Research

Integrated Assessment: Current Research

Developing GIS-Based Tools for Integration

Personnel

• Amy Snover (contact person)
• Richard Hoskins
• Robert Norheim

Overview

The Climate Impacts Group (CIG) is developing an in-house geographical information system (GIS) capability to support research on integrated assessment, aid communication within CIG, enhance external communication, and undergird decision-support tools for regional stakeholders.

The initial basis of this work will be a "physical template," a GIS-based quantitative virtual reality of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) with fine-scale information not only about climate impacts, but the regulatory, socioeconomic, and ecological environments in which they will occur.

Implementation of the physical template will include the following steps:

• Establishment of a common spatial database containing the input data used in CIG’s research models and the research results of the climate impacts research. This will significantly increase the efficiency and consistency of the linkage and transfer of information between sectors within CIG.
• Spatial linkage of the information contained in the common spatial database with political, socioeconomic, and demographic information about the PNW to enable finer scale impacts analyses.
• The creation of a powerful tool for visualization, presentation, and analysis.

In this way, CIG will provide a complete package of PNW climate-related data. In order to ensure that the information will be provided in a form useful to regional planners and decision makers, we will work to identify the potential users and their data needs (spatial and temporal scales, data formats), to develop a query-able database and a graphical user interface, and to test and evaluate this product with the users.