IAMC wiki
The common Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) documentation
Integrated assessment modeling
Integrated assessment models (IAM) aim to provide policy-relevant insights into global environmental change and sustainable development issues by providing a quantitative description of key processes in the human and earth systems and their interactions. The modelling is integrated, i.e. it uses information from many scientific disciplines and describes both the human and earth system. The term assessment refers to focus on generating useful information for decision-making, even in case of large uncertainties. IAMs, for instance, have been successfully applied in support of climate policy (insights in future greenhouse gas emissions and options for mitigation), in several environmental assessments (e.g. the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment), but IAMs have also published a large amount of scientific papers.
Documentation
For the purpose of IAMs, a transparent model documentation is essential. IAM teams have documented their models individually, often using web-supported tools. As IAMs, however, are often used together it is also important to have information on the similarities and differences across IAM models. This database provides an overview of the IAM models using a transparent wiki-based approach that has been used consistently across a range of models. This allows for direct comparison of these models. In addition to the harmonized model documentation, also Model comparison allow for direct comparisons.
Participating models
The extent of documentation of the participating models may vary. The model documentation consists of:
- a set of documentation pages ordered in a hierarchical tree and a reference card which summarizes the main features (participation mode = full)
- a reference card only (participation mode = reference card only)
Models in preparation, submitted or in review
| Model | Institution | Process stage | Participation mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIM-Enduse India | Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), India, https://www.iima.ac.in/. | in preparation | full |
| AIM-Hub Indonesia | Center for Research on Energy Policy Institut Teknologi Bandung (CREP ITB), Indonesia, https://www.crep.itb.ac.id/. | in preparation | reference card only |
| COFFEE-TEA | COPPE/UFRJ (Cenergia), Brazil, http://www.cenergialab.coppe.ufrj.br/. | under review | full |
| E3ME-FTT | Global System Institute, University of Exeter (UNEXE), United Kingdom, https://www.exeter.ac.uk/gsi/. School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystems Sciences, The Open University (OU), United Kingdom, http://www.open.ac.uk/science/environment-earth-ecosystems/. Cambridge Econometrics (CE), United Kingdom, https://www.camecon.com/. | submitted | full |
| ENV-Linkages | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France, https://www.oecd.org/. | in preparation | full |
| ENVISAGE | The World Bank (World Bank), USA, https://www.worldbank.org/en/home. | in preparation | reference card only |
| EPPA | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, https://globalchange.mit.edu/. | in preparation | full |
| GCAM | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Global Change Research Institute (PNNL, JGCRI), USA, https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/jgcri. | under review | full |
| GCAM-KAIST | Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South-Korea, https://www.kaist.ac.kr/en/. | in preparation | reference card only |
| GMM | Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland, https://www.psi.ch/en. | in preparation | full |
| GRACE | Center for International Climate Research (CICERO), Norway, https://cicero.oslo.no/en. | under review | full |
| ICES | Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Italy, https://www.cmcc.it/. | in preparation | full |
| IFs | Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures, University of Denver (Pardee Center), Colorado, USA, https://pardee.du.edu/. | under review | full |
| IMACLIM-India | Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIML), India, www.iiml.ac.in. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), India, www.iima.ac.in. | in preparation | reference card only |
| IPAC-AIM technology | Energy Research Institute (ERI), China, http://en.cctp.org.cn/m5/product/35982.html. | in preparation | full |
| IPAC-Global | Energy Research Institute (ERI), China, http://en.cctp.org.cn/m5/product/35982.html. | in preparation | full |
| MARKAL-India | The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India, www.teriin.org. | in preparation | full |
| MEDEAS | Group of Energy, Economy and Systems Dynamics, University of Valladolid (GEEDS-UVa), Spain, https://geeds.es/en/. | in preparation | reference card only |
| MERGE-ETL | Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland, https://www.psi.ch/en. | in preparation | full |
| MUSE | Imperial College London (Imperial College London), UK, https://www.imperial.ac.uk/. | in preparation | full |
| McKinsey | McKinsey & Company (McKinsey), USA, https://www.mckinsey.com. | in preparation | reference card only |
| PRIMES | E3Modelling (E3M), Greece, https://e3modelling.com/. | in preparation | reference card only |
| PROMETHEUS | E3Modelling (E3M), Greece, https://e3modelling.com/modelling-tools. | under review | full |
| TIAM-ECN | The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), The Netherlands, https://www.tno.nl/en/. | in preparation | full |
| WITNESS | Open-Source for Climate (OS-C), N/A, https://os-climate.org/transition-analysis/. Linux Foundation (LF), N/A, https://www.linuxfoundation.org/. | in preparation | full |
Acknowledgement
The development of this wiki-based multi-model documentation received input from the FP7 ADVANCE project. The current version benefitted from the work of an earlier version developed at University College London. The wiki also benefitted from comments and suggestions of other modelling teams part of the Integrated Assessment Modelling Consortium. Integrated Assessment Model teams interested in joining this common documentation platform should send a mail to IAMC@pbl.nl
Other forms of common model evaluation
IAM models also collaborate in other ways in order to enhance the transparency of IAM model output. First of all, various databases, such as the RCP and SSP databases, host the output of several IAMs in a common format (RCP Database (version 2.0)). Second, IAM models have also produced common evaluation metrics, distilled from common simple model experiments (Kriegler2015). {{#scite: |bibtex= @article{Kriegler2015, title = "Diagnostic indicators for integrated assessment models of climate policy ", journal = "Technological Forecasting and Social Change ", volume = "90, Part A", number = "", pages = "45 - 61", year = "2015", note = "", issn = "0040-1625", doi = "10.1016/j.techfore.2013.09.020", url = "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162513002576", author = "Elmar Kriegler and Nils Petermann and Volker Krey and Valeria Jana Schwanitz and Gunnar Luderer and Shuichi Ashina and Valentina Bosetti and Jiyong Eom and Alban Kitous and Aurélie Méjean and Leonidas Paroussos and Fuminori Sano and Hal Turton and Charlie Wilson and Detlef P. Van Vuuren", keywords = "Climate policy", keywords = "Integrated assessment models", keywords = "Energy system models", keywords = "Model diagnostics", keywords = "Climate change economics " } }}