Thematic Guide to Integrated Assessment Modeling

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Integrated Assessment Supplements Disciplinary Research

Disciplinary research, whether in the natural or social sciences, is unlikely to do the jobs of attending to intersections among domains or prioritizing decision-relevant uncertainties and research needs. Even if a research program includes the entire set of relevant disciplines, from natural and social sciences, this breadth does not make integration. Nor will the integrating activity emerge spontaneously from a broad, disciplinary-oriented program: It requires serious, intentional direction and resources.

But integrated assessment does not replace disciplinary research; it supplements it. While integrated assessment is needed to identify and prioritize decision-relevant gaps in knowledge, it cannot normally fill the gaps. Filling them takes disciplinary research, whether in the natural or social sciences.

The next section is A Difficult Craft, An Immature Discipline.

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Sources

Parson, E.A. and K. Fisher-Vanden, Searching for Integrated Assessment: A Preliminary Investigation of Methods, Models, and Projects in the Integrated Assessment of Global Climatic Change. Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). University Center, Mich. 1995.

Suggested Citation

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). 1995. Thematic Guide to Integrated Assessment Modeling of Climate Change [online]. Palisades, NY: CIESIN. Available at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mva/iamcc.tg/TGHP.html [accessed DATE].