LogoClim: WorldClim in NetLogo

Model Discussion
1

LogoClim: WorldClim in NetLogo (2.2.0)

LogoClim is a NetLogo model designed to be integrated into other simulations through the LevelSpace extension (Hjorth et al., 2020), providing high resolution climate data from sources validated and used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The model simplifies and standardizes the integration of climate data into NetLogo, allowing researchers to focus their efforts on the model itself with the assurance of using reliable and widely recognized data. Although its main use is as a component of larger simulations, LogoClim also has its own graphical interface for monitoring and checking the datasets.

The climate data comes from the WorldClim 2.1 project (Fick & Hijmans, 2017), for which LogoClim works as an interface to NetLogo. The model supports all three WorldClim data series: (1) Historical Climate Data (1970 to 2000), with 12 monthly points for minimum, mean, and maximum temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, vapor pressure, elevation, and bioclimatic variables; (2) Historical Monthly Weather Data (1951 to 2024), based on downscaling of CRU-TS-4.09, developed by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (Harris et al., 2020), with minimum and maximum temperature and total precipitation; and (3) Future Climate Data, based on downscaling climate projections derived from global climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) (Eyring et al., 2016) for four future periods (2021 to 2040, 2041 to 2060, 2061 to 2080, and 2081 to 2100) and four scenarios based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs 126, 245, 370, and 585), covering minimum and maximum temperature, total precipitation, and bioclimatic variables. All series are available at multiple spatial resolutions, from 10 minutes (about 340 km² at the equator) to 30 seconds (about 1 km² at the equator).

The model was developed according to the FAIR principles for research software (Barker et al., 2022). It has extensive documentation and is published on GitHub and on the CoMSES Network. It recently passed a peer review for the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS), documented in this review thread, which confirmed its technical quality, accuracy, and adherence to best practices in scientific software development.

For a deep look into the model’s structure and implementation, see the user manual.

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Release Notes

Added

  • A first draft of LogoClim User Manual, now available at https://sustentarea.github.io/logoclim. The manual is a work in progress and will be continuously updated.
  • A new color bar widget for better visualization of patch values.
  • A new global variable cell-size to store the size of each patch in degrees.
  • Automated unit tests covering most supported configurations using the check-netlogo action from the LogoActions project. Tests run on Windows, macOS, and Linux with the latest NetLogo release at each commit. Due to computational constraints, only 10m resolution settings are tested. For future climate data, only SSP-126 is included because other SSPs are not consistently available across the Global Climate Models (GCMs). GCM variations are not tested.
  • Automated unit tests on near-equality comparisons between WorldClim original files and LogoClim patch values, as well as procedure behavior tests, now included in the user manual and rendered at each commit. Tests run on Windows, macOS, and Linux with the latest NetLogo release.

Changed

  • The Bioclimatic Variable monitor was removed and is now displayed directly on the Climate Variable monitor.
  • Slider limits were adjusted and value validation for blank/empty settings was added.
  • Code of Conduct updated to Contributor Covenant 3.0.
  • All dependencies were updated to their latest versions.
  • Documentation updated to reflect all changes.

Fixed

  • latitude/longitude inversion issue.
  • bioclimatic variables 13-18 not working when future climate data was selected.

Associated Publications

The model recently passed a peer review for the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS), documented in this review thread. The paper will be published shortly.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.comses.net/codebases/bccd451f-76a4-408a-85fd-c5024359ba9a/releases/2.2.0/