The Parallel System for Integrating Impact Models and Sectors (pSIMS).
Monday, November 4, 2013: 10:00 AM
Tampa Convention Center, Room 7 and 8, First Floor
Joshua Elliott1, Michael Glotter2, Neil Best1, David Kelly1, Michael Wilde1 and Ian Foster1, (1)Computation Institute, University of Chicago and ANL, Chicago, IL (2)University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
We present a framework for massively parallel simulations of climate impact models in agriculture and forestry: the parallel System for Integrating Impact Models and Sectors (pSIMS). This framework comprises a) tools for ingesting large amounts of data from various sources and standardizing them to a versatile and compact datatype; b) tools for translating this standard datatype into the custom formats required for point-based impact models in agriculture and forestry; c) a scalable parallel framework for performing large ensemble simulations on various computer systems, from small local clusters to supercomputers and even distributed grids and clouds; d) tools and data standards for reformatting outputs for easy analysis and visualization; and d) a methodology and tools for aggregating simulated measures to arbitrary spatial scales such as administrative districts (counties, states, nations) or relevant environmental demarcations such as watersheds and river-basins. We present the technical elements of this framework and the results of several example climate impact assessment and validation exercises that involved large parallel computations.