HDGC - ICAM

A variety of models have been developed within the Center. Some of these are available to download via this webpage.

ICAM

Cryptosporidiosis Transmission Model

Personal Energy Calculator

FUND: The Climate Framework for Uncertainty, Negotiation and Distribution

ICAM

ICAM is a model created in Analytica. Analytica models are simple text files. Therefore please be careful when downloading these files. Insertion of carriage returns and linefeeds can lead to the software interpreter making errors. Simple Zip operations should retain the integrity of the ICAM 3 beta release you are downloading.

You can obtain the Analytica software from the web pages of Lumina Decisions Inc.

In the PC world, you will need to name both the data and resource forks of Analytica models. For more information, please refer to the ReadMe file accompanying the software package.

You are all set to use Analytica in the Mac world.

For both PC and Mac platforms, please make sure you have Analytica 1.1 or later.

Download ICAM v3.1 Uncompressed (Not Beta) (updated 1/20/2000)

Cryptosporidiosis Transmission Model

This website provides a facsimile of a model of cryptosporidiosis transmission in the United States. The model is is run on the Analytica® software platform (which can be obtained gratis from www.lumina.com .

See the Cryptosporidiosis Transmission Model

The Personal Calculator

EPA's Personal Greenhouse Gas Calculator

RESIDENTIAL PEOPLES ENERGY

A Energy, Carbon Dioxide, and Cost Calculator for the Pittsburgh MSA Background: To gain a better understanding of energy usage, it is helpful for an individual to learn about their own energy footprint, to better compare the options between cost, energy consumption, and environmental impact. Given the multiple sources of energy usage in daily life, almost no one is expected to know their total energy consumption, nor the distribution between various activities. But if they could be provided with an overview of their energy usage, and be able to explore changes to their lifestyle, the issues and options which most affect energy use should become easier to grasp.

A personal energy calculator allows an individual to calculate their personal energy consumption, based on their lifestyle and specific housing, transportation and consumption choices. By answering questions about their daily activities, an estimate of their energy consumption, associated carbon dioxide emissions and the cost of energy use can be computed by the calculator. The objective is to highlight the amount of energy they consume in various sectors of their lifestyle. The calculator can encourage people to reduce their energy consumption, or show where significant energy reductions can be made, by changing their lifestyle or their living environment.

A guiding principle for our calculator design is to consider what factors, with respect to the home and lifestyle, an individual has control over, and can make changes to. In addition, these factors should have a significant impact on energy consumption. The methodology, internal data values used and the user-input parameters should be tailored for the Pittsburgh MSA region.

Our calculator consists of four main modules as follows:

1. Home heating, cooling and water heating
2. Appliances
3. Public and private transportation
4. Other consumption and food

For each category, a calculator module collects user input and calculates the energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and energy cost.

While the calculator covers most of the individual energy usage within the Pittsburgh MSA from individual, there are some sources of energy consumption that are not included. Notably, except for other consumption and food, the modules in general only compute the energy usage assuming the individual is within the Pittsburgh MSA. For example, the public and private transportation component does not consider air transportation nor interstate rail.

The other consumption and food module considers the energy usage inherent in the manufacture and production of certain goods and services used by individuals in the region, but omits some areas such as education, and special services (for example legal services).

FUND: The Climate Framework for Uncertainty, Negotiation and Distribution

The Model
The Climate Framework for Uncertainty, Negotiation and Distribution (FUND) is a so-called integrated assessment model of climate change. FUND was originally set-up to study the role of international capital transfers in climate policy, but it soon evolved into a test-bed for studying impacts of climate change in a dynamic context, and it is now often used to perform cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies and to support game-theoretic investigations into international environmental agreements.

FUND links scenarios and simple models of population, technology, economics, emissions, atmospheric chemistry, climate, sea level, and impacts. Together, these elements describe not-implausible futures. The model runs in time-steps of one year from 1950 to 2200, and distinguishes nine major world regions. FUND further includes the option to reduce emissions of industrial carbon dioxide. Reductions can be set by the user, or calculated so as to meet certain criteria set by the user.

An integrated assessment model, FUND is used to advice policy makers about proper and not-so-proper strategies. The model, however, always reflects its developer's world views. It is therefore regularly contrary to the rhetoric of politicians, and occasionally politically incorrect.

It is the developer's firm belief that most researchers should be locked away in an ivory tower. Models are often quite useless in unexperienced hands, and sometimes misleading. No one is smart enough to master in half a day what took some one else over five years to develop. Not-understood models are irrelevant, half-understood models treacherous, and mis-understood models dangerous.