Integrated environmental modeling: A vision and roadmap for the future

By G. Laniak, Gabe P. Olchin, J. Goodall, Alexey A. Voinov, M. Hill, P. Glynn, G. Whelan, G. Geller, N. Quinn, M. Blind and 5 more. Environmental Modelling & Software, 2013

497 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Integrated environmental modeling (IEM) is inspired by modern environmental problems, decisions, and policies and enabled by transdisciplinary science and computer capabilities that allow the environment to be considered in a holistic way. The problems are characterized by the extent of the environmental system involved, dynamic and interdependent nature of stressors and their impacts, diversity of stakeholders, and integration of social, economic, and environmental considerations. IEM provides a science-based structure to develop and organize relevant knowledge and information and apply it to explain, explore, and predict the behavior of environmental systems in response to human and natural sources of stress. During the past several years a number of workshops were held that brought IEM practitioners together to share experiences and discuss future needs and directions. In this paper we organize and present the results of these discussions. IEM is presented as a landscape containing four interdependent elements: applications, science, technology, and community. The elements are described from the perspective of their role in the landscape, current practices, and challenges that must be addressed. Workshop participants envision a global scale IEM community that leverages modern technologies to streamline the movement of science-based knowledge from its sources in research, through its organization into databases and models, to its integration and application for problem solving purposes. Achieving this vision will require that the global community of IEM stakeholders transcend social, and organizational boundaries and pursue greater levels of collaboration. Among the highest priorities for community action are the development of standards for publishing IEM data and models in forms suitable for automated discovery, access, and integration; education of the next generation of environmental stakeholders, with a focus on transdisciplinary research, development, and decision making; and providing a web-based platform for community interactions (e.g., continuous virtual workshops).

Subfields: Geology, Information Systems and Management, Management Science and Operations Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/89d52187fd41fac082a420d0f278e61867c280ec

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In Information Systems and Management

Holger R. Maier

In Management Science and Operations Research

Citations in the corpus

Ecosystem services and economic development in Austrian agricultural landscapes - The impact of policy and climate change scenarios on trade-offs and synergies (2015, background): “Despite the advances in IMFs (Janssen et al., 2011; Laniak et al., 2013), multi-regional IMFs at a high spatial resolution with focus on ES supply, trade-offs, and supporting synergies are still rare but required to derive robust conclusions under regional heterogeneities (Crossman et al., 2013).”
An overview of methods to evaluate uncertainty of deterministic models in decision support (2015, methodology): “Modelling in its various forms is an increasingly popular method to approach these problems (e.g. Hilborn andMangel, 1997; Jackson et al., 2000; EPA, 2008; Aguilera et al., 2011; Laniak et al., 2013).”
Crop modelling for integrated assessment of risk to food production from climate change (2015, methodology): “…and interdisciplinary framework that brings together and synthesizes scientific knowledge from relevant disciplines (Jakeman and Letcher, 2003; Laniak et al., 2013) as well as explicitly making space for the inclusion of stakeholders and their values (Rotmans and Van Asselt, 1996; Harris,…”
Tools and methods in participatory modeling: Selecting the right tool for the job (2018, methodology): “Integrated modeling is a way of building models by combining or coupling existing models used as components to represent complex systems (Laniak et al., 2013; Belete et al., 2017).”
A critical review of integrated urban water modelling - Urban drainage and beyond (2014, background): “Finally, integrated models are likely to improve in terms of software design and implementation (Laniak et al., 2013) and find a stable footing in the software market.”
Selecting among five common modelling approaches for integrated environmental assessment and management (2013, methodology): “What are coupled component models? The approach of coupling component models (CCMs) involves combining models from different disciplines or sectors to come up with an integrated outcome (see for example Drobinski et al., 2012; Fennessy and Shukla, 2000; Grant et al., 2002; Laniak et al., 2013; Letch”
AquaCrop: FAO's crop water productivity and yield response model (2014, background): “, 2012) or form part of an integrated (environmental) modeling concept where multiple disciplines come together to formulate solutions for complex, real-world problems (Laniak et al., 2013).”