The HEXE project aims at strengthening the CMCC structure by supporting the long lasting fulfilment of its mission. CMCC has identified three main objectives to enhance its research potential, to better integrate its activities and to make its research work accessible to policy maker
2 years from 01/01/2009 to 31/12/2011
General aims
The HEXE project aims at strengthening the CMCC structure by supporting the long lasting fulfilment of its mission. As a research entity active in the many scientific dimensions of climate change, CMCC has identified three main objectives to enhance its research potential, to better integrate its activities and to make its research work accessible to policy maker
- Coupling CMCC models: the economic (WITCH, ICES – both developed by FEEM) with the environmental ones (Global Circulation Model, Land Use Models)
- Implementing an advanced Decision Support System (DSS) for policy makers to access results and open the modelling black box.
- Defining an integrated environment where policy makers and CMCC partners can communicate.
CMCC Role
The CMCC is involved in this project through the Climate Impacts and Policies. An Economic Assessment (CIP) division.
Expected results
The main output of the project will be a set of climate policy models that can be used by non-experts, in particular stakeholders and policy makers, but also by the general public, to explore the impact of climate mitigation policies. In order to investigate a wide variety of policy issues, and the different dimensions of the climate change problem, models from different discipline will be coupled through hard and soft links and will be made accessible to users.
Activity
- Coupling CMCC models: the economic (WITCH, ICES) with the environmental ones (Global Circulation Model, Land Use Models). The international policy framework and the leading position adopted by the EU in fighting climate change require an exceptional research effort on development of integrated assessment modes able to directly interact with policy makers. The best example of integrated assessment exercises function in either of the following ways: 1) detailed energy models are coupled with economy and land use models and with fairly simplistic climate models; 2) emissions derived from the coupled energy economy and land use models are use as an input for detailed climate models (possibly including also the natural carbon cycle) producing climate projections which do not feedback in the economy model. The CMCC objective is that of fully integrating economy, energy, land use AND detailed climate models, going beyond what has been done so far, and therefore producing a fully integrated framework. This would enable scientists to take into account feedbacks (e.g. regional climate impacts on the economy and energy states), the full potential of adaptation and include all this information within a unique decision framework.
- Implementing an advanced Decision Support System (DSS) for policy makers to access results and open the modelling black box. The big amount of data (unstructured and non homogeneous) produced by the modelling activity will need a strong data organization and integration to ease data analysis and access. The OLAP technology will allow users to carry out search/analysis activities (through drill down, drill up, slicing processes) concerning the relevant dimensions. Such an approach is able to (i) organize data in a structured way, (ii) offer reporting functionalities, (iii) export data in several and useful formats for third party tools/software (i.e. excel), (iv) provide a user-friendly and intuitive graphical interface. Modelling and implementation of the data warehouse, user interface development/customization as well as integration with the coupling activity are the three basic pillars of this second objective. Policy makers will be able to take advantage of the strong data organization proposed as well as of the high level tools to produce their charts, reports and analyses.
- Defining an integrated environment for policy makers on the CMCC infrastructure. The fully integrated climate assessment models require a high computing capacity. Thanks to the recent implementation of the super-computing centre in Lecce in November 2008, Integration efforts will put together into the same data-computational context several models, DSS, storage and computing infrastructures, etc.
Partners
- CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
- FEEM - Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei