2013 (EMF27 and AMPERE).  more

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Novel insurance options

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) researchers presented novel suggestions for regional risk management platforms. Suggestions included risk insurance pools to manage climate loss and damage, which are gaining traction in the Caribbean, Pacific, Africa and recently Europe. more

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Resilience of social systems

Similarly to ecosystems, social systems – from firms to countries – are becoming more and more subject to various stressors whose effects penetrate throughout the system by means of social ties and economic links. The external disturbances here may be of political, economic, financial and even environmental nature. more

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Risk Governance: Supporting transitions in climate and energy policy

In 2013 Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) researchers looked at multilevel governance approaches in climate and energy policy, the need for improved macroeconomic governance to promote sustainable development, and the importance of taking account of stakeholder inputs in the governance of the commons. more

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Risk management and climate adaptation

Managing the risks of climate change is part of a more generalized approach to promoting sustainable development by reducing the vulnerability associated with climate risk. In 2013 the Risk, Poverty and Vulnerability Program (RPV) looked at various aspects of minimizing risk ahead of adverse weather-related impacts, including extreme events.   more

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Solar energy systems

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) analysts in 2013 looked at how the energy transition might be constrained by the vulnerability of solar energy systems to extreme event risks in a changing climate. more

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Terrestrial ecosystems full verified GHG budget

As the methods used to measure and inventory GHG emissions have significant uncertainties and gaps, the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program has been developing an advanced methodology of a Terrestrial Ecosystems Full Verified GHG Budget. more

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The World Population Program contributes to UNECE report

The World Population Program (POP) researchers in 2013 identified and elaborated critical policy gaps and possible solutions for a report on the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region, entitled "Population Trends and Policies in the UNECE Region: Outcomes, Policies and Possibilities." more

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Uncertainty in environmental services

Total uncertainty in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions changes over time due to “learning” and the structural change in the GHG emitters. Understanding uncertainty over time is important to improve setting emission targets in the future and was key to the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program's work in 2013. more

Germany


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Index-based insurance against weather extremes in Mongolia

Veronika Bertram-Hümmer of the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany, aimed to identify the determinants of index-insurance uptake before the harsh winter in Mongolia in 2009-2010 to discover whether index-insurance payouts enhanced household recovery following the disaster. more

Europe


Fisheries-induced disruptive selection

Pietro Landi assesses how the interplay between natural and artificial selection, in the simplest setting in which fishery and stock co-evolve, could lead to trait diversification due to disruptive selection. more

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Index-based insurance against weather extremes in Mongolia

Veronika Bertram-Hümmer of the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany, aimed to identify the determinants of index-insurance uptake before the harsh winter in Mongolia in 2009-2010 to discover whether index-insurance payouts enhanced household recovery following the disaster. more

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Sustainable bioenergy production

Nicklas Forsell is working with the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program with a focus on improving understanding of forest ecosystems and devising sustainable management strategies for them, both as sinks for carbon and as potential providers of fuel for energy. more

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The future of Swedish forests in a global perspective

Eva-Maria Nordström discusses her postdoctoral work which aims to link two IIASA models and one Swedish model to create scenarios consistent with the IPCC Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) for a set of alternative Swedish forest management strategies. more

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What if the Dutch started worrying about flood risk?

Trond Husby summarizes his YSSP project, in which he analyzed the macroeconomic impacts on the Dutch economy that would occur if there were a partial shift in the allocation of risk from the public to the private sector. more



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Last edited: 11 June 2014

NMO DETAILS

Association for the Advancement of IIASA

Helga Weisz

Head of Research Domain Transdisciplinary Concepts & Methods, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Professor of Industrial Ecology and Climate Change Department of Cultural Studies and Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt-University Berlin

Association for the Advancement of IIASA

Hermann Lotze-Campen

Chair of PIK Research Domain II, "Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities", Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

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