In addition to its scientific and innovative quality, essential criteria for selecting the paper were its interdisciplinary approach and generic utility, the editors write in the current issue of the magazine. A group of researchers led by Rachel Warren from the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and PIK scientists Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Hans-Martin Füssel introduced a unique software infrastructure for a modelling system, the so-called "Community Integrated Assessment System" (CIAS).
CIAS can be used to compare the costs and effects of different climate policy scenarios. The system is deployed across a number of participating research institutions in different countries, thus encompassing a wide range of international scientific expertise. The advantage to existing integrated models is that decision makers can get a clear picture of how value judgments, scientific paradigms or uncertainties in model parameters affect model results.
It is the second recent paper involving PIK scientists that has attracted particular attention. Only recently a study published in the magazine "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" was identified as a "New Hot Paper".
Co-author and contributor of the scientific ideas behind both studies, PIK's director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber sums up: "The awards not only honour the authors‘ scientific contribution but are also a good example of British-German research collaboration."
The awards will be presented at the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, held in Ottawa in 2010.
Article: (DOI 10.1016/j.envsoft.2007.09.002)
Warren, R., de la Nava Santos, S., Arnell, N.W., Bane, M., Barker, T., Barton, C., Ford, R., Füssel, H.-M., Hankin, R.K.S., Hinkel, J., Klein, R., Linstead, C., Kohler, J., Mitchell, T.D., Osborn, T.J., Pan, H., Raper, S.C.B., Riley, G., Schellnhuber, H.J., Winne, S., Anderson, D. (2008). Development and illustrative outputs of the community integrated assessment system (CIAS), a multi-institutional modular integrated assessment approach for modelling climate change. Environmental Modelling & Software, Vol. 23, Issue 5, pages 592-610.
Further Information:
Editorial by the publisher “Best Paper Awards for 2008” in: Environmental Modelling & Software, Vol 24, Issue 11, page 1263
For further information please contact PIK press office:
Phone: +49 (0)331 288 25 07
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