First Annual Global TOA-MD Workshop Corvallis Oregon
GOALS
This workshop was designed for participants in the TOA-MD course that began in March 2012. In the first “self-guided” part of the course, participants studied the Basic Learning Module and the Advanced Learning Module and completed exercises from each module. Skype-based question-and-answer sessions were also held. Before coming to the Workshop, participants worked on their system designs and prepared data from their research projects. The goals of the workshop were to review the BLM and ALM, discuss climate change and ecosystem service analysis using TOA-MD, and make progress in the participants’ case studies.
OVERVIEW
The workshop began on Tuesday June 19 at 8:30 AM at Kelley Engineering Building, Room 1005. Each day’s session ran from approximately 9 AM to 5 PM, with brief morning and afternoon breaks, and lunch provided at the meeting room at noon each day.
On Wednesday participants made short presentations about their projects, and on Saturday we concluded with short presentations from each participant summarizing preliminary results or progress made on each project.
Tuesday June
- Introductions and review of goals, agenda
- Review of the Basic and Advanced Learning Modules
- Reception
Wednesday June 20
- Participant project presentations
- Survey data preparation and analysis methods
Thursday June 21
- Using crop and environmental simulation models for counterfactual design
- Field trip to Newport- Insider's tour the Hatfield Marine Science Center and visit to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area
- Dinner at Local Ocean Seafood in Newport
Friday June 22
- Ecosystem Services
- Climate Change
- Participant applications: system 1 parameterization
Saturday June 23
- Participant applications: system 2 parameterization
- Participant presentations and concluding discussions
- Meeting ended at 3 PM
WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
The workshop started out with a brief history of how the TOA-MD model came about, followed by a review of the Basic and Advanced Learning Modules. There were discussions about:
- Stratifying datasets when the data has skewed distributions such as a few very large farms vs. many small farms
- The use of livestock models, and crop models to simulate data when real world data is not available
- What determines the proper interest rate for discounting?
Each of the participants made presentations describing how they are applying the TOA-MD model to their projects, and at the end of the workshop they shared their preliminary results and highlighted areas in which further data was needed to complete the models. Many of the projects involved aspects of technology adoption and climate change, such as shrimp production under climate change, groundnuts under climate change, climate change mitigation (carbon sequestration), and carbon contracts.
During the workshop John Antle, Roberto Valdivia, and Jetse Stoorvogel helped individual participants work through issues they were encountering. Participants also had time to discuss problem areas with other users, and work through data and application issues related directly to their individual projects.
The workshop was not all work and no play….
After the first day of the workshop John Antle hosted a reception at his house, where everyone enjoyed some smoked Pacific Northwest salmon, local brews, and wine. There was also a field trip to the Oregon coast (Newport) in which we were treated to an insider’s tour of the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and visited the picturesque Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, as well as a wonderful dinner at Local Ocean Seafood.
The workshop concluded Saturday with a graduation ceremony in which each of the participants received a certificate of achievement to prove that they did indeed successfully complete the 1st Annual Global TOA-MD Workshop!!