Gcamdata: An R Package for Preparation, Synthesis, and Tracking of Input Data for the GCAM Integrated Human-Earth Systems Model. Issue 1 (14th March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Dorheim, Kalyn; Cui, Ryna; Horowitz, Russell; Snyder, Abigail; Calvin, Katherine; Feng, Leyang; Hoesly, Rachel; Horing, Jill; Kyle, G. Page; Link, Robert; Patel, Pralit; Roney, Christopher; Staniszewski, Aaron; Turner, Sean; Chen, Min; Feijoo, Felipe; Hartin, Corinne; Hejazi, Mohamad; Iyer, Gokul; Kim, Sonny; Liu, Yaling; Lynch, Cary; McJeon, Haewon; Smith, Steven; Waldhoff, Stephanie; Wise, Marshall; Clarke, Leon
• Is Part Of: Journal of open research software. Volume 7:Issue 1(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-03-14
• Subjects: Human-earth system modeling -- data provenance -- reproducibility -- earth modeling -- unit testing; Computer software -- Reusability -- Periodicals; Open source software -- Periodicals; 005
• DOI: 10.5334/jors.232
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2049-9647

Abstract

The increasing data requirements of complex models demand robust, reproducible, and transparent systems to track and prepare models' inputs. Here we describe version 1.0 of the gcamdata R package that processes raw inputs to produce the hundreds of XML files needed by the GCAM integrated human-earth systems model. It features extensive functional and unit testing, data tracing and visualization, and enforces metadata, documentation, and flexibility in its component data-processing subunits. Although this package is specific to GCAM, many of its structural pieces and approaches should be broadly applicable to, and reusable by, other complex model/data systems aiming to improve transparency, reproducibility, and flexibility.