Coupling Economic Models with Agronomic, Hydrologic, and Bioenergy Models for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems
Workshop held October 12–13, 2015 Iowa State University
Organizers: Catherine Kling, Raymond Arritt, Gray Calhoun, and David Keiser
The white paper is now available:
Research Needs and Challenges in the FEW System: Coupling Economic Models with Agronomic, Hydrologic, and Bioenergy Models for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems
Catherine L. Kling, Raymond W. Arritt, Gray Calhoun, David A. Keiser
The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University hosted a two-day National Science Foundation-funded workshop exploring the necessary integration of biophysical and economic models. The workshop brought together leading economists, statisticians, crop scientists, hydrologists, climate scientists, and other biophysical modelers, to identify and address the key scientific, engineering, and data challenges associated with understanding our food, energy, and water system.
Leading experts from across the country addressed workshop participants about varying components of the FEW system and the inherent modelling challenges. Participants heard panelist discussions and participated in focused group discussions. The direct product of this workshop is a white paper providing guidance to the National Science Foundation in formulating a $75 million grant program planned to be launched in 2016. Additional details of the NSF program are available on the NSF site (pdf).
The goals of the workshop were to:
- identify the key gaps in modeling capabilities and scientific understanding within the individual behavioral, biological, and natural systems that comprise the FEW system;
- identify key challenges in model linkages across the behavioral, biological, and natural systems that comprise the FEW system;
- identify the major statistical and econometric challenges in estimating the accuracy of these individual and linked models when they are used for forecasting and for predicting the outcomes of policy decisions;
- identify the key data and cyberinfrastructure challenges required to develop the needed modeling capabilities within individual components of the system and to achieve linkages across the modeling components of the FEW system; and
- identify key challenges in adapting and using these models to incorporate climate change.
