Temporal and Spatial Matching in Human-Earth System Model Coupling

Abstract

In the use of integrated assessment models to determine how the economy is affected by climate change, the bidirectional coupling of Earth system model with the integrated assessment model is needed. In the context of coupled problems in human-Earth systems, two issues persist: spatial and temporal scale matching. For spatial scale matching, this paper proposes the area weight conversion method, a gridding method for calculations to accord with the grid of the Earth's system mode, where administrative data cells are transformed into grid data by “pregridding” and “postgridding.” For temporal scale matching, the temporal scale of the economic statistics was shortened to 1 year to render it consistent with the Earth system model. Using the area weight conversion method, grid processing was performed in terms of population and Gross Domestic Product for all provinces of China and every country of the world, respectively. The results showed that the characteristics of gridding population and Gross Domestic Product data were consistent with their actual distributions, that is, the credibility of gridding was high. The temporal matching treatment refined to the year and the spatial matching treatment following gridding met the overall requirements of coupling. Moreover, they provide a foundation for the coupling of the human-Earth system model.