PP3: Socio-economic model and community impact simulators

This Programme Package has led to the development of a what-if scenario model for determining the impacts of extreme weather on socio economic factors.

EWESEM, the Extreme Weather Events Socio-Economic Model has been the first attempt to develop a community-level impact model that integrates the health, employment, housing, crime, emergency services sectors with long-term predictions of climate change and extreme weather event scenarios, and does so in a way that captures both the immediate and lagged effects.

Previously, long-term projections of, for example, the housing market and decisions on the optimal location of new housing took no account of climate change and the implications for flood risk.

This work has developed a number of modelling tools and prototype interactive software-based Community Impact Simulators to facilitate decision making and the application of these resources to particular "What if?" scenarios, including a range of assumptions for weather patterns, coping/adaptation strategies and other socio-economic variables.

Maps and other graphical representations of the community impacts of extreme weather scenarios link with WISP .

For more detail go to: PP3 Impacts