Food security versus climate change mitigation (avoiding deforestation)Trade-offs in the land use sector

Description

There are often competing demands on the land use sector in many tropical developing countries. On the one hand countries seek to enhance food security (demand for agricultural land), while on the other hand avoiding deforestation and reforestation is beneficial for climate change mitigation goals proposed by countries in their NDCs (=contributions to the Paris climate agreement). Both objectives, food security and climate change mitigation, often compete with each other but little is known on how and where, and how to minimize these trade-offs. 

For this study, existing global and national (spatial) datasets on agriculture, crop yield gaps and forest cover will be used to analyse spatially competing demands and assess where they occur. In addition, different scenarios can be explored that minimize the trade-offs between these two objectives. Focus countries will be Ethiopia. This MSc thesis will be part of two chair groups: Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing and Pant Production Systems. The student should therefore preferably have a background in both agriculture and GIS.  

Objectives

Type of work

Data analysis (GIS, statistical analysis)

                                      

Collaboration

Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing laboratory (GRS research site), possibly others

Prerequisites

Preferably some previous experience with a GIS software (such as arcGIS or QGIS) and/or R

Location         

Wageningen

Period

Preferred starting from September 2018 onwards (flexible)

Supervisors

Renske Hijbeek                       0317482141                        renske.hijbeek@wur.nl

Niki de Sy                               03174821915                      niki.desy@wur.nl