Projects

Land use-Ecosystem-Climate Interactions in Monsoon Asia

Abstract

The monsoon Asia region has experienced rapid changes in land-use and land-cover (LULC) due to its rapid economic development, increased population, industrialization and urbanization. The human activities in this region have significant influence on the environmental conditions both at regional and global scales. In this project, a coupled regional earth system model to characterize LULC change is being developed at the lead institution (Auburn University) to project LULC change and examine the effects of LULC change on carbon, water, and climate, and the interactions among LULC, ecosystem, and climate, and finally to analyze the uncertainty. The MIT contribution to this project is focused on developing forward simulations of the world economy to develop scenarios of land use change in Monsoon Asia over the 21st century. The forward simulations will make use of the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. The main task under this project is to develop scenarios that reflect the potential range of possibilities for economic growth for the world and for the region as it affects land use in Monsoon Asia. The work will make use of a version of EPPA that has been linked to the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) of the Marine Biological Laboratory, also a collaborating institution. To make projections of land-use change at the geographic and with the crop detail anticipated, downscaling routines from EPPA to TEM will be revised for the Monsoon Asia regions, and further disaggregation of the agricultural sector will be undertaken.

Funding Source: U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program

Sponsor Award Number: Subaward from Auburn University (Agreement No. 08-SFWS-209365.MIT)

Source Category: Federal Research Grant

Principal Investigators:John Reilly and Hanqin Tian