ISIpedia Job: Integrated Assessment of climate change impacts in integrated assessment models


Posted on June 14, 2017

This position is available within the JPI-Climate funded ISIpedia project, through which the ongoing coordination of ISIMIP will be funded.

Job description

As part of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, the Environmental Science (ES) group aims to provide insight into environmental problems at different geographic scales. One of the research domains is the integrated assessment team, using modelling tools to explore impacts of global change and possible response strategies. In this frame, the ES group is involved in the international ISIpedia project. This work is done in close collaboration with the Water Systems and Global Change (WSG) group at Wageningen University. The ISIpedia project aims to explore the possible impacts of climate change and provides a hub for tailored information from multi-model, policy relevant climate-impact simulations and assessments conducted within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP). The ISIpedia is financed though the European Research Area for Climate Services, with NWO financing the Netherlands’ contribution. 

The contribution of Utrecht University and Wageningen University focuses on the integrated assessment of climate change, and more specifically impacts on the energy sector. For the latter, a so-called nexus approach will be used as impacts on the energy-water-land system are closely connected. For instance, changes in the hydrological cycle may influence the potential for hydropower and cooling water uses. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) provide an useful tool to study the relationships between these systems. It is therefore important that the detailed outcomes from other studies in ISIpedia are integrated into IAM models to allow such a nexus approach and provide consistent integrated insights on possible climate impacts. The key assumption of the ISIpedia project is that model comparison and European collaboration can contribute towards implementation of this ambition. The Utrecht University and Wageningen University contribution will coordinate such activities for energy and integrated assessment and contribute to new research in this area. Both tasks will be in cooperation with the other ISIpedia partners.