Our Blog

As part of the BESTMAP project, Birgit and Meike were teaching in the BESTMAP summer school on modelling policy impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity. From September 12 to 16, the summer school was hosted by Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic. The goal was to use the methods and experiences developed during the project, which were applied in five case studies across Europe. Birgit and Meike took over one day of the lectures and presented a general background on agent-based modelling and a simplified version of the model developed in the project. Students were given hands-on experience to familiarize themselves with the potential of the model.

On the other days, BESTMAP colleagues introduced the participants to other modelling approaches, such as species distribution modelling, water quality modelling, and regression analyses on the uptake of agri-environmental schemes. In addition, we spent one day on a field trip to Šardice in the “South Moravian Tuscany” where the students could see examples of agri-environmental practices in a traditional agricultural landscape in the Czech Republic.