Activities between IIASA and Japanese researchers in 2014 advanced research methods and provided insights for policy in areas ranging from climate change to technology diffusion.
Map of Japan
Studies in 2014 included the development of a new set of scenarios to underpin future climate modeling, impact, vulnerability, adaptation, and mitigation assessments; research into ways to improve the representation of technological change in integrated assessment models to inform climate policy choices; and research into the evolution of diseases and commercially-exploited fish. IIASA’s longstanding connections to business in Japan include the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, with collaborations focused on efficient and sustainable energy systems.
In addition, one Japanese doctoral students gained international and interdisciplinary research skills after winning a place in IIASA’s Young Scientists Summer Program in 2014.
Scientists from the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program applied the GLOBIOM model to analyze a large number of climate change scenarios in order to investigate the extent to which producers facing climate change favored irreversible adaptation measures over low-cost field-scale adjustments. more
In the ALPS project, Transitions to New Technologies (TNT) scientists in collaboration with the ENE Program and colleagues from Japan are researching ways to improve the representation of technological change in integrated assessment models (IAMs) to inform climate policy choices. more
In cooperation with its National Member Organizations of Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group co-hosted a session on applied systems analysis as part of the ninth ASEAN Science and Technology Week (ASTW) in Bogor, Indonesia. more
Living systems undergo ecological and evolutionary change. Typically, ecological and evolutionary dynamics interact, giving rise to eco-evolutionary dynamics that cannot be understood in terms of either ecology or evolution alone. more
Involving stakeholders is essential for elaborating and legitimizing public policy on disaster risk management during the post-disaster recovery process, as stipulated by the Rio Declaration and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015. Such processes are at the core of the Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) Program’s work on disaster risk governance. more
The negative emissions research of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group was further developed building on several past collaborations and previous biomass and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) workshops at IIASA, in Indonesia, Brazil, and Tokyo. more
Scientists, alumni, and collaborators from the Transitions to New Technologies Program (TNT) contributed to 25 chapters of the book, Energy Technology Innovation: Learning from Historical Successes and Failures, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. more
A new book, World Population and Human Capital in the 21st Century, presented the results of the latest population projections from the World Population Program (POP) and the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Human Capital. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program coordinates the IIASA’s Futures Initiative on Eurasian Economic Integration, dealing with the complex issues of economic cooperation between countries of the Eurasian continent. more
With the Ecosystems Services and Management’s (ESM) Earth Observation Systems research group, the Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group developed a methodology to support assessment of forest management certification and policymaking. In 2014, this methodology was refined and applied to a case study in the boreal forest area. more
The endogenous model formulation for technology diffusion constraints was further refined and parameterized to improve the representation of technological change in integrated assessment models (IAMs) and thereby inform climate policy choices. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group organized the formal launch of the cross-sectoral “Tropical Futures Initiative” (TFI) at a workshop with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Jakarta, Indonesia, in February 2014. more
The Energy (ENE) Program made important strides in advancing the state of knowledge on energy poverty, the policy costs of expanding universal access to modern energy worldwide, and the synergies and tradeoffs between achieving universal access and other sustainable development goals. more
Age and cohort change (ACC) researchers within the World Population Program (POP), continued working, in collaboration with Pew Research Center, on population projections of religious denominations around the world. more
In cooperation with its National Member Organizations of Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group co-hosted a session on applied systems analysis as part of the ninth ASEAN Science and Technology Week (ASTW) in Bogor, Indonesia. more
The original Energy Primer, released in conjunction with the Report of the Global Energy Assessment (GEA), has been expanded and updated and made available both online and as a downloadable textbook, along with with support material for educators. more
The work of the Energy (ENE) Program on energy security focuses on how energy security is framed as a policy issue in different political contexts and interacts with other energy policy objectives. more
In 2014 World Population Program (POP) scientists undertook an extensive analysis of natural disaster data for 167 countries over the past four decades as well as a number of studies carried out in individual countries and regions to test the hypothesis that education is a key factor in reducing disaster fatalities and enhancing adaptive capacity. more
Following up on a widely acknowledged and highly successful release of the global agro-ecological zones (GAEZ v3) data portal by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and IIASA in 2012, the Water (WAT) Program in 2014 continued to collaborate with FAO to update data and extend model components in preparation of data portal GAEZ v4 scheduled for release in 2015. more
Involving stakeholders is essential for elaborating and legitimizing public policy on disaster risk management during the post-disaster recovery process, as stipulated by the Rio Declaration and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015. Such processes are at the core of the Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) Program’s work on disaster risk governance. more
The World Population Program (POP), with three other IIASA programs—Energy (ENE), Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG), and Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM), has begun to implement the crosscutting project “Accounting for socioeconomic heterogeneity in IIASA models.” more
Advanced System Analysis (ASA) Program researchers develop methods and case-studies analyzing ecological, economic, energy, financial and other networked empirical systems. These methods often originate in the natural science disciplines (e.g., physics, ecology) and then transfer to social sciences disciplines (e.g., economics). more
In 2014 the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program continued the analyses of the mitigation potentials and co-benefits of specific emission control options. more
The Water (WAT) Program carried out methodological development and socioeconomic analysis for the “Integrated Analysis and Modelling of Land Use Efficiency and Security under Rapid Agricultural Transformation in China” in Chongqing, Southwest China; the work was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC). more
The negative emissions research of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) group was further developed building on several past collaborations and previous biomass and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) workshops at IIASA, in Indonesia, Brazil, and Tokyo. more
An IIASA study for the first time estimates the trade-off between pension age and labor-force participation policies, showing that increasing labor force participation by as little as 1 or 2 percentage points could allow the pension age to be reduced by one year without increasing the burden on the working population. more
In 2014 the Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases (MAG) Program completed a new generation of projections of global future air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions that outline the impacts of future policy decisions. more
The impacts of livestock on endangered species have been understudied, particularly across the livestock-wildlife interface in forested protected areas. A member of the Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) Program investigated the impact of an emerging livestock sector in China's renowned Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas. more
Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) scientists showed how political risks to large-scale solar institutions planned for the Mediterranean and North African region depend on the specifics of the sector, size of project, and type of activity. They also discussed the water shortage challenges facing Iran. more
Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) research is critical in terms of overcoming the perception that insurance can contribute to risky behavior and thus disaster risk. It reveals how indexed systems, where payouts are triggered by an event parameter and not by loss claims, not only avoid moral hazard and encourage risk reduction, but can increase the access of the poor to much-needed safety nets. more
The Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program coordinates the IIASA’s Futures Initiative on Eurasian Economic Integration, dealing with the complex issues of economic cooperation between countries of the Eurasian continent. more
The Energy (ENE) Program coordinated a number of major research community activities, in particular the further development of quantitative scenarios for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), which form part of the new framework adopted by the climate change research community to facilitate the integrated analysis of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation, and mitigation. more
With the Ecosystems Services and Management’s (ESM) Earth Observation Systems research group, the Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group developed a methodology to support assessment of forest management certification and policymaking. In 2014, this methodology was refined and applied to a case study in the boreal forest area. more
The collaborative project, Sustaining and Improving Rural Livelihoods through Adaptive Approaches to Land, Soil Nutrient and Water Management, covers three geographically distinct but thematically related research projects in India, with the focus in 2014 on Gujarati. Exchange visits of IIASA and Indian institutions are building the basis of the integrated project cluster on sustaining and improving rural livelihoods. more
The Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Policy and Science Interface (PSI) research group organized the formal launch of the cross-sectoral “Tropical Futures Initiative” (TFI) at a workshop with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Jakarta, Indonesia, in February 2014. more
Pietro Landi of the Evolution and Ecology Program is studying animal movement behavior and the sustainable management of fisheries to assess the adaptive behavior of single individuals in ecosystems and societies. more
Miho Kamei of the University of Tokyo/National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, investigated the future role of cities in improving energy efficiency and decreasing emissions. more
Haochen Wang of the Institute of Population Research, Peking University, China, projected how human capital will change in Beijing to 2050 from the education and health perspectives in different policy scenarios. more
Shengfa Li of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, estimated the amount of abandoned croplands in 2000-2010 and the future changes expected in China’s mountainous areas. more
Hongmei Zheng of the School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, China, analyzed how the three regions within the Jing-Jin-Ji agglomeration interact with each other and their roles in its development. more
Tao Wang of the Center for Industrial Ecology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, constructed an aggregate model of China’s economy for 1980-2010 to retrospectively analyze the sensitivity of resource productivity to variations in investment scenarios. more
Kun Ma of the School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China, used the EPIC model to estimate soil organic carbon stocks in the Roige wetland in western China. more
Younha Kim of the Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, investigated the effectiveness of the Seoul Metropolitan Area’s Air Quality Management Plan (SAQMP) using the GAINS-Korea framework under development at IIASA. more
Jun Liu of the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China, explored the potential benefits in terms of air pollutant reduction through natural gas substitution strategies in power plants, residential combustion, and industrial boilers in the Jing-Jin-Ji region. more
Moonil Kim of Korea University, Republic of Korea, aimed to improve the existing forest growth model and research algorithms of the G4M model so that it could be adapted to South Korea. more
Abhishek Kumar of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India, researched intergenerational transmission of fertility preferences in a case study in rural Bihar. more
Volodymyr Blyshchyk of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine improved the models needed to estimate carbon stock in live biomass and carbon flux between the atmosphere and vegetation. more
Wei Liu is working with the Risk, Policy and Vulnerability Program on human-environment relationships. He is studying the specific case of the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, China, where in May 2008 the local community’s economic, energy, and land use/cover transitions were devastated by a megadisaster, the 7.9 Mw Wenchuan earthquake, which caused massive damage and mortalities. more
Delin Fang of Beijing Normal University used Network Environ Analysis to study water conservation assessment with respect to cycling and indirect flows in the Ganzhou District of the Heihe River Basin, China. more
Pietro Campana of Mälardalen University, Sweden, undertook a project to identify the suitability and optimal location of grassland areas for the implementation of photovoltaic (PV) water pumping systems across China. more
Niharika Tripathi of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India, examined the association between preferred life expectancy (PLE)—how long people want to live—and selected related socioeconomic characteristics in the low resource setting of rural India. more
Qiuying Ding of the Shanghai Climate Center, China, looked at the coupling of crop models across different spatial scales and the multi-scale evaluation of adaptive technologies locally, for different cropping regions, and China as a whole. more
Pietro Landi of the Evolution and Ecology Program is studying animal movement behavior and the sustainable management of fisheries to assess the adaptive behavior of single individuals in ecosystems and societies. more
Fatima Sumbul of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, examined the virtual water trade flow and its importance in informing water governance strategies. more
Gerald Meke of Chancellor College, Malawi, researched the effects on livelihoods of the introduction of co-management to conserve forest resources in the Zomba-Malosa Forest Reserve in Malawi. more
Miho Kamei of the University of Tokyo/National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, investigated the future role of cities in improving energy efficiency and decreasing emissions. more
