Land Use 2016: Student Poster Winners
Land Use 2016 student poster competition winner Marcus Becker.
This week, Land Use 2016 brought together experts from Alberta and around the world to examine the subject of regional planning — how it influences the provision of ecosystem services, agriculture industries, and governance. Some 220 attendees took part in the conference, sharing diverse expertise, participating in informative discussions, and helping identify new research questions which the Alberta Land Institute may pursue in the years ahead.
Among those 220 participants were eight students selected to share their latest research in Land Use 2016’s student poster competition. As part of the competition, two runners up would each receive a cash prize of $150, while the winner would receive both $300 and the opportunity to introduce his or her research immediately prior to the conference's closing keynote address.
Determining the winner would be ALI Community Advisory Board member Kelly Hall, and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions Executive Director Carol Bettac. Combining their diverse expertise, these two judges met each student and assessed his or her poster based on criteria such as quality of writing, presentation, and subject matter expertise. Once the process began, it quickly became apparent that the judging would not be easy.
In an assessment process that ultimately took twice as long as expected, no student was rated lower than 15 out of 20 on an exacting scoring scale. All eight students had exceeded expectations typical for this sort of competition, and all were praised by ALI Research Director Vic Adamowicz before he announced the winners.
Ultimately, the runners up were University of Alberta students Qi Wang, for her poster Decomposition of farmland value and conservation targeting in Alberta, and Dareskedar Amsalu, for his poster Who Benefits from Irrigation and Who Should Pay for It? A Case of Southern Alberta’s Irrigation.
The winner was Marcus Becker, from the University of Alberta’s Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, for his poster Tradeoffs Between Environmental Quality and Economic Returns from Agriculture: A Case Study of the Lower Little Bow Watershed, Alberta.
In his research, Marcus investigated the outcomes of various agricultural practices –– such as the addition of alfalfa or the application of manure –– to develop ’tradeoff curves’ which help identify what actions are both economically and environmentally beneficial. This sort of work can be of great use to agricultural producers and policy makers, as they continue to refine standards and practices.
A full list of the eight posters presented at Land Use 2016 can be found below. The Alberta Land Institute extends both its thanks and its congratulations to the eight students who took part in the poster competition, and who participated in discussions throughout the two day conference. We look forward to seeing you all again at future events, and to working with many of you on ongoing ALI research projects!
More stories about Land Use 2016 will follow in the days and weeks ahead. Stay tuned to this website, or subscribe to our mailing list for updates!
Student Poster Competition Participants:
- Dareskedar Amsalu, Who Benefits from Irrigation and Who Should Pay for It? A Case of Southern Alberta’s Irrigation. RUNNER UP
- Mohamed Ammar, Modelling Irrigated Agriculture Policy Alternatives in Alberta using System Dynamics.
- Marcus Becker, Tradeoffs Between Environmental Quality and Economic Returns from Agriculture: A Case Study of the Lower Little Bow Watershed, Alberta. WINNER
- Angela Bentley, Does Farmland Fragmentation and Conversion Affect Land Values? Evidence from Alberta, Canada.
- Bijon Brown, Impacts of Differing Water Rights Regimes on Water Market Trading Liquidity and Ensuring Welfare Impacts on Agricultural Producers: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach.
- Evan Joyes, Sustainable Development Credits.
- Sarah Prescott, Modelling of Staging Area Choice for Off Highway Vehicle Riders.
- Qi Wang, Decomposition of farmland value and conservation targeting in Alberta. RUNNER UP
