Paper/Poster/Presentation Title
Policy support for sustainable development in an uncertain future
Keywords
Policy support, integrated modelling, poverty alleviation, sustainable agriculture, reforestation
Start Date
15-9-2020 3:40 PM
End Date
15-9-2020 4:00 PM
Abstract
Sustainable development requires an approach that values and assesses society, economy and the environment in a holistic and integrated way. When looking at developing countries, the solutions to environmental challenges often go hand in hand with poverty alleviation. Unsustainable land management is likely to lead to environmental decay and losses in ecosystem services, making it hard for subsistence farmers to escape the poverty trap. Policy incentives that focus on long-term development of environmental assets as well as improving livelihoods can therefore create synergies in reaching sustainable development goals. Acknowledging that understanding the socio-ecological system with its inherent feedback processes is critical in supporting policies for sustainable development, the World Bank has initiated the development of a generic integrated land use modelling platform (LANDSIM-P). To ensure its policy-relevance, the platform is developed through a co-creation approach involving potential users across various governmental agencies, researchers and IT-specialists. The developed platform includes a suite of tightly-coupled models representing land use, farmer decisions, hydrology, vegetation, crop yields and soil processes. Processes are modelled with a high level of spatial detail to capture the local context, both in terms of the environmental conditions as well as the household types that manage the land, as the decisions households can make depend on the socio-ecological system they operate in. To understand the emergent behaviour across sub-systems, these components represent feedbacks between the various socio-economic and bio-physical processes. Model components operate with a temporal resolution of months to years simulating developments several decades into the future. This dynamic nature of the system provides an improved understanding of future developments and allows users to explore the impact of various policy options on meeting SDGs goals no poverty (1), zero hunger (2), climate action (13) and life on land (15), under various future pathways.
Policy support for sustainable development in an uncertain future
Sustainable development requires an approach that values and assesses society, economy and the environment in a holistic and integrated way. When looking at developing countries, the solutions to environmental challenges often go hand in hand with poverty alleviation. Unsustainable land management is likely to lead to environmental decay and losses in ecosystem services, making it hard for subsistence farmers to escape the poverty trap. Policy incentives that focus on long-term development of environmental assets as well as improving livelihoods can therefore create synergies in reaching sustainable development goals. Acknowledging that understanding the socio-ecological system with its inherent feedback processes is critical in supporting policies for sustainable development, the World Bank has initiated the development of a generic integrated land use modelling platform (LANDSIM-P). To ensure its policy-relevance, the platform is developed through a co-creation approach involving potential users across various governmental agencies, researchers and IT-specialists. The developed platform includes a suite of tightly-coupled models representing land use, farmer decisions, hydrology, vegetation, crop yields and soil processes. Processes are modelled with a high level of spatial detail to capture the local context, both in terms of the environmental conditions as well as the household types that manage the land, as the decisions households can make depend on the socio-ecological system they operate in. To understand the emergent behaviour across sub-systems, these components represent feedbacks between the various socio-economic and bio-physical processes. Model components operate with a temporal resolution of months to years simulating developments several decades into the future. This dynamic nature of the system provides an improved understanding of future developments and allows users to explore the impact of various policy options on meeting SDGs goals no poverty (1), zero hunger (2), climate action (13) and life on land (15), under various future pathways.
Stream and Session
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