I2AM PARIS

I2AM PARIS is an open access, data exchange modelling platform. It is intended as a vessel for documenting integrated assessment, energy system and sectoral modelling capabilities, inputs, and outputs, so that modelling exercises and their outcomes are made fully and transparently accessible to the modelling community, to policy, and to all other interested parties.

The platform comprises two interfaces, a public one for displaying open data (including model capabilities, modelling assumptions, and insights emerging from modelling activities) and a scientific one for enabling and facilitating knowledge and data exchange among modelling teams.

I2AM PARIS is broken down into two components: ‘Model Documentation’ and ‘Modelling Analyses’.

Model documentation is further broken down into:

• The ‘Detailed Documentation’ component, which includes a detailed presentation of modelling tools acting at different scales and from different perspectives, in a non-expert-friendly language, but encompassing high technical detail. This component mainly targets more experienced users (e.g. modellers, other researchers/scientists) but is comprehensible for all audiences, including policymakers, displaying information of what research questions a model has been in the past used to address, and what findings/insights it produced.
• The ‘Dynamic Documentation’ component, which is an interactive library of the documented models, in the form of a responsive “infographic”, including geographical coverage as well as sector, emission, policy, SDG, socioeconomic and mitigation/adaptation measure granularities. This component mainly targets non-experts and is motivated by the need to concisely inform policymakers and other decision makers (from business to NGOs and civil society) on what models can and cannot do, in a visually appealing way.
• The ‘Comparative Assessment’ component, which essentially draws comparisons between different models of a specific modelling exercise (e.g. an inter-comparison project) in the form of tables and discussion. It is intended to provide all users with a grasp of why different models are needed to answer a specific question, and allow them to comprehend modelling capabilities, strengths and weaknesses across a modelling ensemble.

The ‘Model Analyses’ component is a dynamic representation of data deriving from modelling exercises, including meaningful visualisations and user-friendly interfaces that allow the users to examine the results of different scenarios by altering specific parameters on the interface.