THESIS Tools

NCAR is coordinating the development of the Toolbox for Human-Earth System Integration and Scaling (THESIS) to facilitate linkages between the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and Integrated Assessment or impact models. THESIS consists of models and software tools to translate, scale, and synthesize information from and between human system models and CESM.

Initial development is focused on urban areas and agriculture, both of which are explicitly represented in the Community Land Model (CLM), the land surface component of CESM. Tools are made available to the community as they are completed. Learn more about the THESIS tools below, or see the THESIS tools license, copyright notice, and disclaimer.

If you are interested in using, further developing, or contributing new tools then contact us via the information below.

Urban System Tools Library

• Characterizing urban properties
  Constructs properties of urban areas for 33 world regions for input to CLM
• Population exposure to climate hazards
  Combines gridded CESM output with spatial population projections for use in impact assessment
• Spatial projections of population density (coming soon)
  Projects global spatial distribution of urban and rural populations given aggregate national population outcomes
• Spatial projections of urban extent (under development)
  Projects global spatial distribution of age structure and household income for use in impact assessment
• Spatial projections of household characteristics (planned)
  Projects global spatial distribution of age structure and household income for use in impact assessment
• Urban building energy use (planned)
  Provides regionally aggregated effect of climate change on building energy use based on CLM outcomes.

Agriculture and Forest System Tools Library

• Spatial projections of agricultural land use
  Projects global spatial distribution of cropland and pasture given aggregate regional land use outcomes, for use as input to CLM or the crop yield tool
• Agricultural yield
  Provides regionally aggregated effect of climate change on crop yields based on projected spatial land use and CLM outcomes
• CLM land use data
  Generates a transient land use and land cover change input data file for use by CLM5 in CESM2 simulations.

Contact us

For general questions about THESIS, contact Peter Lawrence