Integrated assessments find synergies for energy, water, and food challenges

Strategies for addressing climate change, land-use, energy, and water can and must go beyond strategic planning for individual sectors, says a new study.

Mauritius case study © IIASA

Mauritius case study

A new study, published in 2013 in Nature Climate Change, by WFaS’s Günther Fischer, Harrij van Velthuizen, Eva Hizsnyik and David Wiberg introduces a new paradigm for interdisciplinary resource assessments [1].

As resources become increasingly scarce, the study shows, integrated assessments across sectors are needed to ensure that developments in one sector do not result in greater costs to other sectors than the benefits they provide, and also to maximize potential synergies through joint strategies.  

These integrated assessments and planning are rarely done at national level, but they are needed to ensure that strategies in all sectors are consistent with national priorities, and also consistent with each other and across scales.  

Researchers prepared an integrated assessment framework for the country of Mauritius, combining existing, proven models of energy, water and land use including IIASA’s Agro-ecological Zones (AEZ) modeling framework.

References

[1] Fischer G, Hizsnyik E, van Velthuizen HT, Wiberg D, Hermann S (2013). Climate, Land, Energy & Water Strategies: A Case Study of Mauritius. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria (April 2013)


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Last edited: 20 April 2016

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