ISIMIP3 simulation protocol

This project builds sector-specific ISIMIP protocols from a common data source. Machine-readable data are under definitions, and text under protocol.

The rendered protocols are found at https://protocol.isimip.org.

You can clone this repository and work and render the files locally as documented below.

You can also edit the markdown files at github directly. With a delay of minutes, your updates will be visible at https://protocol.isimip.org.

As a rule, the sector-specific text should be kept to a minimum and cover as much structure as possible by machine-readable code under definitions.

The React JavaScript app is build in a separate step which are described under app/README.md.

Setup

Building the protocol needs git and a recent Python version (> 3.6). The installation of Python (and its developing packages), however differs from operating system to operating system. Instructions can be found here.

If you work with different Python applications, we recommend to create a virtual environment for the protocol.

# setup venv on Linux/macOS/Windows WSL
python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate

# setup venv on Windows cmd
python -m venv env
call env\Scripts\activate.bat

The Python dependencies are installed using:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Build

make                  # should work on Linux/macOS
make dev              # like make, but for development of the JavaScript app

make serve            # starts a http server on port :8000 so that you can access the protocol in your browser

sh tools/build.sh     # Linux/macOS/WSL
sh tools/serve.sh     # Linux/macOS/WSL, start http server
call tools/build.cmd  # Windows cmd
call tools/serve.cmd  # Windows cmd, start http server

On Windows, a double click on tools/build.cmd should also build the protocol (unless you use a virtual environment).

The output files are located in output. The files, e.g. index.html can opened with a web browser.

Development server

The command make serve will open a local webserver on port :8000. The protocol can than be accessed at http://localhost:8000 from a browser.

Editing

Edit the markdown files for each sector under protocol.

The interactive tables have the following syntax:

::: table number=1 identifier=climate_scenario

where number is simply the table number to be displayed in the caption and identifier will not only connect the table to its definition file (see below), but will also define which JavaScript component to use. Changes of the layout of a table or the creation of new tables require work on the app.

The definition JSON files however can be changed without touching the JavaScript source code. Each definition is a list of JSON objects. Every object must have an attribute specifier which is used to refer to it in other objects/tables but also in file names. An example for a relatively simple definition file is definitions/bias_correction.json:

[
  {
    "specifier": "nobc",
    "description": "Indicates that no bias correction was performed on the climate data (e.g. ocean data)."
  },
  {
    "specifier": "localbc",
    "description": "Refers to local data from weather stations used for the bias-correction in e.g. the forest sector.",
    "sectors": [
      "forestry"
    ]
  },
  {
    "specifier": "ewembi",
    "description": "Refers to EWEMBI data used for the bias-correction globally on a 0.5° grid."
  },
  {
    "specifier": "ewembi-isimip3basd",
    "description": "Refers to EWEMBI data used for the bias-correction globally on a 0.5°, using improved bias-correction methods (Lange 2018, doi: 10.5194/esd-9-627-2018), and with statistical downscaling (instead of interpolation) of GCM data to the 0.5° grid prior to bias-correction."
  }
]

Here localbc only applies to the forestry sector, while the other objects are used in every sector. The longest and most complicated definition is definitions/variable.json:

[
  {
    "specifier": "qtot",
    "title": "Runoff",
    "unit": "kg m-2 s-1",
    "resolution": "grid cell",
    "frequency": {
      "biomes": "monthly",
      "permafrost": "monthly",
      "water_global": "daily",
      "water_regional": "daily"
    },
    "comment": "Total runoff leaving the land portion of the grid cell",
    "sectors": [
      "water_global",
      "water_regional",
      "biomes",
      "permafrost"
    ]
  },

  ...
]

Some attributes (e.g. frequency) can have objects as value, which the are evaluated for the particular sector. For reference, the full list for simulation_rounds and sectors are:

"simulation_rounds": [
  "ISIMIP3a",
  "ISIMIP3b"
],

"sectors": [
  "agriculture",
  "biodiversity",
  "biomes",
  "coastal",
  "diarrhea",
  "energy",
  "forestry",
  "health",
  "labour",
  "lakes_global",
  "lakes_local",
  "marine-fishery_global",
  "marine-fishery_regional",
  "permafrost",
  "water_global",
  "water_regional"
]

In order to add a new sector, the following steps need to be taken:

• Add the sector with specifier and title to definitions/sector.json.
• Add pattern/ISIMIP3a/OutputData/<sector>.json and pattern/ISIMIP3b/OutputData/<sector>.json with the file patterns for the new sector.
• Add new variable group(s) to definitions/group.json.
• Add sector variables to definitions/variable.json and/or update existing variables with the new sector.

Printing

The protocol can be printed into a PDF from the browser. This will work best with Chrome.

Test

Some tests ensure that edits do not destroy the format and the schema of the json files. They can be manually executed using

pytest