A Dual-scale Modelling approach to Integrated Resource Management in East and South-east Asia: Challenges and Potential solutions

Currently, in many of the highly productive lowland areas of E and SE Asia a trend to further intensification and diversification of (agricultural) land use can be observed. Growing economies and urbanization also increase the claims on land and water by non-agricultural uses. As a result, decisions related to the management and planning of scarce resources become increasingly complex. Technological innovations at the field/farm level are needed but not sufficient – changes in resource use at regional scale will also be essential. To support decisionmaking in such situations, we advocate a multi-scale modelling approach embedded in a solid participatory process. To this end, the Integrated Resource Management and Land use Analysis (IRMLA) Project is developing an analytical framework and methods for resource use analysis and planning, for four sites in Asia. In the envisaged multi-scale approach, integration of results from field, farm, district and provincial level analysis is based on Interactive multiple goal linear programming (), Farm Household Modelling (FHM), production ecological concepts and participatory techniques. The novel approach comprises the following steps: (i) Inventory/quantification of current land use systems, resource availability, management practices and policy views, (ii) Analysis of alternative, innovative land use systems/technologies, (iii) Exploration of the opportunities and limitations to change resource use at regional scale under alternative future scenarios, (iv) Modelling decision behavior of farmers and identification of feasible policy interventions, and (v) Synthesis of results from farm to regional level for negotiation of the most promising options by a stakeholder platform. In the current paper, the operationalization of a dual-scale approach is illustrated by the outputs (development scenarios, promising policy measures and innovative production systems) from various component models for the case study Ilocos Norte, Philippines. A procedure is discussed for the integration of results from the different model components at two different decision making levels (farm and province).