Lunch Talk Series by Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) Thrust, HKUST (GZ) - Controlling Nitrogen Pollution to Resolve Multiple Environmental Impacts and to Integrate Across Policy Fields
Many environmental problems are caused or connected with the release of nitrogen compounds to the environment. With the doubling of the global nitrogen cycle due to human activities, also emissions have been on the rise. Impacts of nitrogen pollution range from human health (air pollution from particulate matter, nitrate drinking water pollution) to ecosystems damage (eutrophication or acidification of soils), from climate impacts (nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas) to crop damage (as a consequence of tropospheric ozone). Addressing nitrogen compounds in an integrative manner allows for new perspectives, tackling a series of impact categories simultaneously and reaping the co-benefits of solving multiple environmental issues at once. This presentation will demonstrate – based on a series of modelling approaches - how measures across all economic sectors can be optimized and plausible scenarios of future situations developed at multiple spatial scales. Here air quality modelling or substance flow analysis (as in nitrogen budgets) accompanies the GAINS model in providing optimized solutions to achieve given environmental targets of diverse policy fields at lowest implementation costs.
Wilfried Winiwarter is a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, and a professor of environmental chemistry at the Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland. He originally trained as a chemical engineer at Vienna University of Technology and worked as an atmospheric scientist before joining IIASA in 2003. His interest in systems analysis derives from the overarching challenges of climate research. He acquired expertise in the biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen, especially on its anthropogenic impacts. This includes describing methods to minimize the release of ammonia or nitrous oxide into the environment, which are often connected with agricultural activities. He is or was member of the steering boards of large international projects such as INMS (the international nitrogen management system), coordinator of a joint European-Chinese scientific project (UNCNET), and recipient of the PIFI award (International Fellowship of the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences).
There are a limited number of individual meeting slots with Professor Wilfried Winiwarter on the morning of 18th September. If you are interested, kindly contact Dr. Yixin GUO (yixinguo@hkust-gz.edu.cn) before 12:00 PM on 17th September to schedule.
As this is a lunch seminar, refreshments will be provided. IIASA is the world leading research agency and has provided scientific foundations for major European Union environmental regulations. Prof. Winiwarter stands on the frontier for research about the science and policy of the nitrogen cycle and environment. All undergraduate and graduate students interested in policy-relevant sciences are warmly welcome.
For any other inquiries, please feel free to contact Monica Zhong at (86) 8833-2802 or via email at monicamz@hkust-gz.edu.cn.