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23. Systemwissenschaftliches Kolloquium
Wintersemester 2016/17
Das Kolloquium findet nur im Wintersemester jeweils mittwochs von 16:15 bis 18:00 Uhr im Institut für Umweltsystemforschung, Barbarastr. 22c, Raum 93/E07 statt.
Programmübersicht
26.10.2016, 16:30 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner, Ecological Economics, Carl-von-Ossietzky University, Oldenburg:
Inter- and transdisciplinarity and the shift to transformative research.
02.11.2016
Dr. Fabrice Renaud, Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations University, Bonn:
Ecosystems at the interface between disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development
16.11.2016
Dr. Luděk Berec, Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (CZE):
Infectious diseases, mating, and a bit of Allee effects.
23.11.2016
Dr. Hans-Hermann Thulke, Dept. Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig:
Ecological models in action: the science-policy interface and animal diseases.
30.11.2016
Prof. Dr. Alejandra Engler Palma, Dept. Agricultural Economics, University of Talca (CHL):
Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: an application to irrigation technology.
14.12.2016, 16:00-17:00 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Roy Brouwer, Dept. Economics, University of Waterloo (CAN):
Payments for watershed services: a global review of the effect of institutional design on environmental performance.
11.01.2017, 16:00-17:00 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology:
Technology assessment beyond consequentialism. The case of sustainability transformations.
18.01.2017, 16:00-17:00 Uhr
Dr. Örjan Bodin, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University (SWE):
Social-Ecological Networks – an emerging transdisciplinary approach to study social-ecological systems.
25.01.2017
Prof. Dr. Jasminko Novak, Dept. Economics, University of Applied Sciences, Stralsund:
Designing socio-technical systems for behavioural change - promises and lessons from the field.
01.02.2017
Cancelled.
08.02.2017
Prof. Dr. Arndt Telschow, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster:
Detecting causality in complex ecological systems: lessons from tiger mosquitoes and cyanobacteria.
Kurzfassung der Vorträge
26.10.2016
Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner, Ecological Economics, Carl-von-Ossietzky University, Oldenburg
Inter- and transdisciplinarity and the shift to transformative research
Addressing the manifold ecological and social challenges of sustainable development, the science system is called upon to promote the integration of different bodies of knowledge. Natural science research has been pivotal to understand the causation, the extent, the scale and the consequences of most environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss and resource exploitation. While more and more knowledge accrued here, the social sciences have begun to analyse the socio-economic causes and potential solutions to most problems of sustainable development. From that, the first major challenge of sustainability science emerged, namely interdisciplinarity asking how natural and social scientists can successfully work together. The talk will make the point that without powerful concepts for the integration of knowledge, the science system will fail on this part. A practical example from a recently concluded research project on climate adaptation in Africa will be given.
However, most scholars agree that interdisciplinary collaboration will not suffice. What is needed is a transdisciplinary mode of research that integrates other bodies of knowledge from outside academia in order to develop and possibly implement effective solutions and initiate change. Integrating stakeholders from civil society, the public sector and industry at different levels of decision making is the second major challenge of sustainability science. Even here, the potential pitfalls are numerous and scientists, research organisations and funding agencies need to find new ways of doing this kind of research. The talk will highlight some of the key issues that need to be addressed in almost all transdisciplinary research processes on the basis of experiences from a research project in the field of climate adaptation in Northern Germany. It will develop a critical view on transdisciplinary cooperation that has to find ways to address vested interests and develop mechanisms of conflict resolution.
Finally, the talk will give an outlook into what transformative research could be and mean for solutions-oriented sustainability science. It will highlight the need to move from single and isolated solutions to larger socio-ecological transformations.
02.11.2016
Dr. Fabrice Renaud, Institute for Environment and Human Security, United Nations University, Bonn
Ecosystems at the interface between disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development
The role ecosystems can play in terms of disaster risk reduction (ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction or Eco-DRR), climate change adaptation (ecosystem-based adaptation or EbA), and for sustainable development is increasingly recognized from the scientific perspective, in terms of implementation on the ground, and in terms of policies. Focusing on coastal environments, I will highlight some of the progress made in science to understand the role ecosystems can play for both disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) for selected rapid- and slow-onset hazards, showcase programmes implemented on the ground, and discuss the new emphasis placed by recent international agreements (such as the Sendai Framework for DRR, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change) on ecosystems and ecosystem services. Ecosystem-based approaches can allow achieving multiple objectives, are generally cost effective, and allow for greater inclusion of local stakeholders when compared to other approaches. The presentation will draw from research examples from Japan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and various West African countries.
16.11.2016
Dr. Luděk Berec, Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice (CZE)
Infectious diseases, mating, and a bit of Allee effects
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can seriously impact dynamics of their host populations. In animals, mating commonly mediates both host reproduction and STI transmission. Hence, a mating-related consistency between the reproduction and transmission processes needs to be considered and modelled appropriately. I will start my talk with presenting the classical framework for modelling STIs and then introduce a framework that takes that mating-related consistency into account. I will then illustrate the latter framework with several commonly used mating functions, including the one describing the mate-finding Allee effect, and discuss what might be an appropriate strategy to mitigate the risk of being infected via an STI. If time permits, I would also say something about the evolution of early male-killers, vertically transmitted bacteria that kill the infected male embryos, and about a potential role of these bacteria in control of insect pests already targeted by the sterile insect technique (the sterile insect technique creates an Allee effect).
23.11.2016
Dr. Hans-Hermann Thulke, Dept. Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig
Ecological models in action: the science-policy interface and animal diseases
Animal diseases provide a long-term playground for system thinking in ecology. Understanding addressed population level dynamics between hosts and pathogens on every spatio-temporal scale. Famous early steps of population modelling into the area of pathogen management paved a way to virtual test beds of decision alternatives under conditions of urgency - although ecological models not yet draw decisions. We will present explicit representatives from the model suite applied to historic pathogen management problems in the physical world. The science presented, resulted from the rabies control efforts in Germany, the public health issues with small fox tapeworms or the damaging invasion of an African swine infection into the EU wildlife out of the East. The presentation is intended to illustrate the debate about the usefulness of limiting ecological systems’ complexity by certain model framework if sensitive consequence predictions are needed.
30.11.2016
Prof. Dr. Alejandra Engler Palma, Dept. Agricultural Economics, University of Talca (CHL)
Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: an application to irrigation technology
Recently, social capital has gained importance in explaining technology adoption decisions by farmers. In this paper, we examine the impact of social capital on the adoption of irrigation technology and irrigation scheduling among wine producers in Central Chile. We propose three hypotheses: that trust and networks affect positively the adoption of both technologies (H1 and H2) and that trust is positively related to networks (H3). First, we identify seven different components of social capital: general trust, trust in institutions, trust in water communities, norms, formal networks, informal networks, and size of networks. Second, we estimate two Partial Least Squares models using as endogenous variables irrigation technology adoption and adoption of irrigation scheduling. Both models tested confirm the relevance of our interpretation of the use of social capital and its implications in understanding producers’ behaviour towards adoption of technologies. The three hypotheses tested positive. Trust in institutions, and formal and informal networks have a positive impact on the adoption of both technologies. General trust has a positive relationship with formal and informal networks. Human capital also has a strong relationship with networks, which allows us to argue that networks are the main catalysts of social capital. As expected, physical and human capital have a positive and significant relationship with adoption. Our results open a door in understanding the circle among social and human capital to exploit the primary components and generate a virtues circle. In this case strategies to create trust in the producers closer environment and increasing human capital, will relate positively to networks, which in turn has the largest relationship the technology adoption probability and; supporting that extension efforts should consider social networks, not just economic or individual-level predictors, in promoting agricultural innovations.
Keywords: irrigation technology adoption, irrigation scheduling, social capital
14.12.2016
Prof. Dr. Roy Brouwer, Dept. Economics, University of Waterloo (CAN)
Payments for watershed services: a global review of the effect of institutional design on environmental performance
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are a relatively new economic policy instrument. The factors that drive and explain their environmental performance are still poorly understood. Existing reviews of PES schemes and assessments of success and fail factors are mainly qualitative in nature. There is limited evidence of the impacts of Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) on sustainable levels of land-water management due to the absence of reliable longer-term scientific data and adequate cross-evaluation. In a global review of 50 PWS schemes, key institutional- economic factors were identified that drive and explain the environmental performance of existing PWS schemes. Despite efforts to find quantitative information on their environmental performance, such empirical evidence is lacking in many of the studies PWS schemes. International monitoring guidelines are needed to facilitate comparisons, identify success factors and support the future design of cost-effective PWS schemes.
11.01.2017
Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Technology assessment beyond consequentialism. The case of sustainability transformations
For decades, scientists and philosophers, citizens and politicians have been engaged with scientific and technological progress. They have analysed and debated its intended and unintended consequences but also opportunities for shaping new technologies according to social desires and ethical values. The ideal behind technology assessment as a major activity in this field is to anticipate the implications of scientific and technological advances in order to provide societal and political orientation, e.g. for decision-making. However, this consequentialist approach comes up against limits because many future developments can be anticipated neither in a predictive way nor by identifying a set of plausible scenarios. Therefore it is the purpose of this presentation to systematically examine an aspect of reflections of technology and technology assessment that has hitherto been considered only sporadically: its hermeneutic side. While the consequentialist idiom deals with assessing statements about possible futures in terms of their probability or plausibility, the hermeneutics of discourse on technological futures focuses on the meaning of these debates for contemporary attitudes towards new technologies. This hermeneutic shift from the anticipation of future developments to better understanding current assignments of meaning will then be applied to current debates on sustainability transformations, e.g. in the context of the eco-modernist manifesto and its messages and implications.
18.01.2017
Dr. Örjan Bodin, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University (SWE)
Social-Ecological Networks – an emerging transdisciplinary approach to study social-ecological systems
The network perspective is increasingly put forth as an analytical framework well suited to studying complex social-ecological systems. The underlying rationale is that the network approach as such is generic and allows the research to model any kind of systems as consisting of separated but interlinked components of different kinds. Hence, integrated social-ecological systems could be analyzed as social–ecological networks where interdependent ecological entities (e.g. species and habitat patches) and social entities (e.g. users, managers, agencies and NGOs) could be simultaneously incorporated in a common systems model.
The last few years a number of studies have been conducted drawing on a social-ecological network approach. In this talk I will present some of these recent developments of this emerging line of research. I will demonstrate how a social-ecological network approach has been used to analyze complex patterns of actor/resource interdependencies in a small artisanal fishery in east Africa; the governance of fragmented forest patches in a rural agricultural landscape in Madagascar and in a large-scale biodiversity conservation initiative in Australia; and in land use planning of wetlands in the Stockholm County in Sweden.
25.01.2017
Prof. Dr. Jasminko Novak, Dept. Economics, University of Applied Sciences, Stralsund
Designing socio-technical systems for behavioural change - promises and lessons from the field
Stimulating people to change their everyday behaviour is widely seen as one of key elements towards more sustainable consumption of natural resources. This talk considers the promise, challenges and some lessons learned in designing ICT-enabled socio-technical systems for stimulating such behavioural change, with a special focus on water and energy consumption. After a brief overview of the field, it exemplifies the typical premises and challenges of such systems by discussing the experiences from a European project SmartH2O. This includes the design of a behavioural change and incentive model and its implementation in the SmartH2O system, combining smart meter data with visualisation and gamification techniques. The discussion of preliminary results from the deployment and evaluation in two real-world pilots (Switzerland, Spain) gives some insight into the potential impact, open challenges and possible limitations of such approaches.
08.02.2017
Prof. Dr. Arndt Telschow, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Detecting causality in complex ecological systems: lessons from tiger mosquitoes and cyanobacteria
One of the ultimate goals in ecology is to predict how natural ecosystems respond to environmental change (driven by either natural processes or human impact). A crucial step in making reliable predictions is to decipher the causal interactions between monitored biotic variables and the environment. Until recently, we did not have the statistical tools to detect causality in a complex ecosystem. However, newly developed methods of nonlinear time series analysis provide statistical tests for causality (convergent cross mapping, Sugihara et al. 2012) [1] and offer approaches to explore how complex ecological systems respond to environmental change (multivariate simplex projection, Deyle et al. 2013). These methods require longitudinal data sets, in which each variable is given as a time series with quantitative information. The talk consists of three parts. First, a general introduction is given. Methods are explained for an audience of non-specialists. Second, a meta-population of the Polynesian tiger mosquito (Aedes Polynesiensis) is analysed, and the causality network of mosquito abundance with environmental variables is presented. The Polynesian Tiger mosquito is a major vector for dengue virus and lymphatic filariasis in the South pacific. The results are discussed with respect to the epidemiology of dengue fever. Third, the methods are applied cyanobacteria population dynamics. It is discussed whether population extinction (e.g., due to environmental stress) is predictable by nonlinear time series analysis.
[1] Sugihara et al. 2012. Science. 338: 496-500.
