Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors could lead to increased food prices—but new research identifies strategies that could help mitigate climate change while avoiding steep hikes in food prices. More
Three new data sets, developed with input from citizen scientists and the IIASA scientific network, have been fully documented and published in a new Nature open access journal. More
FotoQuest GO—a citizen science campaign aimed at collecting observations of land use and land cover across Austria—launches this week. Researchers hope it will bring a leap forward in community-based land-use change monitoring. More
Excess emissions from diesel cars cause about 5,000 premature deaths annually across Europe, a new study shows. More
Significant emission reductions are required if we are to achieve one of the key goals of the Paris Agreement, and limit the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5°C, a new study warns. More
More targeted efforts are needed from both the public and private insurance sectors in order to encourage people to take action to reduce their risk of flood damage, according to a new study of three European countries. More
How can we ensure forest protection and sustainable forest biomass production at the same time? A first-ever global map of certified forest areas, based on a participatory and collaborative mapping approach, contributes to the answer. More
A proposed tax on systemically risky financial transactions could reduce the risk of financial system crashes by spurring financial networks to reshape in more resilient ways. More
New measures of aging, combined with UN population projections, show that population aging is likely to end before 2100 in China, Germany, and the USA. More
Human interventions to harness water resources, such as reservoirs, dams, and irrigation measures, have increased water availability for much of the global population, but at the same time, swept water scarcity problems downstream. More
From the air, Bali’s rice terraces look like colorful mosaics, because farmers plant their fields at different times. A new study shows that the resulting fractal patterns actually lead to optimal harvests, without overarching management. More
Emission reduction pledges made by individual countries under the Paris Agreement leave a wide range of possible climate outcomes, according to new research. Without stronger pledges, the study shows, the climate goals may not be possible to achieve. More
Excess NOx emissions from diesel engines have been linked to approximately 38,000 premature deaths worldwide in 2015—mostly in the European Union, China, and India. More
The discussion at this year’s Vienna Energy Forum served as an important contribution to the debate and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate agreement and their successful implementation, said participants at the event taking place in the capital of Austria. More
Fast action on near-term warming will provide many potential benefits to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goal, according to new research from scientists at IIASA, in the USA and Europe. More
For the next few weeks researchers are testing a new system to aid disaster damage mapping, providing much-needed real-time data to help communities recover and rebuild after disaster. More
For China, synthetic natural gas represents a trade-off between reducing air pollution, but increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to new IIASA research conducted in collaboration with scientists in China and the USA. More
In order to have a good chance of meeting the limits set by the Paris Agreement, it will be necessary to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions while preserving carbon sinks, with net emissions peaking in the next ten years, according to a new study. More
IIASA World Population Program Director Wolfgang Lutz has received a new grant from the European Research Council. Lutz is scientific director of the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), and professor of applied statistics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). These institutions are part of the Wittgenstein Center, which Lutz leads. More
Small and medium farms produce more than half of the food globally, and produce the vast majority of food and nutrients in low income countries, according to a new study that maps global nutrient production from farms worldwide. More
As incomes rise, people buy more big appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. But the link between income and appliance ownership is more complicated than is assumed. More
The rising use of unsustainable water supplies by international food producers is putting global food and water supplies at risk and could cause basic food prices to skyrocket, suggests a new study from international researchers. More
The Basel III regulatory framework, as planned, will not reduce systemic risk in the financial sector, according to new research. Instead, regulations should aim to increase the resilience of financial networks. More
Climate change will likely have negative impacts on food production in West Africa, but a new study provides insights on how strategic planning by decision makers could ease or exacerbate food security challenges in the region. More
Droughts can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers from where they started, like a slow-moving hurricane. A new study sheds light on how these droughts evolve in space and time, bringing vital new insight for water managers. More
Forest ecologists have long sought to understand why so many different species of trees can coexist in the same niche. A modeling study is now providing clues. More
How climate change will affect future populations will depend to a great extent on people’s capacity to adapt to changing conditions. Such characteristics can be forecast in the long term, using well-established demographic methods, say IIASA researchers. More
The global commodity trade is a complex system where its network structure, which may arise from bilateral and multilateral agreements, affects its growth and resilience. At time of economic shocks, redundancy in this system is vital to the resilience of growth. More
Even as average incomes rise in developing countries, access to sanitation and clean energy have yet to reach the poorest people, a new study shows. But there is room for optimism. More
Transport and residential heating could be responsible for a greater contribution of black carbon in the Russian Arctic compared to gas flaring or power plants, according to new research. More
Emissions of methane and ethane from oil production have been substantially higher than previously estimated, particularly before 2005. More
In many developing countries, economic growth and deforestation seem to go hand in hand—but the links are not well understood. In a new study, researchers use an innovative methodology to quantify the relationship. More
Greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector will be lower if the rising demand for bioenergy is met with worldwide protection for areas important for biodiversity and carbon storage. More
Managing grazing on grasslands in a more efficient way could significantly increase global milk and meat production or free up land for other uses. More
An IIASA model helped inform a new tool for cities to optimize electric bus systems, which has now been used in Sweden’s first wireless charging bus system, launched in December. More
Changes in precipitation, which are linked to the warming of the Indian Ocean, are the main reason for recent changes in groundwater storage in India. More
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313