CSM'98 Workshop

CSM'98
12th JISR-IIASA Workshop on Methodologies and Tools
for Complex System Modeling and Integrated Policy Assessment

September 24-26, 1998, IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria

Aim of the CSM'98 workshop

Professor Yoshikazu Sawaragi, Chairman of the Japan Institute of Systems Research (JISR) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) have been organizing since 1987 annual workshops in order to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners working on development and application of system analysis methods to model based analysis of complex problems. The workshops are aimed at reviewing advances in methodology and tools of system analysis applied to various practical problems.

The main topics of this series of workshops have gradually been changing from algorithmic aspects of model analysis, through topics of decision analysis and support, multi criteria decision analysis up to - recently dominating - analysis of complex systems for integrated policy assessment (you may want to click here for links to abstracts of related workshops held at IIASA in 1996 and in 1997). Therefore, the organizers have decided to change the title of the 1998 workshop in order to more adequately reflect the current set of main topics.

Scope of the CSM'98 workshop

The presentations at the CSM'98 workshop are expected to cover the following areas:

Innovative methods and tools supporting the entire life-cycle of a model development, maintainance and analysis; including various modeling paradigms, techniques and tools, especially those applicable for large and complex and/or not well structured problems; multi criteria model analysis and other non-standard simulation and optimization based methods and tools for a model analysis.
Methodologies for modeling and analysis of complex systems, including issues of integration of models, multi-agent models, methods and software for integrated assessment, subjective evaluation models, decision analysis models, catastrophic risk management models.
Applications of innovative methodologies to analysis of complex real-world problems for the needs of integrated assessment of various policy options. Environmental, social, industrial and financial applications are expected, including (but not limited to) policy measures for improving quality of environment, floods caused by climate change, social security reform, insurance coverage of catastrophic events.
Software tools supporting development of applications in the above mentioned areas.

Modeling life-cycle (listed above as a container of problems) includes the following phases of modeling: designing or adapting a model; developing and verifying the necessary data; preparing or adapting tools (solvers) for the model analysis; developing or adapting interfaces between the model and the solvers; verifying and validating the model and solvers; analyzing the model, typically in a loop composed of designing and generating of a scenario, solving the model and analyzing solution results; developing, reporting and explaining findings/conclusions/policy implications; documenting the model, data development procedures, and model analysis methods; maintaining, updating, and improving these items for the duration of the study; and, finally, terminating the study with proper attention to archives that invite as much reuse as possible.

The organizers encourage presentations of very recent results, especially innovative methods, tools and applications relevant for analysis of either global or universal problems for which standard methods and tools of operations research do not offer a satisfactory solution.

Participation in the CSM'98 workshop

Strong international participation is traditionally encouraged for this workshop so that participants can introduce and be introduced to various research perspectives and approaches in the above listed research and applications areas. As in previous years, we are counting on a strong delegation from Japan and we are also inviting leading researchers from other countries to present their methods, applications and tools. Additionally, this open invitation for preregistration is posted on the Web in order to reach those prospective participants who are not yet aware of this annual workshop. In this way, we hope that also in 1998 constructive discussions will be stimulated to benefit all participants and for the progress of the methodologies and tools for model-based analysis of complex systems and integrated policy assessment.

The number of participants of the workshop must be limited, therefore participation is by invitation only. The invitations for the workshop will be distributed in April 1998 to authors of accepted presentations. It is likely that a number of persons who will preregister will exceed the maximum number of participants. In such a case preferences will be given to those who:

have an affiliation in a country that is a member of IIASA,
offer to give a presentation that fits best the areas summarized above. Therefore an extended abstract is a key element of the preregistration.

There is no registration fee for participating in the CSM'98 workshop. IIASA can provide moderate support for covering local expenses to participants who are not able to cover such costs from other sources. Only in exceptional cases will support be offered to participants from countries that are not members of IIASA. Unfortunately, no support can be provided for covering travel expenses.

Prospective participants are kindly requested to complete as soon as possible (but not later than April 30, 1998) the preregistration procedure which is composed of two elements:

filling in a preregistration form,
submission of an extended abstract of the proposed contribution.

The invitations for the workshop will be distributed before May 15, 1998 to authors of accepted presentations.

Dates, organizational details
CSM'98 home page

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