The OJEong Resilience Institute at Korea University (OJERI) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) successfully held the OJERI-IIASA Symposium 2025 on April 28-29 at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria. With the theme "Forest Fire and Water-Land Management under the Carbon (Emission) Cycle", the symposium aimed to continue the strong partnership between IIASA and OJERI@KU in advancing cross-disciplinary research for sustainable forest and land-water management.
© Johanna San Pedro | IIASA Figure 1. Head of the IIASA and OJERI-KU delegations. From the left: Prof. Seongwoo Jeon, Dr. Florian Kraxner, Prof. Woo-Kyun Lee, Emeritus Research Scholar Dr. Anatoly Shvidenko, And Dr. Andrey Krasovskiy
The event was attended by more than 40 researchers, policymakers, and students from international institutions including representatives from Korea University, IIASA, Pyeongtaek University, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC), the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS), the Korea Forest Service (KFS), Jeonju University, the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU),the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) of Japan, and the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN) in Brazil to exchange knowledge and strategies for managing the growing challenges of wildfires, land ecosystem, and carbon emissions.
© Johanna San Pedro | IIASA Figure 2. Dr. Hyun-Woo Jo presenting the AFEIM to the participants of the IIASA-OJERI Symposium
Sessions explored multi-scale wildfire modeling efforts, integrated agricultural-forestry-disturbance frameworks, and the latest developments in greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting and verification systems. Special panel discussions were set. First panel discussion focused on comparing wildfire dynamics between Austria and South Korea, highlighting how different land management practices influence fire risks and ecosystem resilience. The second panel, following the session on ecosystem services and carbon monitoring, tackled three core topics- the practical differences between European and Korean forest management plans, better integration of ecosystem services into current material cycles and biodiversity targets, and the latest developments in climate adaptation and GHG reduction in the forestry sector. The last session gave the early-career researchers an opportunity to present their studies which focus on various modeling approaches in environmental sciences.
© Johanna San Pedro | IIASA Figure 3. Dr Florian Kraxner showing the participants some photos of the recent forest fire that happened in Schwarzau im Gebirge
The second day started with a closed meeting between senior IIASA and OJERI-KU researchers to agree on the next steps and future collaboration, followed by a field trip to Schwarzau im Gebirge to get a field level insights into Austrian forest and the suppression strategies that was applied to combat the forest fire that occurred in March 2025. The fire, which burned for three days, was successfully contained with effective cooperation between professional and volunteer firefighters, supported by the Austrian government. During the visit, a volunteer representative shared their strategies for wildfire prevention, emergency response coordination, and the importance of sustaining Austria's strong culture of volunteer firefighting that is a key in disaster management system.
© Johanna San Pedro | IIASA Figure 4. Group photo from the field trip in Schwarzau im Gebirge
The OJERI-IIASA Symposium 2025 closed with strengthened future collaborations, including the development of joint research initiatives and exchange programs. This ensures continued contributions of expertise globally and regionally for a resilient forest and land-water systems in the face of climate change. One of the key takeaways from the symposium was the need to make scientific research more practical and accessible. As highlighted by Professor Woo-Kyun Lee, and supported by Dr. Florian Kraxner, models must serve not only researchers but also forest managers and local decision-makers. Results should be relevant, easy to understand, can be tailored to the scale where forest managers and watershed stakeholders operate, and widely communicated ensuring that both citizens and policymakers are informed before disaster strikes, not just after.
