Technical Guidelines and other Supporting Material

Several documents providing technical guidance or summarising information held on the DDC are downloadable from this site. They constitute IPCC "Supporting Material"⁽¹⁾ and have been prepared at the request of the Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impacts and Climate Analysis (TGICA). Note that the documents listed here have not been subject to the formal intergovernmental IPCC review process.

There is a document of general guidelines which has three main objectives:

1. To introduce and describe the information and analytical tools being provided by the Data Distribution Centre;
2. To offer guidance on how to interpret the baseline and scenario data held by the DDC and elsewhere, in order to facilitate the informed selection and use of data in climate change vulnerability, impact and adaptation assessments;
3. To highlight and illustrate the key steps and procedures that are commonly required in applying baseline and scenario data in vulnerability, impact and adaptation assessments.

There are also a number of documents providing detailed guidelines on specific issues relating to the application of data and scenarios held on the DDC and elsewhere for use in vulnerability, impacts and adaptation assessments (see schematic diagram). Some documents are under preparation. Other documents on new themes will be added in the future.

It is strongly recommended that you familiarise yourself with the appropriate guidelines before downloading data from the DDC.

The guidance documents are available as .pdf files, to view this you will need Acrobat Reader which available free from the Adobe web site.

General Guidelines

• General Guidelines on the use of Scenario Data for Climate Impact and Adaptation Assessment (2007).

Detailed Guidelines

• No.1 - Guidelines for Use of Climate Scenarios Developed from Regional Climate Model Experiments.
• No.2 - Guidelines for Use of Climate Scenarios Developed from Statistical Downscaling Methods.
• No.3 - Sea-Level Rise Scenarios in Impact and Vulnerability Assessment. [In preparation]
• No.4 - Scoping Paper on Data and Scenarios for Research on Early Impacts and Indicators. [In preparation]

Other Supporting Material

• No.1 - Future climate in world regions: an intercomparison of model-based projections for the new IPCC emissions scenarios
• No 2. DDC Brochure: an outline of the services provided by the DDC
• Approach to Scenario Development for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

Capacity Building

• Framework to facilitate development of appropriate data products and research capacity in developing and transition-economy countries (2008).

Earlier versions of guidelines

• General Guidelines on the use of Scenario Data for Climate Impact and Adaptation Assessment. Version 2 (current, 2007) Version 1 (1999)

Finally, if you have any questions about the DDC, find errors on the site, or have general questions about climate scenarios then please contact the DDC managers by using the feedback form

⁽¹⁾ Supporting material is defined in the Procedures for the Preparation, Review, Acceptance, Adoption, Approval, and Publication of IPCC Reports.

Page last modified: 24 June 2009

Location: DDC Home > Supporting Material