Tag: capacity building

CD-LINKS Summer School on Integrated Assessment Models: A Tool for Science-Based Policy Making

In cooperation with CMCC, IIASA, and the support of EAERE, the CD-LINKS project is launching a Summer School aimed at providing advanced training for young international scholars on integrated assessment models. It will take place at the Palazzo Artigianelli, Venice, Italy, from 30 June to 6 July, 2019.

As environmental policy making becomes increasingly informed by model simulations, it becomes crucial for researchers involved in this science-to-policy dialogue to obtain a basic understanding of how such models work, how they are developed and how to interpret their output.

Objectives
The objective of the summer school is to create a community of young scholars from a broad range of disciplines, ranging from environmental and natural resource economists to energy engineers, physicists, system analysts and environmental scientists, interested in the topic of modelling human activities and the earth system in an integrated framework, commonly referred to as Integrated Assessment Modelling.

The school will cover the process of modelling the interactions between economic activities and the energy system, land use, forest and agriculture, water, and atmosphere, and whether and how these multi-dimensional implications could be aggregated or traded-off.

Topics

  • History of the Integrated Assessment modelling of human activities and the earth system
  • Past socio-demographic trends and implications for energy: future major trends
  • Overview of land use, agriculture and food
  • Overview of the modelling of impacts of climate change
  • Modelling Sustainable Development Goals: The expansion of Integrated Assessment Models and bringing everything back together
  • Integrated Assessment Model development and their use: three national experiences

Note: We received a record number of applications, and therefore only contacted candidates who were accepted to the program. All accepted candidates were notified as of  5th April 2019. Thank you again for your interest in the Summer School.  – CD-LINKS Consortium and Summer School Faculty.

Important dates

Application deadline: CLOSED

Announcement of accepted applicants: 5th April 2019

Summer school held: 30th June to 6th July 2019

Any questions contact: cd-links.summer-school(@)iiasa.ac.at

Capacity building workshop, India, 22nd March

On 22nd March CD-LINKS held a capacity building workshop aimed at post-doctoral researchers and PhD students interested in integrated assessment modeling, systems analysis, and visualisation tools. About 20 people attended the event, who were from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), IORA Ecological Solutions, and studying at TERI University, and were citizens of India and Nigeria.

Students listening to presentation at capacity building workshop / photo credit J. Callen

Presentations were from invited experts participating in the CD-LINKS project. One session of the workshop was focused on integrated assessment modelling methodology. The second session was focused on the analysis of data and how to present modelling results in a more engaging and useful format.

At the end of the workshop a discussion on communicating results to policy and decision makers took place. During the discussion it was emphasised to the students that the purpose of a model is to explain the order of magnitude and dynamics of a system, but it is not a crystal ball for predicting the future and this should be communicated to policy/ decision makers. The presenters of the course also recommended that the students to undertake sensitivity analysis and model comparison to ensure the robustness of their results.

The presentations are available to download:

The next capacity building workshop is planned for March 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.