Presentations at meeting of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organization Sciences (NAACSOS)

Project investigators made various presentations at the 2009 Annual Conference of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organization Sciences (NAACSOS). The meeting was hosted by the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity and the Consortium for Biosocial Complex Systems of Arizona State University, Tempe/Phoenix, and took place on October 23-24, 2009.

Guillermo Podestá gave a talk (co-authored by several other project participants) titled “Dynamic adjustment of aspiration levels in agricultural systems of the Argentine Pampas.” The talk introduced the concept of an aspiration level (AL) as a special outcome separating results perceived as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and described how an AL can feed various decision mechanisms in an agent-based model of land allocation.

Initial results from the project’s model of agricultural production in the Pampas was described in a second talk, “Agent-based simulation of recent changes in agricultural systems of the Argentine Pampas” (also with multiple authorship). Mike North (Argonne National Laboratory, ANL) introduced a new tool to link two modeling frameworks: NetLogo and Repast. Chick Macal (also from ANL) discussed agent-based and general equilibrium models of global oil markets. All investigators, including Pam Sydelko (ANL), took advantage of the meeting to discuss progress in the current CNH project.

Meeting organizers from Arizona State University	Pam Sydelko, Argonne National Laboratory

>> View presentation on aspiration level and land use decisions [PDF, 1926KB]

>> View presentation on results from agent-based model of agriculture in the Pampas [PDF, 1329 KB]

Project Investigator Kenny Broad is new director of Center For Ecosystem Science & Policy at the University of Miami

Project co-investigator Kenny Broad has been named director of The Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy at the University of Miami. Established in 2005, the Center offers innovative undergraduate and graduate programs that allow students to integrate environmental science and policy into their educational experience, while emphasizing research and field work.

As an environmental anthropologist, Broad has directed major interdisciplinary research initiatives addressing diverse aspects of the relationship between humans and their environment.

The mission of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy is to create innovative, interdisciplinary initiatives that bridge the gap between science and environmental policy. The Center is the nexus for a new and flexible program that gives students the opportunity to learn in a problem-solving context and gain substantial field experience.

>> Get more info about the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy

Project has strong presence in Argentine Meteorology Congress

Several project investigators participated in the 10th Argentine Meteorological Congress, CONGREMET X, that took place in Buenos Aires, 5-9 October 2009.

Three posters were presented at a session on climate variability. Maru Skansi characterized the spatial extent and duration of the 2008 drought using the standarized precipitation index (SPI). Federico Bert presented a framework for exploring agricultural outcomes of plausible climate scenarios 25-30 years into the future. Yongku Kim, Rick Katz and Balaji Rajagopalan described an approach to enhance the generation of synthetic climate series by reducing “overdispersion.” Angel Menéndez made a presentation during a panel on water resources, and Claudia Natenzon led a panel on climate disasters and vulnerability.

Maru Skansi	Federico Bert
Angel Menéndez	Claudia Natenzon

>> View poster on 2008 drought in the Pampas [PDF, 1210KB]

>> View poster on framework to explore impacts of plausible climate 25 years hence [PDF, 2236KB]

>> View poster on Enhanced generation of synthetic climatic series [PDF, 2400KB]

Katz teaches intensive course on climate extremes at University of Buenos Aires

Project investigator Rick Katz (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado) taught an intensive one-day course on statistical modeling of extremes in climate change at the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. The course, which took place on October 2nd 2009, was attended by about 30 students and researchers from the University of Buenos Aires and other Argentine institutions, such as the National Met Service and the Navy Met Service.

The course covered the application of the statistical theory of extreme values to climate, in general, and to climate change, in particular. An innovative aspect was the incorporation of both trends and physically-based covariates into analysis of extremes.The course included two hands-on sessions using the library extRemes for extreme value analysis available within the open source statistical programming language R.

Rick Katz delivers one of the lectures	Dr. Celeste Saulo, Director of the Dept. of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences introduces the course
Course attendants listen to lectures	Hands-on exercises

>> Links to lectures and exercises