Joint Global Change Research Institute

About: Joint Global Change Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Riverdale Park, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Greenhouse gas & Climate change. The organization has 197 authors who have published 934 publications receiving 62390 citations.

Climate Change and National Security

Abstract: Climate change is increasingly recognized as having national security implications, which has prompted dialogue between the climate change and national security communities—with resultant advantages and differences. Climate change research has proven useful to the national security community sponsors in several ways. It has opened security discussions to consider climate as well as political factors in studies of the future. It has encouraged factoring in the stresses placed on societies by climate changes (of any kind) to help assess the potential for state stability. And it has shown that changes such as increased heat, more intense storms, longer periods without rain, and earlier spring onset call for building climate resilience as part of building stability. For the climate change research community, studies from a national security point of view have revealed research lacunae, such as the lack of usable migration studies. This has also pushed the research community to consider second- and thi...

CERF – A Geospatial Model for Assessing Future Energy Production Technology Expansion Feasibility

Abstract: The Capacity Expansion Regional Feasibility (CERF) model is an open-source geospatial model, written in Python and C++, that is designed to determine the on-the-ground feasibility of achieving a projected energy technology expansion plan. Integrated human-Earth systems models and grid expansion models typically do not have sufficient spatial, temporal, or process-level resolution to account for technology-specific siting considerations—for example, the value or costs of connecting a new power plant to the electric grid at a particular location or whether there is sufficient cooling water to support the installation of thermal power plants in a certain region. CERF was developed to specifically examine where power plant locations can be feasibly sited when considering high spatial resolution siting suitability data as well as the net locational costs (i.e., considering both net operating value and interconnection costs), at a spatial resolution of 1 km2. The outputs from CERF can provide insight into factors that influence energy system resilience under a variety of future scenarios can be used to refine model-based projections and be useful for capacity expansion planning exercises. CERF is open-source and publicly available via GitHub. Funding Statement: The original development of the CERF model was conducted under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a multi-program national laboratory operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Further development and ongoing demonstration of CERF is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, as part of research in Multi-Sector Dynamics, Earth and Environmental System Modeling Program.

Historical and future carbon emissions from croplands

Abstract: . We examine past and future carbon emissions from global croplands, considering land-use change, changes in crop productivity, tillage practices, and residue removal. We find that emissions over the historical period are sensitive to the assumed productivity of arable land that is not planted in a given year and the assumed fraction of soil carbon that is released during land conversion. The role of this "other" arable land, both at present and over the historical period, is not well understood and should be examined further. The carbon balance of croplands over 21st century depends on changes in management practices, particularly the adoption of conservation tillage and the potential removal of residue for use as energy feedstocks. We find that croplands will not become large carbon sinks in the future, however, unless most crop residue is left on fields. Given the relatively low carbon "penalty" incurred by removal, residue use for energy feedstocks may be the preferred option.