U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
GCAM-USA: IM3 Phase 2 Official Simulations
Abstract
Overview GCAM-USA simulates 21st century energy-water-land interactions in global regions with sub-national detail in the United States (US). The IM3 project is focused on US multisector dynamics and has created eight GCAM-USA simulations by combining two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP3 and SSP5) with four high-resolution climate projections specific to the United States (see https://tgw-data.msdlive.org/). These climate projections include "hotter" and "cooler" variants for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The resulting eight GCAM-USA simulations are named: rcp45cooler_ssp3 rcp45cooler_ssp5 rcp45hotter_ssp3 rcp45hotter_ssp5 rcp85cooler_ssp3 rcp85cooler_ssp5 rcp85hotter_ssp3 rcp85hotter_ssp5 Detailed Assumptions The SSPs describe alternative socioeconomic futures and their implications for both the US and global environmental challenges. As implemented in GCAM-USA, the primary difference between SSP3 and SSP5 in the US is their population growth projections, with SSP3 foreseeing lower growth and SSP5 projecting higher growth. The four climate projections explore moderate (RCP4.5) and high (RCP8.5) greenhouse gas emission (GHG) trajectories, each with a hotter and cooler climate variation based on the range of global climate model simulations in CMIP6s. These four climate projections are used in precursor models to develop climate impacts on building heating and cooling degree-hours, water availability, and agricultural yields that are provided as inputs to GCAM-USA. GCAM-USA reproducesmore »
- Authors:
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- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Joint Global Research Institute (JGCRI)
- Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI)
- Joint Global Change Research Institute
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- MultiSector Dynamics - Living, Intuitive, Value-adding, Environment
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Subject:
- IM3
- OSTI Identifier:
- 2428940
- DOI:
- https://doi.org/10.57931/2428940
Citation Formats
Zhao, Mengqi, Ahsan, Hamza, Binsted, Matthew, Patel, Pralit, Rice, Jennie S., Snyder, Abigail, Vernon, Chris R., and Wild, Thomas B. GCAM-USA: IM3 Phase 2 Official Simulations. United States: N. p., 2024.
Web. doi:10.57931/2428940.
Zhao, Mengqi, Ahsan, Hamza, Binsted, Matthew, Patel, Pralit, Rice, Jennie S., Snyder, Abigail, Vernon, Chris R., & Wild, Thomas B. GCAM-USA: IM3 Phase 2 Official Simulations. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.57931/2428940
Zhao, Mengqi, Ahsan, Hamza, Binsted, Matthew, Patel, Pralit, Rice, Jennie S., Snyder, Abigail, Vernon, Chris R., and Wild, Thomas B. 2024.
"GCAM-USA: IM3 Phase 2 Official Simulations". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.57931/2428940. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/2428940. Pub date:Mon Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2024
@article{osti_2428940,
title = {GCAM-USA: IM3 Phase 2 Official Simulations},
author = {Zhao, Mengqi and Ahsan, Hamza and Binsted, Matthew and Patel, Pralit and Rice, Jennie S. and Snyder, Abigail and Vernon, Chris R. and Wild, Thomas B.},
abstractNote = {Overview GCAM-USA simulates 21st century energy-water-land interactions in global regions with sub-national detail in the United States (US). The IM3 project is focused on US multisector dynamics and has created eight GCAM-USA simulations by combining two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP3 and SSP5) with four high-resolution climate projections specific to the United States (see https://tgw-data.msdlive.org/). These climate projections include "hotter" and "cooler" variants for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The resulting eight GCAM-USA simulations are named: rcp45cooler_ssp3 rcp45cooler_ssp5 rcp45hotter_ssp3 rcp45hotter_ssp5 rcp85cooler_ssp3 rcp85cooler_ssp5 rcp85hotter_ssp3 rcp85hotter_ssp5 Detailed Assumptions The SSPs describe alternative socioeconomic futures and their implications for both the US and global environmental challenges. As implemented in GCAM-USA, the primary difference between SSP3 and SSP5 in the US is their population growth projections, with SSP3 foreseeing lower growth and SSP5 projecting higher growth. The four climate projections explore moderate (RCP4.5) and high (RCP8.5) greenhouse gas emission (GHG) trajectories, each with a hotter and cooler climate variation based on the range of global climate model simulations in CMIP6s. These four climate projections are used in precursor models to develop climate impacts on building heating and cooling degree-hours, water availability, and agricultural yields that are provided as inputs to GCAM-USA. GCAM-USA reproduces the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 GHG emissions trajectories consistent with each climate projection, using dynamic carbon prices to achieve RCP4.5. When the four climate projections are combined with the two SSP projections, the resulting eight scenarios allow GCAM-USA to explore how a wide, yet plausible, range of climate and socioeconomic impacts affects the interconnected energy, water, and land systems across the contiguous United States. Technical Details IM3 uses a version of GCAM-USA v5.3 that has an enhanced electricity sector and an updated data system needed to represent regional to local scale dynamics. },
doi = {10.57931/2428940},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2024},
month = {Mon Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2024}
}