Integrative Modelling for Sustainable Land-Use Futures

Perspectives in Global Development: Fall 2022 Seminar Series

Nowadays, production of food, energy and materials, and the related use of water, nitrogen and other inputs account for crucial components and interactions in the land as well as full earth system.

The global land system will be facing new intersecting challenges in the future such as changing climate and increasing demand for ecosystem services. On the other hand, it will have to undergo fundamental transformations to meet the requirements of climate protection, environmental sustainability, food and water security as well as ecosystem and biodiversity protection and regeneration. Hence, there is a higher need than ever for interdisciplinary science on sustainable land-use management.

In this presentation, I will talk about the importance and characteristics of integrative land-use modelling for assessing transformation pathways towards sustainable land-use systems to reach sustainable development within planetary boundaries and to account for nature’s contribution to people. Based on the open-source land system model MAgPIE (Model of Agricultural Production and its Impacts on the Environment) I will give examples based on recent research and highlight gaps of current as well as potential directions for future research.

About the speaker

Alexander Popp leads interdisciplinary land-use research at the highly renowned Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. He coordinates the development of the global ‘Model of Agricultural Production and its Impacts on the Environment’ (MAgPIE), which over the last years has evolved into one of the world’s leading integrated global land use and water use modelling systems. Moreover, he contributes to several international assessment processes such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Alexander Popp has published more than 100 peer reviewed scientific articles and is ranked by the global Web of Science among the 1% most cited scientists. He was listed among the World's forty most influential climate scientists and for Germany in the top 3 on the Reuters Climate Hot-List. And he's convinced that we can still stop climate change.

About the seminar series

The Perspectives in Global Development seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:25 – 1:15 p.m. eastern time during the semester. The series will be presented in a hybrid format with some speakers on campus and others appearing via Zoom. All seminars are shown in Emerson 135. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend. The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses IARD 6960, NTRES 6960, PLSCS 6960, and AEM 6960.