IIASA's research is interdisciplinary, integrated and cross cutting, therefore many of our activities focus on more than one of the areas as identified in the Strategic Plan. The below details research that addresses both Energy and Climate, and Poverty and Equity issues.
Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) Program research found that selling livestock was the most frequently reported coping strategy for smallholders in rural Uganda following weather disasters. more
Results from IIASA's global land use model GLOBIOM model, adapted to the Congo Basin region - the CongoBIOM model - were used to inform a World Bank study on future deforestation trends in the Congo Basin published in 2013. 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
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
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
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
In collaboration with IIASA’s Population Program, the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program produced an innovative model of the interactions between population dynamics, economic growth and investments into environmental protection and the consequences on human well-being. 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) 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
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
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
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
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
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
In a review paper, developed in cooperation with colleagues from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Japan, scientists of the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program argued that a multidisciplinary approach, involving the interplay with other policy objectives beyond air quality and climate, is needed to bring policies into line with current research on co-benefits. more
In 2013 the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program made several new contributions to the development of optimal control theory for managing socio-environmental systems within a modeling framework. more
In the area of air pollution and health, the Energy (ENE) Program intensified collaboration with the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program at IIASA, the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy (part of the European Commission), and Columbia University in the USA to explore the health benefits of climate and pollution control scenarios. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program's Policy and Science Interface (PSI) team has been considering how to mitigate climate change through the use of carbon-neutral bio-energy (BE), combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS), to produce negative-emissions conditions. more
In 2013 the Energy (ENE) Program conducted policy analyses in areas where the energy related challenges were greatest, for example, universal energy access. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program group on environmental resources and development (ERD) tackles the multiple interrelationships that exist between the natural environment and the human systems that actually or potentially affect it - population, land use, soil, water, chemicals, climate, crop management systems, and global trade. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program has been working for several years on Web-enabled structured modeling, multi-criteria analysis, and infrastructure for sharing research databases, all aimed at supporting collaborative interdisciplinary research for decision support. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program reviewed techniques available across various fields for characterizing the performance of environmental models with a focus on numerical, graphical, and qualitative methods. more
The Methods for Economic Decision making under Uncertainty (MEDU) group contributed to the first results of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), a pioneering collaboration within the international scientific community. more
The Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program contributed to papers that highlight how the global nitrogen cycle could change in the 21st century and the extent to which this is reflected in the current set of global emission scenarios. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) researchers in 2013 worked on developing new economic growth models capable of generating “green growth” and sustainable development solutions. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program’s Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group aims to strengthen various aspects of the role played by the ESM research program in the climate and land use change-relevant community. more
The joint work with IIASA’s Energy Program on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) was completed at the beginning of 2013 and all the data was made available in the SSP Database on the IIASA website. more
In 2013 the work of the Energy (ENE) Program on energy poverty and access to clean modern forms of energy examined the broader linkages between energy services and economic development. more
Comprehensive modeling of the effects of climate change, including extreme events, by RPV involves advanced techniques and takes into account stakeholder requests and needs. more
The Policy Science Interface (PSI) group of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program worked with ESM's Earth Observation Systems (EOS) to develop a new methodology to support assessment of, and decision making for, future forest management certification. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program in 2013 looked at systems marked by interlinkages and interdependencies, where failure of one entity or a cluster of entities can cause a cascading failure capable of bringing down an entire system. more
New global emission scenarios enable a fresh perspective on air pollution trends in different world regions, and in particular on the importance of proper governance for future air quality. more
IIASA researchers contributed to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction coordinated by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. more
A new study, which analyzed future woody biomass resource availability plus sectoral competition for biomass for energy and material use, showed the key question for biomass energy use not to be the amount of resources available but rather their accessibility and thus their price. 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
Sunday Y. Hosu presents a study characterizing the present and future vulnerability of smallholder farming households in contrasting agro-ecological zones in Eastern Cape Province. more
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
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
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
