Overview
Our primary goal for iRESM is to create a unique modeling capability for regional integrated assessment that is portable, consistent with global modeling and analyses, and provides significant improvements and insights into the interaction of human decisions and climate change on regional scales. Integrated models of this type do not currently exist.
As shown in the diagram below, the iRESM regional modeling capability is parameterized by a global modeling capability, iESM, the integrated Earth System Model—consisting of PNNL's Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), representing human systems, coupled with NCAR's Community Earth System Model (CESM), representing natural systems. Work to develop the iESM is underway and is largely funded by ongoing projects, one of which PNNL leads.
iRESM Conceptual Framework
The iRESM initiative will focus on the regional level, coupling ongoing PNNL research in regional earth system modeling (RESM) with the development of a regionalized version of GCAM (R-GCAM) and with the development of regional sectoral models addressing human and natural system interactions. Parallel to the iESM's global modeling structure with CESM and GCAM, RESM and R-GCAM represent the natural and human systems, respectively, at the regional scale in iRESM. The iRESM initiative will focus the majority of its efforts on the development and testing of R-GCAM and the regional sectoral models, and their coupling with the RESM. It is the development of this regional capability that is the primary scientific breakthrough in this field. Developing a robust link between iESM and iRESM will also be a necessary element of the research program in this initiative.