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Schönhart, M. (2015). Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Impacts at Landscape Level in the Austrian Mostviertel Region (Vol. 5).
Abstract: Climate change poses fundamental challenges on agriculture. It triggers autonomous adaptation responses of famers and thereby impacts the success of climate change mitigation. Integrated modelling frameworks (IMF) on land use serve as decision support instruments under such conditions by considering climate signals and accounting for combined mitigation and adaptation policies. We apply an IMF at the farm level in two contrasting grassland and cropland dominated landscapes in Austria to analyze climate change impacts on land use as well as impacts from mitigation and adaptation policies on the abiotic and biotic environment and the landscape. Results show that the impacts on farm gross margins and the abiotic and biotic environment are substantial either directly from climate change (e.g. changing erosion levels) or triggered via adaptation responses (i.e. land use and management change). Average gross margins increase between 1% and 12% depending on the case study landscape, the climate change scenario, and the policy scenario. With respect to biodiversity indicators, land use changes in the adaptation scenario decrease plant species diversity on farmland by 13% on average and losses are up to 80% for some farms. These changes are driven by policies in the adaptation scenario as responses on climate change in the absence of policies are modest with minor impacts on biodiversity. Results indicate the effectiveness of climate change adaptation in increasing farm incomes and the need to coordinate mitigation and adaptation policies to manage environmental outcomes. The IMF turns out to be effective in revealing heterogeneity of climate change impacts among farms and regions and linkages among adaptation and mitigation policies. No Label
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Schönhart, M. (2015). Analysis of climate change adaptation with bio-economic farm models: lessons from MACSUR regional pilot studies (Vol. 5).
Abstract: Integrated land use models (ILM) featuring agronomic and economic drivers of land use are frequently applied to serve the high information demand of stakeholders. This presentation results from collaboration among bio-economic farm modelers across the MACSUR regional pilot studies (www.macsur.eu) and shall compare and finally reveal good practice examples on the representation of climate change adaptation in bio-economic farm models. First results show a considerable diversity of approaches employed in the MACSUR regional pilot studies. All are programming models that optimize more or less elaborated forms of utility. All consider or plan to consider crop yield impacts from bio-physical crop models based on daily-resolution climate data. While some models include pest and diseases or livestock impacts, none take climate change impacts on market prices or interactions among farms into account so far. Clearly, adaptation options determine the solution space and are mainly expert-based in the regional case studies. Overall, the models are normative and analyze economically rational and optimal land use and management at the farm level, capable of showing the likely direction of differences in future management as a response to exogenous parameter changes (prices, yields, disease pressure, changed policy conditions, etc.). Such detailed models and their results may be applied in stakeholder interaction. Integrating the different direct and indirect effects of climate change, including the policy dimension, is the main contribution of farm level modelling of agricultural systems in the domain of climate change adaptation research. No Label
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Schönhart, M. (2014). Regional Pilot Case Study: Mostviertal – AT, upcoming project phase. FACCE MACSUR Mid-term Scientific Conference, 3(S) Sassari, Italy.
Abstract: The presentation indicates our plans for activities in the Mostviertel region in the next project phase.
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Schönhart, M. (2014). Spillovers between MACSUR and Austrian climate change research projects. FACCE MACSUR Mid-term Scientific Conference, 3(S) Sassari, Italy.
Abstract: The Austrian regional case study in MACSUR extends the methods and builds upon the results of the CC-ILA project. CC-ILA enables cooperation between landscape planners and landscape ecologists to analyse mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable rural land use and landscape developments in a case study landscape. Subsequent research in MACSUR includes analysis towards rural development and the improvement of the climate impact data base for grasslands. The latter is achieved by collaborating with Crop-M partner LFZ Raumberg-Gumpenstein, who is able to utilize spill-overs within the Agromet-Monitor project.
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Schönhart, M. (2014). Uncertainty analysis and management in the regional pilot case study ‘Mostviertel region. FACCE MACSUR Mid-term Scientific Conference, 3(S) Sassari, Italy.
Abstract: An integrated modelling framework (IMF) is developed to analyse impacts of climate andpolicy changes on farm welfare and the environment. The IMF is applied on two contrasting grassland (south) and cropland (north) dominated Austrian landscapes. The IMF combines the crop rotation model CropRota, the bio-physical process model EPIC and the bio-economic farm model FAMOS[space] and applies combined climate change and policy scenarios. Changing policies reduce farm gross margins by -36% and -5% in the two landscapes respectively. Climate change increases gross margins and farms can reach pre-reform levels on average. Climate induced intensification such as removing of landscape elements andincreasing fertilization can be moderated by an agri-environmental program (AEP). However, productivity gains from climate change increase the opportunity costs for AEP participation.
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