Coevolution of future water, energy and land systems across the United States in response to national and global socioeconomic, climate, and energy policy drivers.
This study examines the coevolution of multiple sectors including water, energy and land in response to socioeconomic, policy, and climate drivers across the United States in a global context using the Global Change Analysis Model - USA (GCAM-USA). We combine scenarios consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways - Representative Concentration Pathways (SSP-RCP) framework with both moderate and more severe climate projections developed from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) archive. Climate impacts on runoff, agricultural yields and heating and cooling degrees are analyzed at the state and basin level for the US and at coarser GCAM region levels for the rest-of-the-world. Impacts on runoff and yields are investigated at an annual scale at 5 year intervals while heating and cooling degree impacts are analyzed at 25 sub-annual time segments including day and night for each month and a superpeak segment. Our study contributes to the literature by focusing on subnational (state and basin level) economy-energy-water-land interactions and dynamics within the U.S linked to the rest of the world through trade in international commodity markets. Conditions outside of the U.S. dynamically affect sub-national conditions within the U.S. and vice versa.