Model Documentation - IFs

Note: The documentation of IFs is 'under review' and is not yet 'published'!

Model Documentation - IFs
Model scope and methods - IFs Model concept, solver and details - IFs Temporal dimension - IFs Spatial dimension - IFs Policy - IFs Socio-economic drivers - IFs Population - IFs Economic activity - IFs Macro-economy - IFs Energy - IFs Energy resource endowments - IFs Fossil energy resources - IFs Uranium and other fissile resources - IFs Bioenergy - IFs Non-biomass renewables - IFs Energy conversion - IFs Electricity - IFs Heat - IFs Gaseous fuels - IFs Liquid fuels - IFs Solid fuels - IFs Grid, pipelines and other infrastructure - IFs Energy end-use - IFs Transport - IFs Residential and commercial sectors - IFs Industrial sector - IFs Other end-use - IFs Energy demand - IFs Technological change in energy - IFs Land-use - IFs Agriculture - IFs Emissions - IFs GHGs - IFs Pollutants and non-GHG forcing agents - IFs Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options - IFs Climate - IFs Non-climate sustainability dimension - IFs Water - IFs Other materials - IFs References - IFs
Corresponding documentation
AIM-Hub BLUES C3IAM COFFEE-TEA DNE21+ GCAM GEM-E3 GRACE IFs IMACLIM IMAGE MESSAGE-GLOBIOM POLES PROMETHEUS REMIND-MAgPIE TIAM-UCL WITCH
Previous versions
Archive of IFs version 7.36
Model information
Model link	https://pardee.du.edu/access-ifs
Institution	Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures, University of Denver (Pardee Center), Colorado, USA, https://pardee.du.edu/.
Solution concept
Solution method	Dynamic recursive with annual time steps through 2100.
Anticipation	Myopic

International Futures (IFs) is a long-term integrated assessment model or system which is a collection of several hard–linked, directly interconnected models (sometimes referred to as modules). It is dynamic recursive with annual time steps to 2100. It represents 186 countries connected through a variety of flows, facilitates aggregation of them to global regions, and allows subdivision of them into more local socio-political units. The IFs system is available for use by others both on-line and in a downloadable version, and it is open source. Major models in IFs (see Figure 1 below) include

• a multistate population model (which represents 22 age sex cohorts to age 100+ and differentiates their educational attainment and cause-specific mortality patterns).
• a multisector general equilibrium economic model (which uses inventories as buffer stocks and to provide price signals so that the model chases equilibrium over time); it provides labor, investment, and consumption information to partial equilibrium energy and agriculture models.
• an education model that tracks grade-by-grade student progression and aging of adults with variable attainment levels.
• a health model that represents age-sex specific mortality and morbidly by 15 causes of death.
• socio-political representations that include governance capacity and finance, wrapping the economic model in a broader social accounting matrix.
• an energy model (which portrays production of six energy types: oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, and other renewable). Physical values from the partial equilibrium model are converted to currency values to replace those in the general equilibrium economic model.
• an agricultural model (which is a partial equilibrium model in which food stocks buffer imbalances between production and consumption and determine price changes); the model represents crop, gazing, forest, developed and other land. As with energy, physical values converted to monetary values override those in the general equilibrium model.
• an infrastructure model that projects paved roads, access to safe water and sanitation, electricity access, and access to various forms of information and communications technology,
• an environmental model, which allows tracking of remaining resources of fossil fuels, area of forested land, water supply-demand, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and changes in temperature and precipitation.
• an implicit technology model, which allows changes in assumptions about rates of technological advance in health, agriculture, energy, and the broader economy.

The basic models of the IFs system