Environmental Modelling & Software

abstract We present a framework for massively parallel climate impact simulations: the parallel System forIntegrating Impact Models and Sectors (pSIMS). This framework comprises a) tools for ingesting andconverting large amounts of data to a versatile datatype based on a common geospatial grid; b) tools fortranslating this datatype into custom formats for site-based models; c) a scalable parallel framework forperforming large ensemble simulations, using any one of a number of different impacts models, onclusters, supercomputers, distributed grids, or clouds; d) tools and data standards for reformattingoutputs to common datatypes for analysis and visualization; and e) methodologies for aggregating thesedatatypes to arbitrary spatial scales such as administrative and environmental demarcations. By auto-mating many time-consuming and error-prone aspects of large-scale climate impacts studies, pSIMSaccelerates computational research, encourages model intercomparison, and enhances reproducibility ofsimulation results. We present the pSIMS design and use example assessments to demonstrate its multi-model, multi-scale, and multi-sector versatility.2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.