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Projection, Policy Simulations, and Optimal Land Allocation. Man Li, Research Fellow International Food Policy Research Institute Technical Training for Modeling Scenarios for Low Emission Development Strategies, September 9 th –20 th , 2013.
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Projection, Policy Simulations, and Optimal Land Allocation Man Li, Research Fellow International Food Policy Research Institute Technical Training for Modeling Scenarios for Low Emission Development Strategies, September 9th–20th, 2013
Section I: Projection and Policy Simulation with the Nested Land Use Model
Things to Do Before Projection/Simulation • Research questions • Collect and clean data • Specify land use model • Run regression and then generate coefficient estimates • Model identification and robustness check • Evaluate model performance • Generate a baseline (or base year) scenario (t = 0), i.e.,
Projection for the Future • Exogenous changes in • Upper level • Population growth (UN projection) • Climate changes (IPCC A1B) • Lower level • Growth of prices in various crops (IMPACT projection)
Policy Simulation • Identifying Variables of Interests • Upper level • Market access, e.g., travel time to major cities • Institutional factors, e.g., land conservation • Lower level • Government subsidies/taxes that affect farmgate prices, e.g., crop prices • Improve land quality, e.g., crop suitability
If at the Upper Level • Relatively easy because no changes occur in variables at the lower level
If at the Lower Level • More complicated since changes occur in variables at the lower level and in INCLUSIVE VALUE variable at the upper level
How to Interpret Probability? • Frequency: events occur during a given period • Ideal but difficult to summarize • Have to generate numerous maps • Winner-take-all: assign each pixel to the use with the highest probability • Easy to summarize • Aggregate areas are less consistent with the actual observations • Proportion: share of land use in any given pixel • Moderately easy to summarize • Aggregate areas are more consistent with the actual observations
Summarizing the Results • Generate land use maps with fine resolution • Calculate land use changes • Combining land use changes and results from DNDC (or other crop models), analyze the effects of any given policy on agricultural emissions • Some further investigations …
Exercise I • Assess the effect of conservation on land use in Vietnam • Step 1: Run regression, extract the coefficient estimates and save them • Step 2: Generate the baseline land use • Step 3: Assign all protected area dummies being zeroand calculate the simulated land use • Step 4: Compare the simulated scenario with the baseline (maps, tables, …)
Land Use 2030 – Baseline scenario effect a policy that does not enforce protected area Designated and proposed protected areas. Land use conversions from forest to other categories. With protected area – Without protected area Page 11
When the Target is the Upper-level Use • Example: Increase forest cover from 41% to 45% in Vietnam • Insert a policy factor δ to forest “utility”
When the Target is the Upper-level Use • Find a minimum δ such that • Initial guess δ0= .45/.41-1≈ .098; optimal δ* ≈ .295 • In this circumstance, the conditional probabilities at the lower-level would not change, i.e., • Hence, the logit probabilities of crop choice are
When the Target is the Lower-level Use • Example: Decrease rice area from 4.131 Mha to 3.8 Mha in Vietnam • Insert a policy factor δ to rice “utility,” more complicated than the previous example
When the Target is the Lower-level Use • Find a maximum δ such that • Under this circumstance, probabilities change at both levels • Initial guess δ0= 3.8/4.131-1 ≈ - .080; optimal δ* ≈ -.185
Exercise II • Looking at the lower-level model: climate change affect crop suitability in Vietnam • Step 1: Run regression, extract the coefficient estimates and save them • Step 2: Generate the baseline land use • Step 3: Change explanatory variable at the lower level model and calculate the simulated land use • Step 4: Compare the simulated scenario with the baseline (maps, tables, …)
Feedback: Questions and Discussions • Any suggestions to improve the land use model, especially on policy variables, institutional factors, etc.? Considering various dominate land cover in different countries, e.g., • Vietnam: Forest cover • Bangladesh: Cropland • Colombia: Pasture • Do you have any policies in mind that might affect land use (change) in your country?