Consortium > IIASA

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Organization short name: IIASA
acronym:
web page: www.iiasa.ac.at

Description of the organization

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a non-governmental research organisation based in Laxenburg, Austria. The institute conducts inter-disciplinary scientific studies on environmental, economic, technological and social issues in the context of human dimensions of global change. IIASA is well-known for: energy, forestry, population, climate change, risk and vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation, technology, air pollution, land-use, and mathematical modelling.

Expertise and experience of the organization

The participating Forestry Program (FOR) (http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/) has a proven record in frontier science in the fields of European and global forest modelling, agriculture sector modelling, economic modelling, and land use change modelling including erosion. Special emphasis is put on combining aspects such as mitigation and adaptation strategies of climate change, ecosystem management, natural hazards, and special social and economic aspects such as risk, vulnerability and uncertainty into a harmonized integrated modelling approach. Furthermore, the program’s scientific expertise comprises also integrated (policy) assessment of sustainability strategies e.g., biomass for bioenergy potential estimations coupled with forest certification tools.

Selected reference projects

  • Climate Change – Terrestrial Adaptation and Mitigation in Europe CC-TAME. (FP7, No.212535), Coordinator
  • Integrated Sink Enhancement Assessment INSEA. (FP 6, No. SSPI-CT-2003/503614), Coordinator
  • Global Earth Observation – Benefit Estimation: Now, Next and Emerging GEO-BENE. (FP6, No. 037063), Coordinator
  • ClimateCost. Full Costs of Climate Change (FP7, No. 212774), Partner

Key scientific / technical personnel

Dr. Erwin Schmid, Assistant Professor, teaches and researches in the field of agricultural policy and environmental and resource economics. He is focusing on integrative analysis to support policy decision-making in the sustainable management of natural resource. He integrates bio-physical process models with economic land use optimisation models to capture the feedback mechanism of natural and human systems at local to global scales.
Dr. Michael Obersteiner, Senior expert in global forest modelling, spatial global modelling of socioeconomic systems, energy risk management, and climate policy analysis. He has been principle investigator of a number of large-scale projects including EU funded projects both in FP6 and FP7.
Dr. Georg Kindermann, Expert in biophysical modelling, scenario modelling and programming. He contributes to forest growth simulation and spatial scenario modelling of land cover change.

Responsibilities in CARBO-Extreme

  • Long Term Carbon Measurements and Climate (WP3)
  • Model experiments and scenario analysis (WP6)
  • Dissemination and policy interaction (WP8)

Selected recent relevant publications

Schmid E, Balkovic J, Skalsky R, Biophysical impact assessment of crop land management strategies in EU25 using EPIC. In: Stolbovoy V, Montanarella L, Panagos P: Carbon Sink Enhancement in Soils of Europe: Data, Modelling, and Verification. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports. European Communities 2007, Luxembourg. 160 - 183. ISBN 978-92-79-07691-6.

Schneider, UA, McCarl BA, Schmid E, Agricultural Sector Analysis on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in U.S. Agriculture and Forestry. Agricultural Systems, 94(2), 128-140, 2007. link to publisher

Balkovic, J, Schmid E, ..., Bio-physical Modelling for Evaluating Soil Carbon Sequestration Potentials on Arable Lands in the Pilot Area Baden-Württemberg. Agriculture. 52/4, 1-13, 2006.

Marland G, Obersteiner M, Schlamadinger B. The carbon benefits of fuels and forests. Science 318, 1066-1068, 2007. link to publisher

Kindermann, G, Obersteiner M, Rametsteiner E, McCallum I, Predicting the deforestation-trend under different-carbon prices, Carbon Balance and Management. 1:15, doi:10.1186/1750-0680-1-15, 2006.  link to publisher

Kindermann G, McCallum I, Fritz S, Obersteiner M, A global forest growing stock, biomass and carbon map based on FAO statistics. Silva Fennica 42(3), 387–396, 2008. link to publisher