Pivoting the Challenges and Opportunities of Land Modeling Across Multiple Perspectives
Short Description: This session explores how different groups are using modeling and data in the LULUCF sectors to respond to evolving policy, environmental, and technological landscapes. Speakers will reflect on what has changed in land modeling approaches, priorities, and applications—and what has remained consistent despite these shifts. Through brief perspectives and discussion, the session will examine how actors are pivoting to address new challenges and opportunities, while building on established methods and collaborations. The conversation will highlight lessons learned, emerging needs, and key questions for the broader technical and research community.
Session Coordinators:
Alice Favero, Research Triangle Institute; Zach Xu, Natural Resources Canada
Speakers:
• Nicklas Forsell, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
“Measuring Development in the LULUCF Sector: The Role of Indicators and Indexes”
• Anne-Hélène Mattey, Natural Resources Canada (virtual)
“Climate Change Mitigation in the Land Sector: A Canadian Policy Perspective”
• Marcus Sarofim, NYU Marron Institute
“From Field to Framework: Integrating Agriculture into Climate Damage Assessment”
• Cassaundra Rose, US Climate Alliance
“State Leadership and Needs in Land Sector Modeling”
Natural Disturbances: Dynamics, Data, and Modeling
Short Description: This session focuses on understanding the drivers and impacts of natural disturbances and post-disturbance recovery, highlighting advances in data, remeasurement, remote sensing, and modeling methods to represent changing landscape dynamics.
Session Coordinators:
Justin Baker, NC State University; Marcela Olguín-Álvarez, Wilpa Capacity Development
Speakers:
• Viola Heinrich, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (virtual)
“Bringing Clarity on post-disturbance Aboveground Carbon Emissions & Removals in Tropical Moist Forest”
• Richard Manner, NCSU SOFAC
“Influence of daily weather variability on tree growth: An application of signal processing and artificial neural networks”
• Radost Stanimirova, Land and Carbon Lab, World Resources Institute
“Mapping Natural Drivers of Forest Loss at Global Scale”
• Carolyn Smyth, Natural Resources Canada (virtual)
“Modeling GHG impacts of future wildfires in Canada”
Natural Disturbances: Resilience, Management, and Integrated Systems
Short Description: This session examines how management strategies and integrated modeling frameworks—including carbon, water, and life-cycle approaches—can improve representation of resilience, feedbacks, and risk in forest and agricultural systems under climate change.
Session Coordinators:
Justin Baker, NC State University; Marcela Olguín-Álvarez, Wilpa Capacity Development
Speakers:
• Greg Latta, University of Idaho
“Evaluating Forest Fuel Reduction Effectiveness Under Deterministic and Stochastic Wildfire Modeling”
• Guillermo Murray, Institute of Ecosystem and Sustainability Research, UNAM, Mexico (virtual)
“Impacts of climate change and extremes on agricultural yields in Mexico”
• Chris Wade, RTI International
“Adaptation or Reallocation? Climate and Trade Drivers of Agricultural Intensification”
State of the art modeling, Part 1: A.I and other new technologies
Short Description: This session explores how artificial intelligence and emerging modeling technologies—integrated with satellite imagery and economic models—are advancing the representation of land use, carbon, biodiversity, water, and other interconnected environmental outcomes, while highlighting best practices and limitations.
Session Coordinators:
Amanda Stamplecoskie, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Marcela Olguín-Álvarez, Wilpa Capacity Development; Chris Wade, RTI International
Speakers:
• Greg Bronevetsky, X the moonshot factory (virtual)
“Revolution of Scientific Inquiry in the age of AI”
• Catherine Champagne, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (virtual)
“Advances in Modelling Agricultural Land Use Practices Using Earth Observation in Canada”
• Benjamin Hudson, Carbon Accounting and Reporting, Natural Resources Canada (virtual)
“Next-generation forest carbon models for spatial GHG reporting objectives”
• Jingjing Liang, Purdue University (virtual)
“AI-Driven Forest Growth Modeling for Scalable and Equitable Carbon Monitoring”
State-of-the-art modeling Part 2: model comparisons and integration
Short Description: This session examines model intercomparison efforts and integration across economic, biophysical, and life-cycle frameworks to improve transparency, consistency, and collaboration in land, agriculture, and climate modeling.
Session Coordinators:
Robert Beach, RTI International; Liz Marshall, USDA
Speakers:
• Cornelis van Kooten, University of Victoria, (virtual)
“Integrated Assessment of Climate Impacts of Grassland Management and Afforestation”
• Yushu Xia, Columbia University
“Introducing the Farm Practice Multi-Model Intercomparison and Ensemble Project (Farm-MIP)”
• Yuan Yao, Yale University
“Consequential Life Cycle Systems Modeling for Sustainable Biomass Utilization from Local to Global”
Short Description: This panel will examine how the agricultural and forest modeling community can better translate analytical insights into information that directly informs policy decisions. Policymakers and modelers will discuss opportunities to strengthen collaboration and institutional pathways for impact, drawing inspiration from efforts such as the Energy Modeling Intercomparison Project.
Session Coordinators:
Sacha Spector, Doris Duke Foundation; Alice Favero, RTI International; Chris Wade, RTI International
Speakers:
• Rebecca Jablonski-Diehl, Doris Duke Foundation
• Adam Daigneault, University of Maine
• Joe Shultz, Platform for Agriculture and Climate Transformation (virtual)
• Yushu Xia, Columbia University
Land-based Solutions: Part 1 Current practices, modeling tools, and insights from country experiences
Short Description: This session reviews current land-based mitigation practices, modeling tools, and country-level experiences, examining how markets, policy incentives, and accounting frameworks shape carbon outcomes, co-benefits, and trade-offs across forests and agriculture.
Session Coordinators:
Zach Xu, Natural Resources Canada; Robert Beach, RTI International
Speakers:
• David Wear, RFF
“The unanticipated economic impacts of forest disturbances in the Eastern United States”
• Benjamin Filewod, Research Scientist, Natural Resources Canada (virtual)
“State-of-the-art in quantifying forest offsets: technical directions and policy implications”
• Ted Christie-Miller, Residual Carbon
“What Makes a Carbon Credit Valuable? A Market View on Nature-Based Removals”
• Alice Favero, RTI International
“Modeling the Global Potential and Costs of Forest Carbon Sequestration”
Lands-based Solutions: Part 2 Land-Based Activities Across Scales: From Policy to Practice—Delivering Environmental and Community Benefits
Short Description: This session will explore how land-based activities across forestry and agriculture are assessed and implemented at different governance levels, from state to national scales. The discussion will examine how forests, croplands, and other managed landscapes can deliver benefits beyond carbon sequestration, including ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, soil and water outcomes, and rural livelihoods.
Session Coordinators:
Marcela Olguín-Álvarez, Wilpa Capacity Development; Alice Favero, RTI International; Chris Wade, RTI International
Speakers:
• Niklas Hinkel, IIASA
“Endogenizing U.S. Deforestation in GLOBIOM: Global Land-Use Trade-offs and ILUC of Biofuel Policies”
• Adam Daigneault, University of Maine
“A globally relevant data-driven assessment of carbon leakage from forestry”
• Jason Funk, Conservation International
“Assessing competing economic incentives for biomass energy and forest protection: the case of Brazil”
Innovations in bioenergy and the bioeconomy
Short Description: This session explores how emerging and traditional bioenergy and bioeconomy pathways—including data center growth, novel forest and agricultural commodities, and carbon removal technologies—are shaping land and resource demand, with insights from modeling, life-cycle analysis, and policy perspectives.
Session Coordinators:
Greg Latta, University of Idaho; Sheng Xie, Natural Resources Canada
Speakers:
• Peter Osborne, Carleton University
“Forest-Building Atlas: Open Data Infrastructure for Adaptive Timber Design and Carbon Futures”
• Raju Pokharel, MSU
“Using a Spatial Equilibrium Model to Identify Zones of Influence with Bioenergy Expansion”
• Justin Baker, NCSU
“Regional Simulations of Market-Mediated Forest Responses to Scaling Biomass-Based Decarbonization”
• Kanishka Narayan, PNNL
“Implementing dynamic forest management decisions in a global multisector dynamics model”
Innovations in bioenergy and the bioeconomy (continued)
Speakers:
• Jesse Henderson, USFS
“RPA Modeling Efforts: Piecing together the Bioeconomy”
• Qingshi Tu, UBC (virtual)
“Spatiotemporal assessment of U.S. seaweed energy and fertilizer pathways reveals climate and land use mitigation opportunities”
Speakers:
• Forum planning committee
Questions? Please contact us at forestagforum@rti.org for more information.
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