Activities for 2015

The program will also:

• Invest in building and testing of novel citizen science approaches
• Continue testing new approaches to modeling stochastic events and associated ecosystem-based risk mitigation
• Continue linking to other IIASA models aiming to build an IIASA integrated assessment modeling cluster
• Implement linkage to external earth system models to assess large scale feedbacks from management induced ecosystem change
• Build new policy engagement strategies to generate more transformational policy impact

Specific areas of importance will be as follows:

Agro-Ecological Systems will continue with core development of ESM’s EPIC infrastructure, with the aim of including a global grassland module and an improved soil phosphorus routine for global agriculture.

Earth Observation Systems (EOS) will take part in ConnectinGEO (Coordinating an Observation Network of Networks EnCompassing saTellite and IN-situ to fill the Gaps in European Observations); this is a newly funded Horizon 2020 project to be launched in 2015. IIASA’s Citizen Science Center: Engaging Citizens in Environmental Monitoring will also be launched. Further development is planned of the Biomass Geo-Wiki platform which will host global in-situ biomass measurements as part of the newly proposed International Forest Biomass Network. A new LACO-Wiki will integrate the current LACOVAL (LAnd Cover VALidation) software prototype for the validation of land cover maps with Geo-Wiki, a visualization and crowdsourcing tool.

Environmental Resources and Development (ERD) will research the multiple facets of malnutrition in Europe; model future land use change in the tropics; undertake accounting for socioeconomic heterogeneity in IIASA models; assess the indirect land use change impact of biofuels; and evaluate the implications of resource efficiency for the European Union.

The planned activities of Methods for Economic Decision making under Uncertainty (MEDU) include work on the current projects (NORAD Tools, REDD+, and ECONADAPT) and contribution to ongoing and new projects. Further development of the fire model is of potential interest, conditional on financing; Technical support including development and maintenance of the Condor cluster will be provided to the whole Program.

The Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group will further develop negative emissions work; develop the Tropical Futures Initiative to go beyond forests; develop a decision support system (DSS) component for recharge.green during the first half of 2015; and continue BeWhere development towards a policy-relevant DSS tool in the wider area of renewable energy.

Last edited: 21 April 2015