Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/W007509/1
Core principles for integrated models for ecosystem management
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr D Bearup, University of Kent, Sch of Maths Statistics & Actuarial Sci
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor JR O'Hanley, University of Kent, Kent Business School
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor IM Fraser, University of Kent, Sch of Economics
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor R Fish, Imperial College London, Centre for Environmental Policy
- Grant held at:
- University of Kent, Sch of Maths Statistics & Actuarial Sci
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Agricultural systems
- Biodiversity
- Ecology/ecosystem
- Managed landscapes
- Sustainable agriculture
- Agricultural systems
- Conservation Ecology
- Anthropogenic pressures
- Biodiversity conservation
- Conservation management
- Ecosystem function
- Ecosystem services
- Habitat fragmentation
- Land use change
- Species diversity
- Biodiversity
- Ecosystem function
- Ecosystem services
- Extinction
- Freshwater populations
- Habitat use
- Population density
- Population dynamics
- Population modelling
- Terrestrial populations
- Population Ecology
- Ecological economics
- Economic effects of environmental policies
- Environmental public goods
- Environmental valuations
- Pricing of environmental resources
- Sustainable development
- Environmental economics
- Deterministic Systems
- Non-linear Systems Mathematics
- Feedback Loop
- Non-Equilibrium Mechanics
- Nonlinear Partial DEs
- ODEs
- Stochastic Processes
- Abstract:
- Human society and our economy have been built to make use of the natural world. However, as the Dasgupta report has highlighted these activities have damaged our environment and wild populations. Repairing this damage and rebuilding our society to sustainably make use of natural resources will require significant investment. It is important to ensure that this effort is applied effectively otherwise we may do further harm. However, the complexity of the natural world makes it hard to predict how our interventions will affect it. Mathematics provides a language in which to describe how systems change over time. If a system can be described sufficiently accurately in mathematical terms, it becomes possible to test how it would respond to a given change. Thus, mathematical models have the potential to provide tools that would allow us to design conservation and restoration activities which will be effective. However, while a variety of mathematical models exist for individual environmental, ecological, and socio-economic systems, unified models, which describe how all of these aspects come together are relatively rare. Furthermore, it is not clear how to best go about designing such models to support decision-makers. This project will address this problem by producing a guide to the development of models to inform management decisions. This will be achieved by assessing the decisions made in constructing the existing wealth of published models to determine how they influenced the overall effectiveness of those models as decision-making tools. From this analysis we will synthesize a set of general model design principles and demonstrate how design decisions follow through into practical consequences. In the process we will identify common modelling approaches between different fields of study and, thus, strategies for the development of wholistic models. Finally, we will demonstrate how to apply this guide in practice by developing outlines of models for the management of agricultural ecosystems and river ecosystems. Agricultural ecosystems are large, potentially encompassing an entire country or countries. As a result, their behaviour varies considerably across the system as a whole; this presents a substantial modelling challenge. Furthermore, decisions are typically made for individual farms without necessarily considering how they will affect the overall health of the ecosystem. The model developed needs to bridge this gap. River ecosystems support agriculture, transport and power generation and are essential in flood management. They also have a complex spatial structure which is affected by many of the uses we put them to. This structure also plays an important role in the health of the wildlife communities which inhabit them. Again, our model for the management of these systems need to account for how local decisions influence the overall health of the ecosystem.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/W007509/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Directed (RP) - NR1
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Econ Bio Synthesis
This grant award has a total value of £37,812
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff |
|---|---|---|---|
| £17,961 | £7,173 | £2,670 | £10,008 |
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