Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution

How areas of land are allocated for different uses, such as forests, urban areas, and agriculture, has a large effect on the terrestrial carbon balance and, therefore, climate change. Based on available historical data on land-use changes and a simulation of the associated carbon emissions and remov...

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Main Authors: Daniel Young, Olivier Francon, Elliot Meyerson, Clemens Schwingshackl, Jacob Bieker, Hugo Cunha, Babak Hodjat, Risto Miikkulainen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Environmental Data Science
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Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2634460225000184/type/journal_article
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author Daniel Young
Olivier Francon
Elliot Meyerson
Clemens Schwingshackl
Jacob Bieker
Hugo Cunha
Babak Hodjat
Risto Miikkulainen
author_facet Daniel Young
Olivier Francon
Elliot Meyerson
Clemens Schwingshackl
Jacob Bieker
Hugo Cunha
Babak Hodjat
Risto Miikkulainen
author_sort Daniel Young
collection DOAJ
description How areas of land are allocated for different uses, such as forests, urban areas, and agriculture, has a large effect on the terrestrial carbon balance and, therefore, climate change. Based on available historical data on land-use changes and a simulation of the associated carbon emissions and removals, a surrogate model can be learned that makes it possible to evaluate the different options available to decision-makers efficiently. An evolutionary search process can then be used to discover effective land-use policies for specific locations. Such a system was built on the Project Resilience platform and evaluated with the Land-Use Harmonization dataset LUH2 and the bookkeeping model BLUE. It generates Pareto fronts that trade off carbon impact and amount of land-use change customized to different locations, thus providing a proof-of-concept tool that is potentially useful for land-use planning.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2634-4602
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Cambridge University Press
record_format Article
series Environmental Data Science
spelling doaj-art-031ec99f14194186a60eaea658d82a6c2025-08-20T03:53:46ZengCambridge University PressEnvironmental Data Science2634-46022025-01-01410.1017/eds.2025.18Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolutionDaniel Young0Olivier Francon1Elliot Meyerson2Clemens Schwingshackl3Jacob Bieker4Hugo Cunha5Babak Hodjat6Risto Miikkulainen7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0062-0037Cognizant AI Labs, San Francisco, CA, USA Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USACognizant AI Labs, San Francisco, CA, USACognizant AI Labs, San Francisco, CA, USADepartment of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, GermanyOpen Climate Fix, London, UKCognizant Technology Solutions, Brussels, BelgiumCognizant AI Labs, San Francisco, CA, USACognizant AI Labs, San Francisco, CA, USA Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USAHow areas of land are allocated for different uses, such as forests, urban areas, and agriculture, has a large effect on the terrestrial carbon balance and, therefore, climate change. Based on available historical data on land-use changes and a simulation of the associated carbon emissions and removals, a surrogate model can be learned that makes it possible to evaluate the different options available to decision-makers efficiently. An evolutionary search process can then be used to discover effective land-use policies for specific locations. Such a system was built on the Project Resilience platform and evaluated with the Land-Use Harmonization dataset LUH2 and the bookkeeping model BLUE. It generates Pareto fronts that trade off carbon impact and amount of land-use change customized to different locations, thus providing a proof-of-concept tool that is potentially useful for land-use planning.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2634460225000184/type/journal_articlecarbon budgetclimate changeevolutionary optimizationland-use changeneural networkssurrogate modeling
spellingShingle Daniel Young
Olivier Francon
Elliot Meyerson
Clemens Schwingshackl
Jacob Bieker
Hugo Cunha
Babak Hodjat
Risto Miikkulainen
Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
Environmental Data Science
carbon budget
climate change
evolutionary optimization
land-use change
neural networks
surrogate modeling
title Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
title_full Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
title_fullStr Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
title_full_unstemmed Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
title_short Discovering effective policies for land-use planning with neuroevolution
title_sort discovering effective policies for land use planning with neuroevolution
topic carbon budget
climate change
evolutionary optimization
land-use change
neural networks
surrogate modeling
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2634460225000184/type/journal_article
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AT olivierfrancon discoveringeffectivepoliciesforlanduseplanningwithneuroevolution
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AT clemensschwingshackl discoveringeffectivepoliciesforlanduseplanningwithneuroevolution
AT jacobbieker discoveringeffectivepoliciesforlanduseplanningwithneuroevolution
AT hugocunha discoveringeffectivepoliciesforlanduseplanningwithneuroevolution
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