TY - GEN A1 - Hao, Zhengzheng A1 - Wätzold, Frank A1 - Sturm, Astrid T1 - A Spatially Explicit Hydro-Economic Modeling Procedure to Design Cost-Effective Agri-Environment Schemes for Mitigating Water Pollution from Cropland T2 - Water Economics and Policy Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/S2382624X23400118 SN - 2382-624X VL - 9 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerling, Charlotte A1 - Drechsler, Martin A1 - Keuler, Klaus A1 - Sturm, Astrid A1 - Wätzold, Frank T1 - Time to consider the timing of conservation measures: Designing cost-effective agri-environment schemes under climate change T2 - Agricultural and Resource Economics Review Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.4 SN - 2372-2614 SN - 1068-2805 VL - 52 IS - 2 SP - 231 EP - 249 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerling, Charlotte A1 - Drechsler, Martin A1 - Keuler, Klaus A1 - Leins, Johannes A1 - Schulz, Björn A1 - Sturm, Astrid A1 - Wätzold, Frank T1 - Effektivität und Kosteneffizienz von Artenschutzmaßnahmen unter Klimawandel - das Beispiel der Sumpfschrecke (Stethophyma grossum) in Schleswig-Holstein T2 - Natur und Landschaft Y1 - 2025 SN - 0028-0615-202501 VL - 100. Jahrgang 2025 IS - 1 SP - 2 EP - 8 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lutz Philip, Hecker A1 - Frank, Wätzold A1 - Astrid, Sturm T1 - Keep cool in a changing climate : an integrated modelling procedure for costeffective mitigation of rising temperatures in rural landscapes T2 - Climate Change : An Interdisciplinary, International Journal Devoted to the Description, Causes and Implications of Climatic Change N2 - Rising temperatures may negatively impact rural landscapes in temperate climates due to reduced yields in agriculture and forestry, an increased risk of biodiversity loss, changes in the local climate and a decrease in recreational value. One promising way to mitigate increasing land surface temperatures (LST) in rural landscapes is to implement land-use and land-cover changes as adaptation measures that retain precipitation in soils, water bodies, and groundwater to allow vegetation to evaporate more water to reduce LST in summer. We develop an integrated modelling procedure to identify cost-effective spatially differentiated adaptation measures in agriculture and forestry to mitigate LST increases. We define cost-effective adaptation in a landscape as maximizing LST mitigation for given costs. The procedure combines the results of a model that predicts the spatially differentiated effects of adaptation measures on LST with the results of an economic model that estimates the respective spatially differentiated costs in an optimisation algorithm. We demonstrate how the procedure works by applying it to the Elbe-Elster-county in Germany. We find that a substantial share of results can only be explained by considering spatially differentiated costs and mitigation impacts and not average values showing the importance of taking into account costs and impacts of measures in a spatially differentiated manner. We also compare results from our integrated modelling procedure with a (purely natural science) approach that selects those adaptation measures first which perform best in terms of LST mitigation and find that our approach leads to a better heat mitigation effect by a factor of 3.5 – 4.8. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-03929-0 SN - 1573-1480 VL - 178 IS - 101 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - Springer CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - GEN A1 - Drechsler, Martin A1 - Sturm, Astrid T1 - Model-based analysis of the agglomeration bonus for the conservation of twelve meadow bird species in an agricultural landscape T2 - Ecological Economics N2 - The agglomeration bonus has been proposed as an effective and cost-effective instrument for inducing the spatial aggregation of conservation measures. It consists of a spatially homogenous base payment (like most existing payment schemes) plus a bonus for each adjacent land parcel that is conserved, too. While the agglomeration bonus has been investigated in numerous theoretical studies, very few applied studies exist to date. We extend a recent modelling study which analysed the effect of several grassland conservation schemes on meadow bird species in the Federal State of Saxony in Germany, by adding to the homogenous payment the described bonus. As expected, the bonus induces a spatial aggregation of the conservation measures. However, for typical bird dispersal ranges this does not reflect in an increased scheme cost-effectiveness. Only for much smaller dispersal ranges, which would be typical for insect species, the cost-effectiveness of the scheme would increase. We conclude that in complex agricultural landscapes with many land-use measures and species the agglomeration bonus may have limited value. Instead it should be used as a targeted instrument for the conservation of selected species of high conservation value that depend on very particular types of land use and have a small dispersal range. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108663 SN - 0921-8009 VL - 236 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Menares-Barraza, Esteban A1 - Markova-Nenova, Nonka A1 - Sturm, Astrid A1 - Wätzold, Frank A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - Cost-effective conservation of multiple goals in grasslands : synergies and trade-offs T2 - Biological conservation N2 - Permanent grasslands in Europe are essential for biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services, but are increasingly threatened by land-use intensification. In the past, grassland conservation has mainly focused on “traditional” conservation goals such as species richness and endangered species, but has rarely considered alternative goals that address trophic interactions, ecosystem services, or ecosystem resilience. Using data from the research platform Biodiversity Exploratories, we adapted an existing optimization procedure to optimize single and joint conservation goals for butterfly and plant communities in grasslands in two regions in Germany. For all grassland sites, we assessed the costs associated with each management measure and the ecological state measured by multiple attributes. For each region, we ran three optimizations: one ecological (budget-unconstrained), and two cost-effectiveness optimizations with a low and a medium budget (budget-constrained). We compared selected grassland management measures, their costs, and ecological effects for different goals between optimizations and between different goals within the same optimization. Cost-effectiveness optimization can achieve high levels of conservation goals with low budgets, reaching up to 80% of the maximum achievable in the ecological optimizations while requiring only 30% of the budget. Trade-offs with other goals were inevitable but were minimized by jointly optimizing over multiple goals. Optimization results and trade-offs varied between regions, highlighting the need to design and implement region-specific management measures. Our study shows that promoting multiple conservation goals simultaneously across taxonomic boundaries is an ecologically and economically viable option. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111401 SN - 0006-3207 VL - 311 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Elsevier BV CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerling, Charlotte A1 - Drechsler, Martin A1 - Leins, Johannes A. A1 - Sturm, Astrid A1 - Wätzold, Frank T1 - Cost-effective instruments for biodiversity conservation under climate change - the need for flexibility T2 - Ecological economics N2 - Climate change is one of the main threats for biodiversity. As it affects the ecological and economic system, conservation costs and impacts may change in a heterogeneous manner. This implies that cost-effective conservation sites and measures may no longer be so in the future. We investigate spatial flexibility (to adapt the location of conservation sites) and management flexibility (to adapt the conservation measures on those sites) as novel criteria for analysing the cost-effectiveness of policy instruments to conserve biodiversity under climate change. We develop a generic climate-ecological-economic modelling approach that captures the role of spatial and management flexibility to assess the cost-effectiveness of policy instruments. We apply the modelling approach to the conservation of an indicator species in agricultural grasslands in a case study area in Northern Germany, and compare the cost-effectiveness of the policy instruments of land purchase (low spatial flexibility, high management flexibility) and long-term individual conservation contracts (medium spatial and management flexibility) considering a period from 2020 to 2079. We find that both spatial and management flexibility matter in the case study and discuss their broader relevance for conservation in a changing climate. KW - Adaptation KW - Agricultural landscape KW - Ecological-economic modelling KW - Policy instrument evaluation KW - Tool Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108414 SN - 0921-8009 VL - 227 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Elsevier BV CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerling, Charlotte A1 - Drechsler, Martin A1 - Kadir, Karmand A1 - Kahlau, Bojan A1 - Leins, Johannes A1 - Sturm, Astrid A1 - Wätzold, Frank T1 - ClimeHop : an interactive app for teaching cost-effective biodiversity conservation under climate change T2 - The journal of economic education Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2025.2461066 SN - 2152-4068 VL - 56 IS - 2 SP - 202 EP - 203 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon, Oxon ER -