๐ Climate Impact Simulator
Explore how climate, land use, and policy choices interact to shape environmental resilience.
Educational tool using approximate climate and environmental data โ not for policy or operational decisions.
What is the Climate Impact Simulator?
The Climate Impact Simulator is an interactive Shiny app designed for teaching and exploratory learning in:
- Climate science and geography
- Environmental sustainability and policy
- Systems thinking and scenario analysis
Users select a city (or custom coordinates) and explore how climate patterns, environmental pressures, and policy levers combine to shape an overall Climate Resilience Index (0โ10).
Core Features
- ๐บ๏ธ Interactive map to select cities or custom locations
- ๐ WalterโLieth climate diagram showing monthly temperature, precipitation, dry months, and frost months
- ๐ก๏ธ Climate Resilience Index (0โ10) summarizing multiple environmental dimensions
- ๐๏ธ Adjustable environmental levers (deforestation, renewables, emissions, water use, transport, agriculture)
- ๐ Scenario presets: Current, Optimistic, and Pessimistic
- ๐ Radar and bar plots highlighting component contributions and sensitivities
- ๐ฅ HTML report export for labs, assignments, and reflection
Launch the App
๐ Open the Climate Impact Simulator
๐ Data and Assumptions
This app is built for conceptual understanding, not quantitative decision-making.
Climate data
- Uses approximate monthly climate normals for a limited set of major cities.
- Other locations rely on latitude-based climate archetypes (tropical, temperate, subarctic).
- Climate diagrams are derived from:
- Monthly mean temperature
- Approximate minimum and maximum temperature
- Monthly precipitation
- Dry months (P < 2 ร Tmean) and frost months (Tmin < 0โฏยฐC) are flagged for teaching climate classification and water balance.
Climate values are synthetic but realistic and are not drawn from live APIs or gridded datasets.
Environmental indicators
Indicators such as deforestation, AQI, renewables, emissions, water use, and transport share are:
- Plausible, region-informed starting values
- Scenario-friendly and user-adjustable
- Not real-time or officially sourced statistics
They are intended to support comparative reasoning and intuition-building, not city-level assessment.
๐งฎ Climate Resilience Index (Conceptual Design)
The 0โ10 index combines weighted sub-scores from:
- Forests and land use
- Air quality and emissions
- Energy systems
- Urban planning and transport
- Water use and agriculture
Each component is scaled to a 0โ10 score and combined using transparent weights. This design supports classroom discussion on:
- Indicator selection and weighting
- Trade-offs and value judgments
- How index construction influences rankings
๐ Teaching Applications
- Climate & geography: interpret WalterโLieth diagrams, dry months, and latitudinal patterns
- Sustainability & policy: test how renewables, reforestation, or transport investment affect resilience
- Systems thinking: compare scenarios and identify high-impact levers
- Assignments: generate reports and focus on interpretation rather than data collection
๐ฆ Scope and Limitations
Suitable for: - Teaching climate patterns and environmental interactions
- Scenario exploration and discussion
- Building intuition about policy trade-offs
Not suitable for: - Official reporting or planning
- Fine-scale risk assessment
- Real-time monitoring
All values are illustrative and pedagogical.