Dr. Jennifer Koch, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental
Sustainability, The University of Oklahoma
Education:
Diplom (Univ.) | Geoecology | University of Bayreuth, Germany | 2005
Ph.D. | Environmental Systems Engineering | University of Kassel, Germany | 2010
Research Interests:
Dr. Koch’s primary research interest is in the development of integrated approaches for modeling
and analysis of coupled human-natural systems with applications for natural resource
management, conservation planning, and sustainability solutions. She received her Ph.D. in
Environmental Systems Engineering from the University of Kassel, Germany, where she
advanced an application of the LandSHIFT land-use and land-cover change model for the Jordan
River region. Dr. Koch also holds a Diplom (Univ.) in Geoecology from the University of
Bayreuth, Germany, where she studied ecological modeling and agricultural ecology. Before
joining the University of Oklahoma, she was involved in several interdisciplinary research
projects such as the Forest, People, Fire project, which focused on interactions, dynamics and
adaptation in fire-prone landscapes of the eastern Cascades of Oregon or the GLOWA Jordan
River project, which provided scientific support for sustainable water management in the Jordan
River region. Within the EPSCoR NSF project she works on spatially explicit, integrated
modeling of land-use and land cover change in Oklahoma under climate variability and change.
Key Publications:
Koch, J., Schaldach, R. & Köchy, M. (2008). Modeling the impacts of grazing land management
on land-use change for the Jordan River region. Global and Planetary Change, 64(3), 177-187.
Lapola, D. M., Schaldach, R., Alcamo, J., Bondeau, A., Koch, J., Koelking, C. & Priess, J. A.
(2010). Indirect land-use changes can overcome carbon savings from biofuels in
Brazil. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(8), 3388-3393.
Schaldach, R., Koch, J., Aus der Beek, T., Kynast, E. & Flörke, M. (2012). Current and future
irrigation water requirements in pan-Europe: An integrated analysis of socio-economic and
climate scenarios. Global and Planetary Change, 94, 33-45.
Fischer, A.P., Korejwa, A., Koch, J., Spies, T., Olsen, C., White, E. & Jacobs, D. (2013). Using
the Forest, People, Fire Agent-Based Social Network Model to Investigate Interactions in SocialEcological Systems. Practicing Anthropology, 35(1), 8-13.
C.G. Boone, C.L. Redman, H. Blanco, D. Haase, J. Koch, S. Lwasa, H. Nagendra, S.
Pauleit, S.T.A. Pickett, K.C. Seto, M. Yokohari (2014) Reconceptualizing Land for Sustainable
Urbanity. In Seto, K.C. and A. Reenberg (eds.) Rethinking Global Land Use in an Urban Era,
Chapter: 16, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced
Studies, pp. 313-332.