NRERC was established in 1985, to carry out interdisciplinary research in the area of natural resource and environmental resource management, pioneering this academic research field in Israel.
NRERC was the first, and for many years the only, scientific organization, dealing with socio-economic aspects of the environment in Israel.
NRERC has conducted theoretical, applied and policy studies in the areas of Environmental Resource Management (water and air quality, solid waste, noise pollution, preservation of natural areas and open spaces), and Natural Resource Management (depleting and renewable resource: water, energy, non-fuel minerals).Areas of scientific activity include water trade issues, tradable pollution permits, the value of open spaces, the existence of unique natural resources, solid waste and recycling, pollution from transportation, biodiversity conservation, and economic aspects of climate change. Our studies include evaluation of the economic costs of global climate change in the Mediterranean; Vulnerability of Water Resource due to Climate Change in the Eastern-Mediterranean Ecosystem- an Integrated Approach to Sustainable Management- Socio-Economic Aspect;
Recently, NRERC was chosen, by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, to lead "The Israeli Center for Climate Change" (ICCIC). The center will produce policy papers regarding adaptation to climate change. Most of the funding comes from external research funds, either national (Ministries of Environmental Protection, National Infrastructure etc.) or international (EU FP6, FP7, European Commission and alike).
Research results are published as research reports, working papers, conference proceedings, and scientific journal papers. NRERC organizes workshops and symposia on issues of interest to the scientific community, decision-making bodies and to the general public.
Contact: prof. Mordechai Shechter
Israel National Ecosystem Assessment (I-NEA)
The Israel National Ecosystem Assessment (I-NEA) has two main goals: 1) to increase the awareness of the contribution of nature to the well-being of the people of Israel; and 2) to make the existing knowledge on the role of biodiversity in provisioning of ecosystem services accessible to policy-makers for incorporating it into land use policy-making processes. The I-NEA, that follows the UK-NEA and the Millennium Assessment, will present a comprehensive picture of the state and trends of Israel's ecosystem services across all ecosystems, their value (economic, social and health), the biodiversity involved in service provision, drivers of change affecting service provision, and policy response options. This project integrates existing data and information collected from a wide range of sources. The multidisciplinary assessment team includes thirty-five lead authors and more than one hundred contributing authors and assistants. A stakeholder council, composed of representatives of various national and local government departments and other authorities as well as NGOs, escorts the assessment work.
An interim report, presenting some preliminary key findings, was completed at mid 2017. The final report, including key findings from all chapters, maps of Israel's ecosystems and of several ecosystem services, and following a peer-review process, will be published in the end of 2018.
More info:
http://www.hamaarag.org.il/en/node/7
I-NEA presentation doc
Economic valuation of marine ecosystem services in the Mediterranean
The study focuses on the economic valuation and spatial mapping of coastal and marine ecosystem services within the Israeli Mediterranean. In our research we employ various economic valuation methods, tailored to pertinent ecosystem services. Under present conditions of high uncertainty and knowledge gaps, we use probabilistic tools such as Bayesian networks, relying on relevant literature and experts’ knowledge and ecological modelling using Ecosim and Ecopath. To date, we have estimated ecosystem services such as
1) climate regulation: updating existing methodologies and past valuations
2) food provisioning: establishing sustainable fisheries’ effort and catch under future climate change scenarios
3) biological control: using innovating approaches to valuate for the first time this ecosystem service in marine context.
More info:
http://www.israel-ebm-ocean.org.il/ocean/portal
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