Funded by the Ministry of Education and Research (Germany)

under the programme 'Socio-Ecological Research'

with the contract number
07 VPS 10

and by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Austria)

PartizipA

Partizipative Modellbildung, Akteurs- und Ökosystemanalyse in Agrarintensivregionen

(Participative Modelling, Actor and Ecosystem Analysis in Regions with Intensive Agriculture)

Scenarios and strategies for possible transformation processes in agro-intensive regions are developed in the project PartizipA - funded by the (German) Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the programme Socio-Ecological Research and by the (Austrian) Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. In colaboration with actors both from the region Osnabrueck county (Germany) and the St. Poelten region (Austria) and supported by computer models we will create scenarios that allow estimations about how social, economic, and ecologic conditions will develop in the respective regions. Agent-based models (ABM) for the description of social processes are linked with models of ecosystems. The results are displayed within a geographic information system (GIS). This form of participative scenario development enables a direct visualization of consequences following actions whereby the applied computer models allow a consideration of changes within the basic conditions such as modifications of farm subsidies. The participation processes as well as the development of modeling structures are laid out in such a way that results gained by PartizipA can also be applied to other regions.