To underscore the complexity of some of the research issues being studied at IIASA, some activities are being investigated by several programs. There are currently three such cross-cutting activities:

Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Goals: To bridge temporal and spatial scales of the climate change challenge,

• from shorter-term national and place-specific policies and measures directed at mitigating and adapting to climate change
• to the longer-term global objective of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at a level that is not "dangerous".

Activities:

• Developing long-term, global scenarios that stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations;
• assessing near- to medium-term mitigation and adaptation opportunities for specific countries;
• and developing an integrated modeling framework to analyze international policy approaches.

Methodology Forum
Goals: To facilitate cross-program sharing of experiences and problems in methodological issues.
Activities: Regular presentations with open discussions aimed at increasing cooperation between IIASA's applied research programs and those with a focus on methodology.

Water Activities
Goals: To address the importance of water by including water-related issues as an essential aspect within relevant research programs.
Activities: Currently six research programs include several water-related activities. These include, inter alia:

• developing models and modeling techniques for anayzing the dynamics of coastal water bodies (Dynamic Systems Program);
• an integrated assessment of the water-related consequences of changes in agriculture (Land-Use Change and Agriculture Program);
• exploring different transition paths from currently prevailing regimes of river basin water management into more adaptive future regimes (Risk and Vulnerability Program),
• and the study of the interaction among population, human capital and water in Egypt (World Population Program).

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Last updated: 13 Jan 2006