QUEST Theme 3 - QUEST GSI (Global- scale impacts of climate change: an integrated multi-sectoral assessment) Project

Introduction

QUEST GSI aims to examine, map quantitatively and assess the implications of different rates and degrees of climate change for a wide range of ecosystem services across the global domain. It also aims to provide a framework for assessing the impacts of specific climate policies.

The project will use a range of indicators (covering water resources, flood risk, food production, biodiversity and human health and well-being on land, at the coast and at sea) to identify the risks of specific impacts occurring at different rates of climate change. There are two components to the project: the first comprises of detailed geographically-explicit assessments of specific climate scenarios or climate policies, using a suite of linked models. The second is to allow the more rapid assessment of a very large number of climate outcomes using regionalized functions relating climate impact to indices of climate forcing.

The specific aims of the project are:

to define a coordinated and consistent set of climate, land cover and socio-economic scenarios to drive impact assessment models;
to refine and inter-connect existing global-domain impact assessment models covering a range of ecosystem services, and for each impact sector to develop a set of impact indicators;
to develop procedures for aggregating impact assessments across different spatial scales and across sectors;
to apply these models and indicators to assess the global-scale consequences of different degrees and rates of climate change, as characterised by the scenarios developed in (1), and identify critical impact "hotspots";
to develop from the impact model results "climate impact response functions" describing the relationship between climate forcing and impact at different spatial scales.

Availability of data and file format

Data are stored in the BADC QUEST GSI project data archive.

The data filenames should follow the BADC File Name convention and the data file format should be NetCDF or NASA-Ames.

Access to data and information

Please refer to the QUEST Conditions of Access page for details on access restrictions.

Links

QUEST GSI website - http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/research/quest-gsi/

Citation

et. al

Date of citation

Who to contact

QUEST GSI is led by Nigel Arnell (University of Reading) with co-investigators from the Universities of Aberdeen, Leeds, UEA, Edinburgh, Southampton, UCL, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, CEH and CEFAS.

Each QUEST project will have a designated "data co-ordinator" to ensure good communication with the QUEST core team/BADC regarding data issues, and to ensure that each project meets its data provision obligations. The data co-ordinator for the GSI project is to be determined.

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