YSSP: Scientific Proceedings

The scientific papers from the Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) were delivered at IIASA's Late Summer Workshop on 26-27 August 2013, collated and edited by YSSP participant Tiina Häyhä, and subsequently published as an informal Proceedings.

YSSP Group 2013

YSSP Group 2013

The individual scientific papers of the Proceedings are a summation of each individual's work during the 3-month YSSP Program. In the Proceedings, they are grouped according to relevant research areas at IIASA:

  • Food and Water
  • Energy and Climate Change
  • Poverty and Equity
  • Advanced Systems Analysis

Each individual paper is annotated with the young scientist's country of origin and funding source.

The contributions are presented as a matter of record and to give an idea of the breadth and depth of scientific inquiry of the YSSP Program as a whole in 2013. 

As the Proceedings has received limited review, the views or opinions expressed in it do not necessarily represent those of IIASA, its National Member Organizations, or other organizations supporting the work.

Coupling of climate models with hydrological models for decadal projection of water resources over mountainous regions

Shaukat Ali, of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, and the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC), Ministry of Climate Change, Islamabad, Pakistan, explores the performance and sensitivity of climate and hydrological models across the Himalayan region to project climatic and hydrological changes over the next ten years. More

Transformation and fragmentation of forests: Effects on species population trends

Ligia B. Azevedo quantified the degree to which habitat transformation and fragmentation have driven decreases in red-listed animal populations worldwide. More

Risks for socioeconomic development in Egypt: Does investment in renewable energy provide an opportunity?

Noran Bakr, of Cairo University, summarizes the finding of her YSSP project on investigating the impact of using an approach to energy supply combining wind and solar energy to foster development in the Mediterranean region. More

Index-based insurance against weather extremes in Mongolia

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

Global biomass flows and associated environmental footprints

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

Joint evolution of cooperation and information gathering

Eleanor Brush reports the results of her YSSP project, in which she asked i) is it possible for discriminators to stabilize cooperation? and ii) how does this depend on how much information the discriminators store and use? More

Developing a strategic stochastic optimization model,
robust solutions, and a decision-support system for energy-efficient
buildings

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

Forecasting time series through functional principal components analysis

Alessandra Carioli investigated whether heterogeneity in fertility trends across the different provinces of Spain would persist in the future. More

The future environmental impact of divorce

Solveig Christiansen looks at the impact of changing divorce patterns on domestic energy use. More












Evaluation and comparison of CO2 mitigation possibilities of the complete bio-energy chain from two model frameworks

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

Understanding the implications of water harvesting on
upstream-downstream social-ecological resilience: A case study of the
Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

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

A comparison of downscaled modeled land use scenarios and their methodologies

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

Integration of vulnerability assessments into the satellite-derived combined drought index

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

The transition to integrated agricultural systems and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions in Mato Grosso, Brazil

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

Spatial inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in the industry sector

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

Regional assessment of short-lived climate pollutant mitigation measures

Kandice Harper describes her YSSP project in which she assessed the regional importance of SLCP mitigation measures in China using updated emission projections. More

Integrating biophysical and economic evaluations of ecosystem services

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

What if the Dutch started worrying about flood risk?

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

Spatial and temporal changes in vegetable production in China

Long Ji shows how he measured the geographic concentration and regional localization of vegetable production in China with newly developed indicators. More

Modeling the impacts of climate change and market integration on agricultural production and land use management in Austria

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

Efficient forest biomass handling at terminals with focus on bio-refinery and fuel wood supply chains

Kalvis Kons details his YSSP project work which deals with characterization of the existing forest biomass terminals in Sweden. More

Earthquake risk financing and possible earthquake insurance options: A case study of Shiraz

Naghmeh Pakdel Lahiji explains that the coping and risk dimensions of earthquakes need to be looked at in combination when feasible risk management strategies are considered for Iran, specifically risk-spreading instruments like insurance. More

Assessing health and environmental impacts of measures to supplant kerosene use in developing country households: Lighting

Nicholas L. Lam explains his YSSP project work on evaluating the potential benefits of reduced kerosene use to meet lighting demand in developing countries plus the viable alternatives for its replacement. More

Systemic risk with strategic interactions

Matt V. Leduc discusses his YSSP project work on how the strategic solicitation and provision of insurance can affect systemic risk. More

Representing the Spatial Diffusion of Technologies in an Energy System Optimization Model

Benjamin D. Leibowicz details his YSSP project on representing spatial technology diffusion in an energy system optimization model to bring diffusion projections more into line with reality. More

Concurrent partnerships and their impacts on HIV transmission

Ka Yin Leung summarizes her YSSP research on how concurrent sexual partnerships impact the spread of HIV. More

Toward sustainable consumption of a renewable resource by a network

Talha Manzoor discusses his YSSP project work on better understanding the factors driving the dynamics of individual consumer behavior in order to identify policies favorable to sustainability. More

Creating a Web-based gaming simulation for green electricity consumption

Kanae Matsui shows the results of her YSSP project on developing a Web-based gaming simulation to gain a better understanding of people's decisions related to energy consumption. More

Satellite time series analysis for land use/cover change detection

Victor Maus summarizes his YSSP project in which he developed a methodology to improve information about land use and land cover trajectories in Brazil through the use of long-term satellite image data sets with high temporal frequency. More

Analysis of possible climate change impacts on agriculture and food security in Ukraine using GLOBIOM model

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

Sustainability assessment of forest bioenergy options in multiple-use landscapes

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

Social networks and fertility behavior among women in rural Uttar Pradesh, India

Praveen Kumar Pathak describes the outcomes of his YSSP project, which provides new insights into fertility, by empirically exploring the potential role of social networks in shaping the fertility behavior of women in rural India. More

Spatial modeling of global agricultural field burning emissions

Ville-Veikko Paunu discusses why results from different models of crop residue burning differ so greatly and how the modeling can be improved. More

Closing the yield gaps: How sustainable can we be?

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

Integrating vehicle consumer choice into the MESSAGE
Integrated Assessment Model: Implications for energy efficiency and
advanced technology

Kalai Ramea describes her YSSP project in which she developed a bridging approach to bring consumer behavioral parameters – specifically for the transport sector – into a linear-programming IAM framework, testing this approach through scenario analysis. More

An analysis of religious conversion and secularization, and its application to demographic projections of religion

Joshua Ramos analyzes religious conversions and secularization within a global perspective, and their overall impact on population dynamics. More

Earthquake risk modeling for evaluation of different
mitigation measures to reduce losses to property owners in the
metropolitan area of Shiraz, Iran

Mehdi Sadeghi explains the outcome of his YSSP project work on risk modeling of the structural vulnerability of buildings due to earthquakes in Iran. More

The implications of national catastrophe financing policies for households

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

Evolution of multilevel cooperation: Analogies between social and medical systems

Anne Seppänen outlines the results of her YSSP project on explaining complex cooperative and uncooperative interactions in nature and how these evolve. More

Species dispersal and the spatial insurance hypothesis

David W. Shanafelt describes his YSSP project in which he provided new insights into a pivotal ecological model, as well as perspective on the spatial insurance hypothesis. More

Contingent dispersal and the formation of cooperative groups

Henrik Sjödin explores explicit mechanisms of group formation processes, plus their evolution and consequences. More

Dynamic modeling of migration flows between Russia and CIS countries

Alexandr Tarasyev discusses the building of a dynamic multiregional model with economic and demographic factors to provide insights into migration flows in Russia and the CIS region. More

Water use impacts of future transport fuels: The role of California's climate policy and national biofuel policies

Jacob Teter outlines his YSSP project work which looked at policies for the wise use of scarce water resources in energy infrastructure development, under GHG mitigation targets. More

Scaling dynamics and cost trends of new technologies

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

Solutions for improving resource productivity using optimal control models

Wei Wang describes his YSSP project work in which he explored new economic approaches to include natural resources within the analytical framework. More

Evolution of mediated cooperative interactions

Melissa Whitaker, University of California, Davis, outlines the results of her YSSP project in which she modeled the effects of interaction asymmetries in order to explore the role of functional diversity on interaction dynamics. More

Impact of the changing winter wheat sown area on agriculture water footprint in the North China Plain

Xue Wang of the Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, gives the outcomes of her YSSP project which aimed to provide science-based evidence to assist policymakers in alleviating water stress problems in the North China Plain. More

Ammonia emission and control potentials in the Pearl River Delta (PRD)/Guangdong Province, China

Shasha Yin presents an account of her YSSP project on potential control measures for ammonium (NH3) in the Pearl River Delta area of China. More

Spatially explicit downscaling of future land use change from GLOBIOM model in the case study region of Heihe River Basin

Xinxin Zhang of the Beijing Forestry University, China, discusses her YSSP project in which she integrated a dynamic recursive cross-entropy-based probabilistic downscaling model with IIASA's GLOBIOM model to downscale global or regional scale land use change assessments to the local level. More

Projection of Chinese vehicle growth, energy demand, and emissions through 2035

Bo Zheng of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, projected future energy use and emissions in the transportation sector at a provincial level in China, taking account of the different growth patterns of vehicles between provinces: the outcomes are detailed in this paper. More


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Last edited: 23 April 2014

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