Ecological Economics
Introduction
The Ecological Economics Research Group develops and applies quantitative models of environmental and socio-economic systems from an ecological economics perspective (see International Society for Ecological Economics).
Research projects are primarily undertaken for central government (e.g. the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology; Ministry for the Environment) and local government (e.g. Wellington and Christchurch city councils).
We are engaged in research in:
- material and energy flows in coupled socioeconomic and environmental systems (societal metabolism) (especially in the FRST Sustainable Pathways programme)
- analysis of life-cycle impacts of primary industries (especially in the FRST Ecological Footprint Plus programme)
- development of sustainability indicators (e.g. Genuine Progress Indicator)
- assessment of Climate Change impacts on New Zealand Infrastructure (CLINZI) (projects for local government)
- valuation of ecosystem services
- interdisciplinary analysis of resource and environmental issues (e.g. water allocation in Canterbury)
We employ modelling techniques including:
- environmental input-output analysis
- systems dynamic modelling
- ecological footprinting
- integrated computable general equilibrium modelling
We also plan to apply innovative techniques, such as agent-based modelling, which have been developed to study complex adaptive systems, and deliberative multicriteria evaluation, which has been used to assess wide-ranging social, economic and environmental values of multiple stakeholders.
Research areas
- Environmental computable general equilibrium analysis
Primary contact: James Lennox
Environmental computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis - Environmental input-output analysis
Primary contact: James Lennox
Environmental input-output analysis (EIOA) can show how demand for a commodity generates environmental impacts over the production chain.
Research collaborations
The group's three full-time staff are members of the New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics (NZCEE), a joint venture between Landcare Research and Massey University (www.nzcee.org.nz. We also work closely with colleagues in the Sustainability and Society Group at Landcare Research. We have research links with the following New Zealand research organisations: Massey University, Market Economics, Waikato University International Global Change Institute (IGCI), Lincoln University Tourism Recreation Research and Education Centre (TRREC), NIWA Science, AgResearch, Scion, ESR, , and Canesis. Internationally, we have research links with Australian research organisations including CSIRO Land and Water’s Policy and Economic Research Unit and Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA) at the University of Sydney.
Primary contact
 | James Lennox Email  |
Landcare Research | |
Phone: 03 321 9999 |