Our Research Approach
Research for the future we want.
Our approach combined capacities in ecological and economic modeling, policy and social research, and stakeholder engagement to discover new insights about how to achieve food, energy, water, and ecosystem security in agricultural landscapes of the Upper Mississippi River Basin.
We advanced knowledge in the following areas:
- The state of FEW and ecosystem security in the region now and into the future to 2050, particularly given abrupt and long-term changes in environmental and policy conditions
- Management and policy options that will result in resilient landscapes and FEW systems
- The scale of land-use changes necessary to achieve goals for FEW and ecosystem security
Ecosystem and Economic Modeling
Our state-of-the-art modeling combined agroecosystem dynamics and socioeconomic scenarios to unpack the following:
- The current status of food, energy, and water security in the Basin, and how much change may be necessary to meet goals similar to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, as applied regionally
- Possible consequences of change to FEW systems, including both abrupt changes, such as floods and global trade shifts, and slow changes, such as global warming
- The effects of potential policy options on the security of food, energy and water systems and ecosystems
We examined potential pathways to FEW security in the region by developing scenarios of ecological, economic, and political change in the Upper Mississippi River Basin to the year 2050. The scenarios allow researchers and practitioners alike to test outcomes of local changes on the provision of ecosystem services.
Policy and Social Research
We assessed beliefs and preferences about policy options and outcomes for reducing risks to food, energy, water, and ecosystem security through surveys with regional stakeholders from the agricultural, natural resource management, and policy sectors.
We were particularly interested in what motivates individuals and organizations to make practice and policy changes at the scale necessary for achieving goals related to FEW and ecosystem security.
Stakeholder Engagement
We engaged key stakeholders who are addressing nutrient management challenges in the Basin – including state, federal, and Tribal agencies; university scientists; NGOs, and agricultural stakeholders – to inform our model inputs, scenarios, and research implications for policy and management.
By working and learning together with relevant decision-makers and influencers, our goal was to strengthen the usefulness of our science to society and help policymakers and managers make decisions with greater confidence and better outcomes for people and nature.