Dr. Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins

Dr. Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins

contact: hopkins@pik-potsdam.de

1.  Moscow State University (Russia) - M.Sc.

Soil Science and Geography

2.  The Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) Environmental Program

3.  Cranfield University (UK) - M.Phil.

Eco-technology and Environmental Modelling

4.  University of Toronto (Canada) - M.Sc.

Physical Geography

5. 2004 - Potsdam University (Germany) - Ph.D.

Geo-ecology and Climate Change

Current Activities:

1.

Until the present, there has been little investigation done into the effects of urbanisation on the Biosphere. However, as one can see from the scientific literature and the media, due to the population growth, economic development and migration to cities, unsustainable urbanisation is responsible for many acute problems, especially in developing countries (but also to a certain degree in Europe), by influencing the air and water quality, contributing to the greenhouse gases emission and triggering the need for intensification of agricultural production for food and bio-energy. This in turn leads to land degradation, biodiversity loss and to further over-exploitation of resources. The overall aim of my current research is to develop, in collaboration with other research centers a dynamic model for calculating Carbon, Nitrogen and Sulfur emissions from cities and urbanized areas until the year 2100. We will use the earlier developed models (regression and gamma-model) that are based on the demographic statistics and population prognoses for estimation of urbanization dynamics at different scales. We shall also experiment with different scenarios of urbanization and land-use changes, resulting from cities' propagation, for developing integrated strategies and policy recommendations within the framework of current carbon dioxide laws and policies. It will be a multi-scale analysis, considering the local (city), regional and global specifics of urban territories functioning within the local and global main elemental cycles.

Scientific Interests:

I work in the area of human and physical geography, urbanisation, climate change, sustainability science, environmental policy, as well as Global Carbon Cycle modelling and have been involved in studies of the impact of urbanization on the GCC for the past eight years, including my Ph.D., which was concerned with the estimation of carbon emissions due to land conversion arising from the expansion of urbanised areas. It was a multidisciplinary project, which also looked into the interconnection of socioeconomic issues, such as land usage, population growth, and lifestyle quality, with the physical environment, specifically the GCC.

In my earlier years (while studying in UK and Canada), I investigated and quantitatively modelled river transport mechanisms of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Carbon to the oceans. The studied watersheds (Scheldt, Belgium; Humber, Canada) were excellent examples covering different scales, climatic conditions, population distribution, urban and rural land use and different watershed management techniques.

Selected Publications:

1. Sustainable Biosphere: Critical Overview of the Basic Concepts of Sustainability, (1998, with Yu. Svirejev). Ecological Modelling 106, pp.47-61

2. Diversity of the biosphere, (1997 with Yu. Svirejev). Ecological Modelling 97, pp. 145-146

3. Urbanised territories as a specific component of the Global Carbon Cycle (2004, with H.-J. Schellnhuber and V.L. Pomaz), Ecological Modelling 173, pp. 295-312

4. From Kyoto via Moscow to Nowhere? (2004, with Z.W. Kundzewicz and H.-J. Schellnhuber). Climate Policy, Volume 4, Issue 1, pp.81-90

5. Urbanised territories as a specific component of the Global Carbon Cycle (2005, with H.-J.Schellnhuber). PIK Report No. 94, ISSN 1436.0179

6. Urbanised territories as a specific component of the Global Carbon Cycle (2004). Doctorate Thesis.

7. Modelling carbon dynamics from urban land conversion: fundamental model of city in relation to a local carbon cycle. (with H.-J. Schellnhuber) (2006). Carbon Balance and Management 2006, 1:8, 15 August. http://www.cbmjournal.com/

8. The model of long-term evolution of the carbon cycle. (2008). (with Yu. M. Svirezhev - first author). Ecological Modelling 216, pp. 114-126

9. Urban expansion and its contribution to the regional carbon emissions: Using the model based on the population density distribution.(2008) (with H.-J. Schellnhuber), 216 ( 2008) pp. Ecological Modelling"

Some Articles in Books.

1.. Urbanization as a Global Ecological Process. 2008. In Encyclopedia of Ecology, Elsevier. Vol. 5, pp. 3672-3678 (Article number: Global Ecology. 764). Hardbound, ISBN: 0-444-52033-3, 3120 pages, publication date: JUL-2008 Imprint: ELSEVIER

2. Biosphere: Vernadsky's Concept. 2008 (with Yu. M. Svirezhev - first author) In Encyclopedia of Ecology, Elsevier. (Article number: Global Ecology. 615). Vol. 1, pp. 467-471

3. European Nitrogen Assessment Report. Section C- dispersion, budgets and impacts of nitrogen on different scales. Chapter 12. Dispersion and managements of nitrogen in urban landscapes. (www.nine.esf.org), to be published in 2011.