Second joint annual meeting of POnTE and XF-ACTORS in Valencia

From the 23rd to the 26th of October 2018, the second joint annual meeting of the European projects POnTE and XF-ACTORS took place in Valencia. Our PhD candidate Kevin Schneider contributed to the meeting by giving two presentations on economic analyses of invasive pathogens. First, a cross-regional expert survey on Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum was presented. The survey aims to elicit knowledge on parameters that feed into a stochastic partial budgeting model. Second, a dynamic and spatially-explicit bioeconomic model on Xylella fastidiosa was presented. The model combines insights obtained from (i) a climatic suitability map generated using a machine learning method, (ii) temporal and spatial spread of the pathogen using logistic growth and radial range expansion models and (iii) a economic model which computes foregone profits due to declining yields and losses in investment due to the premature death of orchards. ​