Dr. Andrea Kaim

Deputy Head of Department
Head of junior research group AgriScape
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Department of Computational Landscape Ecology
Permoserstraße 15
04318 Leipzig
Phone: +49 341 6025 1796
Andrea Kaim
Research interests
- (Spatial) Mathematical Optimization
- Landscape ecology, especially ecosystem services, biodiversity and trade-offs
- Agricultural sciences, particularly grassland management
- Agent-based modelling
- Spatial conservation planning
- Environmental Economics
Media
Scientist portrait on YouTube
Podcast "Wie wird unsere Landwirtschaft vielfältiger" with detektor.fm (in German)
Podcast "Agrarwende und Modellierungen" with Scientists for Future (in German)
Projects
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AgriScape - Trade-offs along pathways towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes AgriScape |
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SUSALPS - Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate SUSALPS |
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TALE - Towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes in Europe: Assessing and governing synergies between food production, biodiversity, and ecosystem services TALE |
Curriculum Vitae
since 2025 | Deputy Head of Department, Department Computational Landscape Ecology |
since 2024 | Speaker of the Working Group "Land Use, Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity" at UFZ (Link) |
since 2023 | Habilitation (work in progress), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Natural Sciences III - Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Geosciences, and Computer Science, Institute of Geosciences and Geography, Halle (Saale), Deutschland, Working title: Future perspectives of German agricultural landscapes - How modelling, optimization, and stakeholder integration can help minimizing conflicts of an agricultural transformation |
since 2022 | Head of Junior Research Group, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department Computational Landscape Ecology, Leipzig, Germany, Project AgriScape |
2019 - 2022 | Research Associate, University of Bayreuth, Professorship of ecological services, Bayreuth, Germany, Project SUSALPS |
2021 | Guest Student, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Göttingen, Germany |
2015 - 2022 | PhD Candidate, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department Computational Landscape Ecology, Leipzig, Germany, Title of thesis: Addressing land use allocation problems in German agricultural landscapes by combining multi-criteria optimization with stakeholder preferences |
2015 - 2018 | Research Associate, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department Computational Landscape Ecology, Leipzig, Germany, Project TALE |
2014 - 2015 | Student Research Assistant, Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy (former Center for Central and Eastern Europe - MOEZ), Department Sustainability Management and Infrastructure Economics, Leipzig, Germany. |
2014 | Student Research Assistant, Universität Leipzig, Institute for Infrastructure and Resources Management, Leipzig, Germany. |
2013 - 2014 | Occupational Trainee, The University of Queensland, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Brisbane, Australia. |
2012 | Studies in Mathematics and Economics (ERASMUS scholarship), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. |
2008 - 2015 | Studies in Business Mathematics (German Diploma), Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. |
Publications
2025 (4)
- Heiß, I., Stegmann, F., Wolf, M., Volk, M., Kaim, A. (2025):
Supporting the spatial allocation of management practices to improve ecosystem services – An opportunity map approach for agricultural landscapes
Ecol. Indic. 172 , art. 113212 10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113212 - Kaim, A., Schmitt, T., Annuth, S.H., Haensel, M., Koellner, T. (2025):
An agent-based model to simulate field-specific nitrogen fertilizer applications in grasslands 1.0.0
Version: 1.0.0 CoMSES Model Library - Kaim, A., Schmitt, T.M., Annuth, S.H., Haensel, M., Koellner, T. (2025):
An agent-based model to simulate field-specific nitrogen fertilizer applications in grasslands
Eur. J. Agron. 165 , art. 127539 10.1016/j.eja.2025.127539 - Reinermann, S., Boos, C., Kaim, A., Schucknecht, K., Asam, S., Gessner, U., Annuth, S.H., Schmitt, T., Koellner, T., Kiese, R. (2025):
Grassland yield estimations – potentials and limitations of remote sensing, process-based modelling and field measurements
EGUsphere 10.5194/egusphere-2024-4087
2024 (1)
- Schmitt, T.M., Haensel, M., Kaim, A., Lee, H., Reinermann, S., Koellner, T. (2024):
Recreation and its synergies and trade-offs with other ecosystem services of Alpine and pre-Alpine grasslands
Reg. Envir. Chang. 24 (2), art. 57 10.1007/s10113-024-02213-8
2022 (1)
- Gebhardt, S., Haensel, M., Schulp, C.J.E., Kaim, A. (2022):
Ecologically and biophysically optimal allocation of expanded soy production in Bavaria, Germany
Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6 , art. 916003 10.3389/fsufs.2022.916003
2021 (1)
- Kaim, A., Bartkowski, B., Lienhoop, N., Schröter-Schlaack, C., Volk, M., Strauch, M. (2021):
Combining biophysical optimization with economic preference analysis for agricultural land-use allocation
Ecol. Soc. 26 (1), art. 9 10.5751/ES-12116-260109
- Schmitt, T. M., Martín-López, B., Kaim, A., Früh-Müller, A., Koellner, T. (2021): Ecosystem services from (pre-)Alpine grasslands: Matches and mismatches between citizens’ perceived suitability and farmers’ management considerations. Ecosystem Services vol. 49, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101284
2020 (2)
- Bartkowski, B., Beckmann, M., Drechsler, M., Kaim, A., Liebelt, V., Müller, B., Witing, F., Strauch, M. (2020):
Aligning agent-based modeling with multi-objective land-ese allocation: Identification of policy gaps and feasible pathways to biophysically optimal landscapes
Front. Environ. Sci. 8 , art. 103 10.3389/fenvs.2020.00103 - Kaim, A., Strauch, M., Volk, M. (2020):
Using stakeholder preferences to identify optimal land use configurations
Front. Water 2 , art. 579087 10.3389/frwa.2020.579087
2019 (2)
- Gobeyn, S., Mouton, A.M., Cord, A.F., Kaim, A., Volk, M., Goethals, P.L.M. (2019):
Evolutionary algorithms for species distribution modelling: A review in the context of machine learning
Ecol. Model. 392 , 179 - 195 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.11.013 - Strauch, M., Cord, A.F., Pätzold, C., Lautenbach, S., Kaim, A., Schweitzer, C., Seppelt, R., Volk, M. (2019):
Constraints in multi-objective optimization of land use allocation – Repair or penalize?
Environ. Modell. Softw. 118 , 241 - 251 10.1016/J.ENVSOFT.2019.05.003
2018 (2)
- Kaim, A., Cord, A.F., Volk, M. (2018):
A review of multi-criteria optimization techniques for agricultural land use allocation
Environ. Modell. Softw. 105 , 79 - 93 10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.03.031 - Ziv, G., Hassall, C., Bartkowski, B., Cord, A.F., Kaim, A., Kalamandeen, M., Landaverde-González, P., Melo, J.L.B., Seppelt, R., Shannon, C., Václavík, T., Zoderer, B.M., Beckmann, M. (2018):
A bird's eye view over ecosystem services in Natura 2000 sites across Europe
Ecosyst. Serv. 30 (Part B), 287 - 298 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.08.011
2017 (2)
- Cord, A.F., Bartkowski, B., Beckmann, M., Dittrich, A., Hermans-Neumann, K., Kaim, A., Lienhoop, N., Locher-Krause, K.E., Priess, J., Schröter-Schlaack, C., Schwarz, N., Seppelt, R., Strauch, M., Václavík, T., Volk, M. (2017):
Towards systematic analyses of ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies: Main concepts, methods and the road ahead
Ecosyst. Serv. 28 (Part C), 264 - 272 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.07.012 - Kaim, A., Watts, M.C., Possingham, H.P. (2017):
On which targets should we compromise in conservation prioritization problems?
Methods Ecol. Evol. 8 (12), 1858 - 1865 10.1111/2041-210X.12812
Theses
Kaim, A. (2021) "Addressing land use allocation problems in German agricultural landscapes by combining multi-criteria optimization with stakeholder preferences". Dissertation, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
Kaim, A. (2015) “Conservation Prioritization Problems and their Shadow Prices”. Diploma thesis, Business Mathematics, Leipzig University, Germany.
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