Field Schools Network

ECOSYSTEM VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE: TOOLS FOR OBSERVATION, FORECASTING AND MANAGEMENT
JULY 5 - 14, 2010, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
CO-ORGANISED WITH UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES (BOKU) AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK
DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION

COURSE DIRECTORS:

Rik Leemans, Wageningen University, Environmental Sciences Department, Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Netherlands / SENSE Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment
Anton Shkaruba, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, CEU, Hungary


FACULTY:
(to be confirmed)

Ned Dwyer, Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork, Ireland;
Maria Falaleeva, Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork, Ireland; 
Sándor Herodek, Balaton Limnological Research Institute, Hungary
Matthijs Hisschemöller, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands;
Rik Leemans, Wageningen University, Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Netherlands; 
Marc Metzger, Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability (CECS), University of Edinburgh, UK; 
Hans-Peter Nachtnebel, Institute for Water Management, Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
Martin Sykes, Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University, Sweden; 
Dimitrios Zikos, OEKUS - Division of Social Sciences, The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Germany


OBJECTIVES

Formerly purely a subject of academic enquiries, ecosystem vulnerability to climate change becomes a very practical issue. Many sectors, including forestry, biodiversity conservation, water management, agriculture (to name a few) need information about ongoing and future states of ecosystems. This is a field of studies where natural scientists meet their colleagues from social and policy science more often than usual, and where uncertainties are particularly high, because ecosystem complexity meets here the complexity of social systems. Understanding uncertainties of both segments is a key to successful research in the field; however the difference of academic backgrounds and professional experience of people even working in the same team often prevent research teams from formulating a shared vision and achieving satisfactory results. New developments, constantly appearing in this dynamic field, make the task of staying up-to date even more challenging, especially in disciplines outside the researcher’s particular area of expertise (otherwise relevant though).

Seeking to address these challenges, this summer course is built on the three core objectives:

• to facilitate development of expertise in emerging research areas and cross-cutting issues of environmental science related to climate change and ecosystem studies;
• to build capacity for environmental research, which is adequate, efficient, oriented towards the international research community, and based on multidisciplinary approaches and concepts, most recent findings and state-of-the-art and policy-relevant research objectives;
• to demonstrate what constitutes good research in the field, and how it can be communicated to the academic community and translated into policy-relevant conclusions.

The key factor for the successful achievement of these objectives is the composition of the teaching team that includes some of the best forces in ecosystem vulnerability studies and, even more important, experienced in integrating research results produced by multidisciplinary teams of researchers. In addition to case studies presented in the classroom, the school participants will be taken on a field trip to Lake Balaton and the Kis-Balaton reservoir in the Balaton Highlands National Park co-organized with the Balaton Limnological Research Institute where a presentation on climate change and lake ecosystems will be offered.

Another important factor is the class composition we expect to achieve: just the same as with the lecturers, we plan for a mixture of participants from natural, social and policy sciences; the purpose is that during group work, discussions and the paper development assignment the participants will share their knowledge and experience.

While developed expertise in the field is the major result expected to achieve by the end of the course, the course also seeks to generate a strong networking effect. To maintain the effect, the course participants will be offered to publish their papers in the Proceedings of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy (as an intermediate step before paper submission for international peer-review). 

INTENDED LEVEL

The course participants shall meet the following criteria:
• hold positions at a universities, research centre, consultancy or a research-oriented NGO;
• have MSc or PhD degree or equivalent and at least two years of research or/and teaching at graduate level;
• be fluent in English;
• have demonstrable achievements in research or/and curriculum development;
• demonstrate good communication skills.

CONTENT OF THE COURSE, TEACHING METHODS AND ASSESSMENT

Classes in Budapest will be preceded by distance learning: the students will be expected to complete the course readings and familiarize themselves with profiles of other course participants to have an indicative idea on possible collaborations and paper topics. Each session will consist of a talk and group work (including in-hand modeling assignments) followed by presentations and discussions moderated by the lecturer. Sessions covering theoretical issues will be combined with workshops on methodology and practical skills trainings (writing a good paper workshop and training in statistical tools). On the third day of the course the participants will be divided in small (2-3 persons) groups, each group containing students from different backgrounds; by the end of the course they will be expected to develop and present paper outlines; advice from the faculty will be available throughout the course. The course participants will be asked to act as reviewers of the paper outlines, also after the end of the course. The further networking of course participants will be supported by a designated google group to be set up on the stage of distance learning.

The following topics will be covered during the course:
• dynamic modelling of vegetation, ecosystem services in a global change context by Martin Sykes,
• exploring environmental change through alternative future scenarios by Marc Metzger,
• spatially explicit assessment of ecosystem vulnerability by Marc Metzger,
• global aspects of climate change on biosphere (lecturer TBD),
• challenges of climate change: social perspective (lecturer TBD),
• integrated assessment tools and potential mitigation and adaptation options and strategies for environmental change by Rik Leemans,
• local communities’ perspective on ecosystem vulnerability by Maria Falaleeva and Dimitrios Zikos, 
• strategies for adaptive environmental management by Maria Falaleeva,
• Climate change and ecosystems: policy perspective on Integrative assessments by Matthijs Hisschemöller,
• ecosystem vulnerability and engineering systems by Hans-Peter Nachtnebel,
• remote sensing and GIS applications for monitoring and analysis of ecosystem changes by Ned Dwyer,
• effects of climate change on limnic systems and adaptation measures (with field trip to Lake Balaton and the Kis-Balaton reservoir) by Sándor Herodek.

One thematic session will typically take half a day. Participation in the discussions will require some prior knowledge of the issues raised in the presentation. To secure this the course participants will get their readers two months before the course starts. 

Presentations and the evaluation will be scheduled on the last day. The groups of participants will present their paper outlines, and appointed reviewers from other groups will give their feedbacks.