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Project

Towards sustainable and dynamic management of subsurface activities (GEOLOGICAL ECONOMICS).

Societal Challenge The subsurface is a valuable but vulnerable resource that needs careful management. However, at present the subsurface is allocated ad-hoc and current studies on subsurface activities (e.g. CCS, geothermal energy) merely focus on the technology and do not consider the subsurface as a geological resource that requires a sustainable and dynamic management given geotechnical and economic uncertainties. Challenges relate to i) the pressures that geological resource use exerts on the geological and biophysical environment, ii) unfair distribution of geological resources, iii) failing policy instruments, and iv) uncertainties. Objective An inter-institutional team of PhDs and contractual researchers led by the FED-tWIN researcher will be established, which addresses the challenges associated with the sustainable and dynamic management of geological resources. The lead time of 10 years is used to specialise in i) defining a geological and sustainable scale of subsurface use taking into account the interference of subsurface activities, ii) the development of geological economic decision support models to evaluate the conservation, prioritization, and equitable allocation of geological resources, iii) the assessment of collective governance structures to deal with environmental impacts, iv) the development of real options models and adaptive co-management frameworks to take into account the irreversible consequences of subsurface activities, different types of uncertainty, and the flexibility options that firms and policy makers have. This sound knowledge base will be internationally advanced and guarantees successful, long-term research in the field of geological and ecological economics under the auspices of the RBINS and the University of Antwerp (UAntwerp).
Date:15 Sep 2020 →  Today
Keywords:ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, GEOLOGY, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, DECISION MAKING MODELS
Disciplines:Geotechnical and environmental engineering not elsewhere classified, Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics, Development planning and policy, Mathematical methods, programming models, mathematical and simulation modelling
Project type:Collaboration project