GLASSNET’s impact on key stakeholders will make a difference in achieving the SDGs. Our network has the potential to provide decision makers from a wide-array of areas with the data needed to properly assess actions that will affect the environment, the economy and local communities.
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GTAP Virtual Seminar Series:
SIMPLE-G: A Gridded Economic Approach to Sustainability Analysis of the Earth's Land and Water Resources
December 17 (register by December 15)
9:00 - 10:00 AM US Eastern Standard Time, UTC-5
Crafted for both the economist and the curious mind, this book introduces a novel approach to blending economic and biophysical sciences to enable gridded, multi-scale analysis of a range of sustainability challenges confronting the world’s land and water resources at both local and global scales.
This book offers:
- Innovative methodologies - a simplified yet powerful gridded economic model for geospatial analysis of the interactions between economic systems and the environment
- Case study applications that highlight practical applications of these ideas in real-world scenarios including: land and water use, labor markets, agricultural production, international trade, food consumption, food security, and environmental pollutions
- Tools for policy analysis aimed at solving critical challenges related to land use, conservation policy, water management, and sustainable development
Authors invite you to discover more and join the growing community of readers who are already exploring this exciting new work
Brooke is a Research Fellow in the Global Conservation and Sustainability (GSC) lab which is led by Professor Jonathan Rhodes at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. Her work focuses on finding innovative solutions to conservation problems at the environment–human interface at both global and local scales. Balancing conservation with human needs is an increasingly important area of science, and she addresses these challenges through strategic planning where she designs tools to effectively allocate conservation action, largely through mathematical optimization.
She recently visiting the University of Minnesota to work with Assistant Professor Justin Johnson. Below she describes how the GLASSNET Early Career Researchers Scholar Exchange program benefitted her research:
The program allowed me to travel from Brisbane to the University of Minnesota (UMN) for a two week visit with NatCap TEEMs. Beyond spending invaluable research time with Assistant Professor Justin Johnson, I was also able to meet with other colleagues, make new connections, attend lab meetings, and seminars. I certainly made the most of my exchange! Importantly, I was able to push forward my global conservation focused research.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) charts an ambitious course to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services, aiming to sustain a thriving planet for all humanity. Ratification of the GBF led to an increase in scientific studies identifying priority locations for conservation as we seek planning solutions, with most using mathematical optimization techniques at global scales with relatively coarse planning units (typically 10 km2 or greater). Yet, implementation of priorities that are identified through global planning exercises that oversimplify the complexity of local landscapes may be at risk of failing to meet their objectives. Tools developed at the UMN, specifically the Spatial Economic Allocation Landscape Simulator (SEALS - which can downscale land uses to 300m), allow us to interrogate answer the research questions a) how might global scale planning solutions (in our case reflecting priorities targeting the spatially explicit GBF action targets for conservation) play out at fine scales when taking land use heterogeneity into account, and b) what is the difference between expected biodiversity and carbon benefits from global scale planning solutions and more likely fine scale benefits?
My time with Assistant Professor Justin Johnson has allowed me to use SEALS, and has also set us up for a broader scope of work taking the global conservation policy analysis to the next phase. Ultimately, this research aims to inform on how broadscale conservation policies can best meet their stated objectives.
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