In 2013 research collaborations between IIASA and Dutch researchers developed a range of research tools and methods in areas including agriculture, air pollution, and energy.
Map of the Netherlands
Highlights of research collaborations between IIASA and researchers in the Netherlands in 2013 include:
A comparative assessment of the costs and benefits of achieving universal energy access.
Global coverage of IIASA's GAINS tool for the systematic assessment of the co-benefits of strategies to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously. This was facilitated by national implementations of the GAINS model for specific countries, including the Netherlands.
In addition, seven young scientists from the Netherlands or based at Dutch universities took part in IIASA's programs for young scientists.
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
In 2013, the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program achieved global coverage of its GAINS (Greenhouse gas – Air pollution Interactions and Synergies) tool for the systematic assessment of co-benefits strategies, in close collaboration with a large number of national teams. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program actively participated in two comparison exercises with the GLOBIOM model, looking at how the model reacts to different scenarios of climate change. more
Work in the area of energy access involved important developments and refinements of the MESSAGE-Access model and its expansion to include decentralized electricity supply in South Asia and regional coverage for China. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program has been working to develop a well justified tool for integration of different viewpoints into a single picture. more
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
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
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
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
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
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
World Population Program (POP) researchers challenge the widespread notion that replacement level fertility is the most desirable level of fertility for countries currently both above and below that level. more
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
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
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
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
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
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
For the EUCLIMIT Project ESM researchers contributed policy-related data and model results to illustrate the potential benefits and costs of various climate policies. more
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
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
Recent Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) research addressed how a multi-risk approach (MRA) can be implemented in different governance systems marked by different degrees of centralization in policy and decision-making processes. more
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
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
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
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
The aim of the project was to analyze two contrary and yet sustainable forest management options under the influence of climate change: maximization of forest stock and maximization of forest increment. more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Vassilis Daioglou looks at the contribution of bio-energy as an emission mitigation measure and compares the results of two integrated assessment models to see how system representation affects the results. more
David E. Eitelberg outlines his YSSP project work, which compared the downscaling methods of scenarios modeled using the CLUMondo, GCAM, and GLOBIOM models to explain differences in spatial allocation of global agricultural lands. more
Claudia Seibold describes and compares government strategies in ten countries which differ with respect to the existence of catastrophe funds and public and private insurance. more
Ligia B. Azevedo quantified the degree to which habitat transformation and fragmentation have driven decreases in red-listed animal populations worldwide. more
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
Vassilis Daioglou looks at the contribution of bio-energy as an emission mitigation measure and compares the results of two integrated assessment models to see how system representation affects the results. more
David E. Eitelberg outlines his YSSP project work, which compared the downscaling methods of scenarios modeled using the CLUMondo, GCAM, and GLOBIOM models to explain differences in spatial allocation of global agricultural lands. more
V.H. van Zyl-Bulitta investigates negative externalities of adaptation plans on a conceptual level in the African context through direct engagement with stakeholders in in-depth interviews. more
Dmytro Melnyk looks at the range of possible climate change impacts on Ukrainian agriculture, Ukraine's possible role in maintaining world agricultural production and food security under climate change, and the country's potential to increase agricultural exports. more
Prajal Pradhan summarizes his work on achieving food self-sufficiency at the global, regional, and local scale while addressing the need to minimize agriculturally induced environmental stresses. more
Emilio L. Cano describes his YSSP project in which he used advanced stochastic optimization under quantile-based security constraints to consider a robust optimum portfolio of energy decisions for building managers. more
Anne Seppänen outlines the results of her YSSP project on explaining complex cooperative and uncooperative interactions in nature and how these evolve. more
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
Martin Bruckner discusses the outcomes of his YSSP project in which he studied the disparities in approaches to estimating the virtual natural resources embodied in international trade flows. more
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
Tiina Häyhä focuses on the supply and spatial distribution of ecosystem services (ES) in a forest area in the Italian Alps, which was the main theme of her YSSP project. more
Markus Enenkel gives initial results of his YSSP project which focused on the development of i) a new, transparent drought index derived from satellite data and ii) a mobile phone application to speed up the assessment of food security-related vulnerabilities. more
Christina Kaiser discusses her postdoctoral work in 2013 which relates to the feedback of the terrestrial carbon cycle to global environmental change. more
Mathias Kirchner details his YSSP project investigation of how climate change both directly and indirectly affects agricultural production, land use, and the bio-physical environment in Austria. more
Dominique Thronicker presents the outcomes of her YSSP project which aimed to further the understanding of the historic change of technologies that can provide analogies for new environmental add-on technologies. more
Mariia Halushchak analyzes the main sources of GHG emissions from industry and construction in Ukraine and Poland at the country and regional level as a guide to policies on GHG mitigation. more
Xi Pang shows the outcomes of her YSSP project, in which she connected existing models for calculating timber, pulp, and bio-energy production, with new methods for biodiversity, carbon stock, and recreation evaluation. more
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
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
Claudia Seibold describes and compares government strategies in ten countries which differ with respect to the existence of catastrophe funds and public and private insurance. more
Juliana Gil summarizes the finding of her YSSP project in which she investigated the drivers of and barriers to land use transitions under different scenarios, and their impact on the GHG emissions of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. more
Ligia B. Azevedo quantified the degree to which habitat transformation and fragmentation have driven decreases in red-listed animal populations worldwide. more
Yihun Dile details his YSSP project outcomes on the implications of intensifying water harvesting on upstream-downstream social-ecological resilience in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia. more
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