SUPREMA

Impact assessments in the areas of agriculture are (partly) based on projections delivered by models. Sectoral policies are becoming more and more interrelated.  

SUPREMA should help close the gaps between expectations of policy makers and the actual capacity of models to deliver relevant policy analysis. The SUPREMA model family includes a set of ‘core models’ that are already used in support of key European impact assessments in agriculture, trade, climate and bioenergy policies. The meta-platform, the enhanced linked system of existing core models and some key applications melt down in a Roadmap for future directions for agricultural modelling in Europe.

The project has four coherent objectives:

1. A SUPREMA roadmap of future directions for modelling will be developed.

2. An enhanced and strengthened SUPREMA model family will be created.

3. Future directions of modelling in agriculture will be explored and tested.

4. A SUPREMA meta-platform will be established, to share and discuss the findings of the work with existing model platforms, research communities, and policy makers. 

The objectives of SUPREMA are iterative in nature and involve strong engagement with policy makers, and interaction with the scientific community, at the different stages. The models included in SUPREMA cover different spatial scales of analysis, agricultural activities, representation of technologies, but also different aspects of its market environment as well as multiple policies affecting agriculture directly or indirectly. 

In the project, IIASA will contribute to the model capacities by linking the GLOBIOM model to the modelling framework of the SUPREMA platform. The IIASA modelling team will in particular provide the linkages related to land use and climate change mitigation (Task 2.2). The model will also be improved on the representation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the representation of land use change, and the modelling of extreme weather events (Task 2.3). GLOBIOM will then be used for policy analysis related to climate change impact and adaptation, climate mitigation pathways, and analysis of trade-offs related to the various SDG achievements. Last, due to the international nature of IIASA, the modelling team will reinforce the outreach of the exercise to other research communities worldwide. 

The GLOBIOM model has a long record of impact analysis in the field of climate change, and GHG emissions reduction. The work of the model in these domains has been recognized by many publications in high level journals and the model has been used in impact assessments of different services of the European Commission. GLOBIOM is also part of several research networks aiming at linking or comparing model approaches: AgMIP that gathers the global community working on climate change impact; MACSUR where teams working on the analysis of climate change impacts in the European Union are comparing and improving their tools.

Meta-platform supported by three pillars

Last edited: 01 October 2019