Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model for coupling with Earth system models
The Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) is a global integrated assessment model used to project future societal and environmental scenarios, based on economic modeling and on a detailed representation of food and energy production systems. The terrestrial module in GCAM represents agricultural act...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-09-01
|
| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/3055/2016/gmd-9-3055-2016.pdf |
| _version_ | 1819212323030564864 |
|---|---|
| author | Y. Le Page T. O. West R. Link P. Patel |
| author_facet | Y. Le Page T. O. West R. Link P. Patel |
| author_sort | Y. Le Page |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) is a global integrated assessment
model used to project future societal and environmental scenarios, based on
economic modeling and on a detailed representation of food and energy
production systems. The terrestrial module in GCAM represents agricultural
activities and ecosystems dynamics at the subregional scale, and must be
downscaled to be used for impact assessments in gridded models (e.g., climate
models). In this study, we present the downscaling algorithm of the GCAM
model, which generates gridded time series of global land use and land cover
(LULC) from any GCAM scenario. The downscaling is based on a number of
user-defined rules and drivers, including transition priorities (e.g., crop
expansion preferentially into grasslands rather than forests) and spatial
constraints (e.g., nutrient availability). The default parameterization is
evaluated using historical LULC change data, and a sensitivity experiment
provides insights on the most critical parameters and how their influence
changes regionally and in time. Finally, a reference scenario and a climate
mitigation scenario are downscaled to illustrate the gridded land use
outcomes of different policies on agricultural expansion and forest
management. Several features of the downscaling can be modified by providing
new input data or changing the parameterization, without any edits to the
code. Those features include spatial resolution as well as the number and
type of land classes being downscaled, thereby providing flexibility to
adapt GCAM LULC scenarios to the requirements of a wide range of models and
applications. The downscaling system is version controlled and freely
available. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T06:41:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ece0c1281aa4d23b07a662749f67bbb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T06:41:08Z |
| publishDate | 2016-09-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geoscientific Model Development |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ece0c1281aa4d23b07a662749f67bbb2022-12-21T17:56:42ZengCopernicus PublicationsGeoscientific Model Development1991-959X1991-96032016-09-01993055306910.5194/gmd-9-3055-2016Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model for coupling with Earth system modelsY. Le Page0T. O. West1R. Link2P. Patel3Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa Department Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, PortugalCentro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa Department Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, PortugalCentro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa Department Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, PortugalCentro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa Department Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, PortugalThe Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) is a global integrated assessment model used to project future societal and environmental scenarios, based on economic modeling and on a detailed representation of food and energy production systems. The terrestrial module in GCAM represents agricultural activities and ecosystems dynamics at the subregional scale, and must be downscaled to be used for impact assessments in gridded models (e.g., climate models). In this study, we present the downscaling algorithm of the GCAM model, which generates gridded time series of global land use and land cover (LULC) from any GCAM scenario. The downscaling is based on a number of user-defined rules and drivers, including transition priorities (e.g., crop expansion preferentially into grasslands rather than forests) and spatial constraints (e.g., nutrient availability). The default parameterization is evaluated using historical LULC change data, and a sensitivity experiment provides insights on the most critical parameters and how their influence changes regionally and in time. Finally, a reference scenario and a climate mitigation scenario are downscaled to illustrate the gridded land use outcomes of different policies on agricultural expansion and forest management. Several features of the downscaling can be modified by providing new input data or changing the parameterization, without any edits to the code. Those features include spatial resolution as well as the number and type of land classes being downscaled, thereby providing flexibility to adapt GCAM LULC scenarios to the requirements of a wide range of models and applications. The downscaling system is version controlled and freely available.http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/3055/2016/gmd-9-3055-2016.pdf |
| spellingShingle | Y. Le Page T. O. West R. Link P. Patel Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model for coupling with Earth system models Geoscientific Model Development |
| title | Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model
for coupling with Earth system models |
| title_full | Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model
for coupling with Earth system models |
| title_fullStr | Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model
for coupling with Earth system models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model
for coupling with Earth system models |
| title_short | Downscaling land use and land cover from the Global Change Assessment Model
for coupling with Earth system models |
| title_sort | downscaling land use and land cover from the global change assessment model for coupling with earth system models |
| url | http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/3055/2016/gmd-9-3055-2016.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ylepage downscalinglanduseandlandcoverfromtheglobalchangeassessmentmodelforcouplingwithearthsystemmodels AT towest downscalinglanduseandlandcoverfromtheglobalchangeassessmentmodelforcouplingwithearthsystemmodels AT rlink downscalinglanduseandlandcoverfromtheglobalchangeassessmentmodelforcouplingwithearthsystemmodels AT ppatel downscalinglanduseandlandcoverfromtheglobalchangeassessmentmodelforcouplingwithearthsystemmodels |