Multiscale Integrated Modeling  of Ecosystem Services, MIMES, is an intimidating project. It stretches the edge of technical achievement (our software tools are obsolete almost before we implement them) in GIS data and display, in modeling environments, and in interface development. As a pure intellectual challenge for social and physical scientists the conceptualizing and operationalizing of Ecosystem Services is in its raw infancy. But equally challenging is the marriage of technology, social science and physical science in an integration with the purpose of facing up to the changes that challenge the direction of Human Civilization. Are you up to it?

NOTE: if you want to skip straight to the tech talk click here

There is a place for you. You might find it in the list of questions relating to far ranging fields or in the quotes from some of our intrepid founding developers. Either way we have put together a package of model development tools that include forums for conceptual debate as well as compiling code. The model structure is modular to allow you to plug your local data and model structures into a simulated global environment.

Social Sciences
What is Social Capital?
How do we represent trust and other characteristics in a model?
Must we just leave the sacred out of policy decisions in deference to the “bottom line”? We are immersed in these questions and seeking expertise from anthropology, sociology, economics, political science etc.

Hear Dr. Farber talk about the place of social science in the questions of valuing cultural as well as monetary factors. Dr. Farber is director of the Environmental Management and Policy program and co-director of the Environmental Decision Support program at the University of Pittsburgh.

              
     
Ralf  Seppelt is Head of the Department for "Computational Landscape Ecology" at the Environmental Research Centre at UFZ. He talks about strategy when modeling in a data thin condition.

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