Center for Environmental System Research
The Center for Environmental Systems Research takes a unique integrated approach to environmental research and education, which combines know-how from both the social and natural sciences. The Center is well known for its research on modelling forest ecological systems, for its studies on society-environment interactions, and especially for the modelling of the global environmental system. Researchers at the Center work with the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands on the development and application of a comprehensive earth system model, "IMAGE 2". The IMAGE 2 model couples driving forces of global change such as energy consumption and agricultural demand with global changes in the atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial environments. Results of the model have been published in two books and numerous scientific articles. Among other applications, the IMAGE 2 model was recently used by the Center in a project entitled "An integrated analysis of climate change and regional air pollution in Europe" carried out for the European Commission (DG XII). Results of the model have also provided input to the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention and to other climate policy activities.
Researchers at the Center have also developed a suite of other global models. One such model is the "GLASS" model of global environmental security which is used to assess the impacts of extreme climate events on future food and water availability. The Center is developing a Russian-specific version of the GLASS model in cooperation with Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The development of the Russian model is funded with prize money from the 1998 Max Planck Research Prize awarded to Joseph Alcamo, the Director of the Center for Environmental Systems Research.
Another global model developed at the Center is "WaterGAP", one of the first global models that simulates both hydrology and water use on the watershed level. The WaterGAP model is being used to develop new global water balances and to carry out scenario analyses and assessments for the World Water Commission and other organizations. The Center recently used WaterGAP in a project entitled "Global modelling in support of World Water Scenarios" supported by UNESCO and the World Bank.
The Center also offers a comprehensive academic curriculum at the University of Kassel in "environmental systems analysis" including several courses in environmental modelling at the global and regional scales.
