Workshop Report: Integrated Modeling to Characterize Climate Change Impacts and Support Decision Making

EPA convened a 2011 workshop to facilitate the use of integrated modeling to inform and improve local, regional and national policy decisions relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. The workshop purpose was to:

• Bring together empirical scientists, modelers, economists, social scientists and public policy experts to help ensure that model development aligns with climate change policy design, management, and decision-making needs.
• Connect climate change data producers with climate change data users.
• Make existing resources accessible to stakeholders in the field.
• Highlight successful case studies of intra-agency, inter-agency, academy, public, and private sector systems analysis and integrated modeling for climate change impacts.

Below is the final report from this workshop. Workshop participation was open to participants from within and outside EPA who were interested or involved in developing and using environmental models to characterize climate change impacts and support decision making. Over 120 workshop participants represented a wide range of sectors including federal, state and local government, non-governmental organizations, academia, private sector. Participants included policy analysts, ecologists, environmental engineers, economists, IT specialists, and program managers in general.

Note: Development of the workshop final report was led by SCG, Inc., under contract to EPA. Some EPA experts contributed specific discussions on topics for which they had scientific expertise or knowledge of current EPA practice. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of EPA and should not be construed as implying EPA consent or endorsement.