Dear ISIMIP community,
based on general feedback from the community and the sector coordinators we are extending the ISIMIP3b protocol by one additional scenario: SSP3-RCP7. Both SSP1 and SSP5 are scenarios with low adaptation challenges by definition. As SSP3 is a scenario with high adaptation challenges it improves the ability to meaningfully tackle the adaptation topic (see diagram SSP scenario space below). Despite the lower baseline temperature increase than SSP5 (more in line with RCP7), and related lower biophysical impacts, it is likely that socioeconomic effects will be larger than in SSP5 due to the generally challenging socioeconomic conditions in this scenario (as already shown in Takakura et al. 2019, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0578-6).
The input data for RCP7.0 are being processed right now and will be made available soon. Socioeconomic input data for SSP3 will be made available along with those for SSP1 and SSP5 in summer 2021 for the group 3 simulations.
Many greetings from Potsdam - the ISIMIP team
