Regional impacts and adaptation in agriculture and urban systems

Contact: Brian O'Neill
boneill@ucar.edu

An NSF EaSM 2 project led by Brian O’Neill is developing new linkages between human and earth system models to investigate possible climate change impacts in China, India, and Brazil. The study is focusing on impacts in agriculture, forests, and urban areas, and will also evaluate possible adaptation options.

Within the next three decades, climate variability, climate change and global development trends could have varied and profound effects on human well-being, especially in the developing world. Understanding how human and earth system trajectories will interact is essential to making better decisions that can reduce negative consequences for society and ecosystems.

To address these issues, better approaches to impact assessment are required that provide richer, higher resolution, and more internally consistent information about future societal and earth system conditions, and that link models of human and earth systems more effectively. The central objective of EaSM 2 project is to improve understanding of the joint consequences of socio-economic development and regional climate change by developing and applying tools to better integrate human and earth system models. Learn more about this EaSM 2 project.