Many of the global sustainability challenges are tied to climate change, water, land, and food production. Understanding these challenges requires a holistic view of interlinkages between environmental and social systems and dealing with scientific problems with different spatial and temporal scales. In addition, considering the spillover effects require a framework capable of modeling major transmission mechanisms of shocks and policies.

SIMPLE-G, a Simplified International Model of agricultural Prices, Land use, and the Environment- Gridded version, integrates fine-scale geospatial data and biophysical sciences with a simplified yet strong economic basis within a gridded decision framework. It is a multi-scale quantitative framework illustrating the complex interactions between regional and local economic drivers and sustainability stresses at scales ranging from 250 meters grid cells to national levels. The economic decisions are considered in modeling market responses that can cause changes in other locations. The grid cells are connected through markets which include the demand and supply of agricultural commodities, fertilizer, labor, land, and water.

In this webinar, we will provide an overview of SIMPLE-G. We will demonstrate examples and show how this framework can improve our understanding of the interplay between local hydro-climatic variations and global socio-economic changes and their implications for food security and environmental sustainability.