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Multi-Scale Analysis of Sustainability with Computable Economic Modelling
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5109-26-00-00	There are 25 available seats
	Enrollment deadline: 20/07/2026

Place	Department of Food and Resource Economics
Date and time	12.10.2026, at: 00:00 - 16.10.2026, at: 16:00
Regular seats	25
Lecturers	Wusheng Yu
ECTS credits	5.00

Contact person	Zhan Wang E-mail address: zhan@ifro.ku.dk

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser	PhD Administration SCIENCE E-mail address: phdcourses@science.ku.dk

Enrolment guidelines This is a specialised course where 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of SCIENCE at UCPH and 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students at other faculties and universities. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list. Aim and Content Course summary Achieving sustainable development that balances rising food demand from an increasing population and environmental protection with limited natural resources remains a major challenge, due to the complex interactions across food, land, and water systems that span from local to global scales. Addressing such sustainability challenges requires analytical frameworks and tools capable of integrated, multi-scale analysis. This course provides participants with comprehensive and hands-on training in computable economic modeling for the interdisciplinary analysis of sustainability challenges, using the Simplified International Model of agricultural Prices, Land use, and the Environment - Gridded version (SIMPLE-G). SIMPLE-G is a quantitative economic model that simulates agricultural production, consumption, trade, land use, and associated environmental impacts (carbon emissions, water withdrawal, nitrogen leaching, etc.) in response to diverse drivers, including agricultural and environmental policies, population and income growth, and climate change. The unique strength of SIMPLE-G is that it simultaneously simulates impacts from fine-resolution grid cells to regional and global levels. This enables a spatially explicit representation of local heterogeneity in crop production and natural resources while capturing critical spatial spillover effects through market linkages. As an open-access, open-source model, SIMPLE-G has been applied widely to interdisciplinary research on food security, land use change, and policy assessment. (Please refer to selected applications under the “literature” section.) Participants will receive training on economic theory, model structure, database development, validation, and applications. By the end of this course, participants will possess the capacity to research real-world sustainability challenges with this integrated model and generate quantitative results for model-based policy analysis. Course content This course consists of three integrated components: online preparation, on-site instruction, and post-course report. Four weeks before the course, participants will receive online materials to help them prepare for studying and applying the gridded computable models. This online component also brings participants with diverse disciplinary backgrounds on the same page and provides necessary foundational knowledge for the effectiveness of the on-site component. Participants are expected to spend 10 – 12 hours per week studying the prepared materials and completing exercises at their own pace. Answer keys of exercises will be released the following week. In addition, the instructors will host weekly online office hours (1 – 1.5 hours) to interact with participants and answer questions. Contents and schedule of the online preparation include: • Week 1: Overview: addressing sustainability challenges with computable modeling • Big picture of sustainability challenges and model applications • Week 2: Overview: the non-gridded SIMPLE model • Brief introductions on SIMPLE model’s underlying economic theories, model structure, and key components • Week 3: Tools and software for this course • Installation and test of GEMPACK, the software for model simulations • Week 4: Hands-on exercise: Impacts of alternative research and development spending trajectories on global agricultural, food and environmental system. • Replication of SIMPLE model simulations prepared by instructors The on-site instruction combines lectures, hands-on exercises, group projects and oral presentations. Lectures cover the SIMPLE-G model’s underlying economic theory (including supply, demand, land use change and trade systems), model structure, databases, validation, and applications based on studies published in peer-reviewed journals. Participants will then engage in hands-on exercises by replicating those applications and then working in small teams under lecturer guidance to apply the model to policy-relevant problems and present their results on the last of this course. Contents and schedule for the on-site instruction include: • Day 1: • Welcome, introduction of lecturers and participants • Recap on SIMPLE model • Theory and structure of gridded computable modeling in SIMPLE-G • Crop demand and nested production systems • Segmented and integrated trade system • Hands-on exercise: a mini-version of SIMPLE-G • Day 2: • Land use conversion and allocation • Irrigated / rainfed agriculture • Water supply and demand • Database and parameters • Model validation • Analysis and interpretation of simulation results • Hands-on exercise: gridded implication of productivity growth • Day 3: • SIMPLE-G applications (labor, nitrogen leaching, transportation infrastructure) • Integration of SIMPLE-G with other models • Future directions of research • Group breakout and develop project ideas • Day 4: • Intensive group project supervised by lecturers • Day 5: • Finalization of group project and presentation preparation • Group project presentation with lecturers’ feedback • Course evaluation and Wrap-up Finally, participants need to submit a short report (approximately 8 – 10 pages) no later than 1 month after the end of this course for assessment. Learning outcomes Intended learning outcome for the students who complete the course: Knowledge: • Understand the economic theory underlying computable equilibrium models, including supply, demand, and trade systems. • Understand economic interactions between food, land, and water systems in addressing sustainability challenges and the market-medicated linkages from domestic and international markets. • Understand the structure, database, and implementation of SIMPLE-G models. Skills: • Simulate SIMPLE-G models under economic or policy-driven scenarios using the GEMPACK software. • Conduct model-based analysis and interpret quantitative results (primarily with R, alternatively with Python). • Design and implement model-based analysis for participants’ specific research questions. Competences: • Design and execute model-based analyses independently or collaboratively. • Interpret models’ results, their applicability and limitations for interdisciplinary sustainability research. • Communicate modeling approaches and results clearly to both technical and policy-oriented audiences. Target Group The course is aimed at PhD students in a range of subject areas, including economics, environmental and natural resource economics and policy, agricultural economics, sustainability transitions, environmental science and management, climate change, or related interdisciplinary fields, who are interested in quantitative analysis with model-based simulations on sustainability challenges (e.g., climate change impact, deforestation, land use conversion, agriculture-induced emission, etc.). PhD students in natural sciences who wish to equip themselves with quantitative social science modeling tools for their own research and/or are interested in establishing inter-/multi-disciplinary collaborations may also find this course to be highly relevant. Recommended Academic Qualifications Participants are expected to have basic knowledge in calculus and microeconomics (e.g., supply and demand theory, market equilibrium, comparative statics, etc.) and broad understanding of sustainability challenges. Prior experience in programming or modeling tools is advantageous but not required. Research Area Research areas include investigating economic frameworks and mechanisms that influence agriculture, land use, environmental system, climate mitigation and adaptation, etc. Teaching and Learning Methods The course adopts an integrated teaching approach combining online preparation, on-site instruction, and post-course assessment. Prior to the course, participants engage in structured online self-paced study to acquire foundational knowledge of modeling and software, ensuring a common baseline across diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The on-site component integrates lectures, hands-on exercises, and team-based project work. Lectures introduce the underlying economic theory, model structure, databases, and empirical applications. These are closely linked with practical exercises in which participants replicate model applications and develop technical skills for simulation and analysis. Participants then work in lecturer-supervised groups to apply the model to policy-relevant research questions they choose. The course concludes with group presentations and feedback sessions. Assessment is completed through a short report submitted after the course, allowing participants to further consolidate and apply their learning outcomes for future study and research. Type of Assessment Participants will get the course approved with 5 ETCS if they complete course preparation with online materials, attend lectures and do hands-on exercises, participate in a group project and presentation, and submit a short project report (submitted within 1 month after the end of the on-site course) that is positively assessed by the instructors. Literature Primary literature • Hertel, Thomas W. “The Global Supply and Demand for Agricultural Land in 2050: A Perfect Storm in the Making?” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 93, no. 2 (2011): 259–75. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaq189. • Baldos, U. L. C., I. Haqiqi, T. W. Hertel, M. Horridge, and J. Liu. “SIMPLE-G: A Multiscale Framework for Integration of Economic and Biophysical Determinants of Sustainability.” Environmental Modelling & Software 133 (November 2020): 104805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104805. • Haqiqi, Iman, and Thomas W. Hertel. SIMPLE-G: A Gridded Economic Approach to Sustainability Analysis of the Earth’s Land and Water Resources. Springer, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68054-0. Supplementary literature • Haqiqi, Iman, Laura Bowling, Sadia Jame, Uris Baldos, Jing Liu, and Thomas Hertel. “Global Drivers of Local Water Stresses and Global Responses to Local Water Policies in the United States.” Environmental Research Letters 18, no. 6 (2023): 065007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acd269. • Hertel, Thomas W., Uris Lantz C. Baldos, and Dominique van der Mensbrugghe. “Predicting Long-Term Food Demand, Cropland Use, and Prices.” Annual Review of Resource Economics 8, no. 1 (2016): 417–41. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100815-095333. • Liu, Jing, Laura Bowling, Christopher Kucharik, et al. “Tackling Policy Leakage and Targeting Hotspots Could Be Key to Addressing the ‘Wicked’ Challenge of Nutrient Pollution from Corn Production in the U.S.” Environmental Research Letters 18, no. 10 (2023): 105002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf727. • Ray, Srabashi, Iman Haqiqi, Alexandra E. Hill, J. Edward Taylor, and Thomas W. Hertel. “Labor Markets: A Critical Link between Global-Local Shocks and Their Impact on Agriculture.” Environmental Research Letters 18, no. 3 (2023): 035007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acb1c9. • Villoria, Nelson B., and Jing Liu. “Using Spatially Explicit Data to Improve Our Understanding of Land Supply Responses: An Application to the Cropland Effects of Global Sustainable Irrigation in the Americas.” Land Use Policy 75 (June 2018): 411–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.04.010. • Wang, Zhan, Geraldo B. Martha, Jing Liu, Cicero Z. Lima, and Thomas W. Hertel. “Planned Expansion of Transportation Infrastructure in Brazil Has Implications for the Pattern of Agricultural Production and Carbon Emissions.” Science of The Total Environment 928 (June 2024): 172434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172434. • Wang, Zhan. “GTAP-SIMPLE-G: Integrating Gridded Land Use, Crop Production and Environment Impacts into Global General Equilibrium Model of Trade.” Journal of Global Economic Analysis 9, no. 2 (2024): 1–69. https://doi.org/10.21642/JGEA.090201AF. Course coordinator Wusheng Yu, Professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen. Prof Yu will coordinate the course activities. He will be assisted by Zhan Wang, Assistant Professor at IFRO. Zhan will also participate in the course as a lecturer on SIMPLE-G model and its applications on transportation infrastructure. Guest Lecturers Guest lecturers for this course include the developers and leading researchers of the SIMPLE-G model. Together, they bring extensive expertise in model development and applications, ensuring a high level of academic rigor and practical relevance in the course. • Thomas W. Hertel, Executive Director, Research Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University, USA. He will deliver lectures on the economic theory of SIMPLE-G models. • Srabashi Ray, Research Scientist in the Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems, Luxembourg University. She will deliver lectures on model applications, focusing on labor markets. • Jing Liu, Lead Research Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, USA. She will deliver lectures on model applications, focusing on nitrogen leaching. All lecturers and guest lecturers will each lead a team of participants, guiding them through hands-on sessions, supervising the development of each team’s group project, and participating in the oral presentations of team projects. Dates The course will be held during 12 – 16 October 2026 (5 consecutive days). Additionally, participants will receive online self-study materials for preparation (during the period of 14 September – 9 October). Expected frequency N/A Course location This course will be held at IFRO (Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark) Registration The deadline for registration is 20 July 2026. Special rules apply for this course: Please note that all applicants will be placed on the waiting list upon registration. After registering for the course, please send a Paragraph summarizing your research and education background to the course coordinator by e-mail (zhan@ifro.ku.dk) latest on 20 July 2026 About one week after registration deadline, all applicants on the waiting list will be notified whether they are given a seat. Course fee and participant fee PhD courses offered at the Faculty of SCIENCE have course fees corresponding to different participant types. In addition to the course fee, there might also be a participant fee. If the course has a participant fee, this will apply to all participants regardless of participant type - and in addition to the course fee. Course fee • Participant fee: DKK 1.000 • PhD student enrolled at SCIENCE: DKK 0 • PhD student from Danish PhD school Open market: DKK 0 • PhD student from Danish PhD school not Open market: DKK 6.000 • PhD student from foreign university: DKK 6000 • Master's student from Danish university: DKK 0 • Master's student from foreign university: DKK 6000 • Non-PhD student employed at a university (e.g., postdocs): DKK 6.000 • Non-PhD student not employed at a university (e.g., from a private company): DKK 16.800 Cancellation policy Cancellations made up to two weeks before the course starts are free of charge. Cancellations made less than two weeks before the course starts will be charged a fee of DKK 3.000 Participants with less than 80% attendance cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000 No-show will result in a fee of DKK 5.000 Participants who fail to hand in any mandatory exams or assignments cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000

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