Welcome to the SEDAC Model Visualization and Analysis (MVA) Web collection for Socioeconomic Downscaling. The purpose of this service is to provide access to major socioeconomic downscaling efforts and downscaled data related to climate change and impacts. The MVA supports the community of researchers and policy analysts involved in modeling and assessing the impacts and policy implications of climate and global environmental change.

CIESIN’s Population and GDP Downscaling

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With the help of the modeling groups of the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), CIESIN developed a data set of country-level population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and corresponding geospatial data products (downscaled grids) for selected years. The methodology used was simple linear downscaling from regions of SRES models to all countries. The downscaled population and GDP data represented an initial effort to meet the urgent needs of impacts researchers for country-level data. This work was the first exercise of its kind in downscaling socioeconomic drivers. It was based on the SRES scenarios but produced independently of the SRES report.

Downscaled Population, GDP, and Emissions Data from Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP)

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In 2006 the IMAGE group at Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP, formally RVIM) developed a data set containing population, per capita income, and per capita emissions data for the 17 IMAGE world regions and 224 countries (downscaled data). The proposed methodology was based on external input-based downscaling for population, convergence-based downscaling for GDP and emissions, and linear algorithms to grid levels.

Downscaled Population and GDP Data from IIASA

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In 2006 IIASA developed spatially-explicit scenario interpretations for population and economic activity (GDP) for the time period from 1990 to 2100, based on three scenarios (A2, B1, and B2) from the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). The downscaling exercise was done through a combination of decomposition and optimization methods. A publication describing the process can be viewed and downloaded at: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/PCC/pubs/Gruebleretal_TFSC_inpress.pdf. The detailed scenario data and their downscaled indicators have been made available at: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/GGI/DB.

 

Image at top: NASA Watches Arctic Ice. Courtesy NASA Life on Earth.