ISIpedia: the open climate-impacts encyclopedia

We provide public access to climate-impact science to generate a better understanding of climate related risks.

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World Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Arab World Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas, The Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Caribbean island small states Caribbean small states Cayman Islands Central African Republic Central Europe and the Baltics Chad Channel Islands Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo, Dem. Rep. Congo, Rep. Costa Rica Cote d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curacao Cyprus Czechia Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic EU27 Early-demographic dividend East Asia & Pacific East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries) East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income) Ecuador Egypt, Arab Rep. El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Euro area Europe & Central Asia Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries) Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income) European Union Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland Fragile and conflict affected situations France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) High income Honduras Hong Kong SAR, China Hungary IBRD only IDA & IBRD total IDA blend IDA only IDA total Iceland India Indian Ocean island small state Indonesia Iran, Islamic Rep. Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Dem. People's Rep. Korea, Rep. Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyz Republic Lao PDR Late-demographic dividend Latin America & Caribbean Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income) Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries) Latvia Least developed countries: UN classification Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Low & middle income Low income Lower middle income Luxembourg Macao SAR, China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Middle East & North Africa Middle East & North Africa (IDA & IBRD countries) Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income) Middle income Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue North America North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Not classified OECD members Oman Other small states Pacific island small states Pacific island small states Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Post-demographic dividend Pre-demographic dividend Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Réunion Saint Pierre et Miquelon Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten (Dutch part) Slovak Republic Slovenia Small states Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Asia South Asia (IDA & IBRD) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Martin (French part) St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries) Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, China Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkiye Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Upper middle income Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, RB Vietnam Virgin Islands (U.S.) West Bank and Gaza Western Sahara World Yemen, Rep. Zambia Zimbabwe

What type of study
are you interested in?

We believe in knowledge and understanding as a good basis for action. That is why we see it as our task to provide a clear picture of what science knows about the impacts of climate change on natural and human systems. The information you find here is sorted according to three types of studies: 1) detection and attribution of observed impacts of climate change, 2) future projection of the impacts of climate change, and 3) impact model evaluation, i.e. a test of our current understanding of individual processes as represented in the models. The information is collected according to a “from the expert to the public” principle, i.e. scientists who have recently published a study on climate impacts approach the ISIpedia editorial team or are invited by the team to translate their own findings into an associated ISIpedia article that is then made accessible via this portal.

We certainly provide numbers describing future risks of climate change and the contribution of climate change to observed changes in natural or human systems. However, we consider it equally important to explain the underlying mechanisms, what we know about them, where we do not know enough, and what is needed to improve our knowledge. Our focus is not on providing interactive visualization of all available data but on providing guidance and explanations in the ever increasing volume of information.

Wherever meaningful we encourage authors to break global information down to national level as one critical political unit. We support the ranking of countries along their level of affectedness by the impacts of climate change. We set this into the context of their level of development and contribution to global emissions of greenhouse gases. Wherever subnational information is available you can also find it by the country label.

Each article published on ISIpedia needs a peer-reviewed scientific paper in the background. That means that the control of the scientific quality is ensured by the scientific review process organized by the journal where the original study has been published. The ISIpedia editorial team does not organize a new scientific review but checks whether the ISIpedia article is close enough to the original publication, and whether the content is well presented to a non-expert audience. To this end, we strongly encourage author teams of scientists and journalists or other experts in science communication to jointly write ISIpedia articles.

All results collected under the “future projections” category are based on simulations generated within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP). ISIMIP represents a community-driven initiative meanwhile supported by about 80 different modelling teams world-wide. We decided for this restriction as it ensures that all climate impact projections provided by the ISIpedia portal are consistent in future socio-economic development and the climate data used to force the models. Results from different impacts models of the same type (e.g. hydrological models or crop models) can thus be compared and results can be aggregated across different types of impacts. For example it becomes possible to estimate the total costs of future changes in the occurrence of weather-related extreme events such as floods, droughts, crop failure, wildfires or tropical cyclones.

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