Integrated Modelling Research groups

In the digital age, where connectivity and collaboration are paramount, BC3’s Integrated Modelling research line envisions a future where individuals, businesses, and governments have access to a fully connected information landscape. This research advances support for decision-making by enabling more integrated, transparent, and democratic science, making it accessible and usable by non-scientists. Using AI-driven, semantic web-based technology that powers platforms like ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability), BC3 integrates independently produced scientific data and models to better understand the complex interactions between human societies and ecosystems. This approach supports policy design by modelling natural capital, ecosystem services, and the risks and impacts of human choices on future economic and environmental sustainability.

Background

Understanding the complex interactions between human and natural systems is key to sustainable decision-making. The Integrated Modelling research topic focuses on bridging modelling paradigms and crossing scales, from detailed biophysical processes to global economic impacts. Semantics and machine reasoning are key to integrating innovative modelling approaches, developed autonomously and assembled automatically upon a user query. By employing meaning and scale-aware tools, we assess trade-offs between short-term benefits and long-term environmental impacts driven by environmental change. 

Research Interests

The research explores the dynamic interactions between human and natural systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales, integrating physical, ecological and social processes into coherent modelling frameworks. Core research interests include the assessment of ecosystem services, the analysis of socio-economic drivers of environmental change, and the promotion of FAIR data practices to support natural capital accounting and biodiversity conservation. This work is further advanced through a strong commitment to Open Science and digital innovation which enables the development of semantic digital twins as scalable, interoperable virtual representations of real-world systems. BC3 also contributes to global interoperability efforts by hosting the ARIES for SEEA Sector Hub on the UN Global Platform, providing a standardised tool for rapid ecosystem accounting in support of international statistical systems.