- Github: https://github.com/JGCRI/HELPS
- Webpage: https://jgcri.github.io/HELPS/
HELPS is designed to translate climate projections to heat-induced labor productivity loss by sectors.
Rising evidence shows that heat stress significantly reduces labor productivity, particularly in agriculture. Existing tools often calculate heat stress metrics at fine spatial and temporal resolutions, but they do not capture variations across crops and farming practices, limiting their relevance for agriculture-focused studies and for research conducted at coarser spatio-temporal scales. The HELPS R package addresses this gap by integrating crop calendars and harvested area data to align heat stress exposure with real-world agricultural practices. It provides a comprehensive and user-friendly tool for quantifying heat stress levels and the resulting PWC losses at annual resolution across flexible spatial scales, supporting applications in global economic and multisector dynamics modeling.
Sheng, D., Zhao, X., Edmonds, J.A., Morris, S.T., Patel, P., O’Neill, B.C., Tebaldi, C. and Wise, M.A., 2025. Omitting labor responses underestimates the effects of future heat stress on agriculture. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), p.400.
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Download and install:
- R (https://www.r-project.org/)
- R studio (https://www.rstudio.com/)
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Open R studio:
install.packages('devtools')
install.packages('assertthat')
devtools::install_github('JGCRI/HELPS')
renv::restore()
devtools::load_all()
renv::restore() helps to install package dependencies for HELPS, but users might need to download a few R packages individually through RStudio's guidance.
You should now be set to run the driver without running into any package version issues. Note that if you have completed steps related to renv once, your R session should automatically connect to a private library when you open HELPS.Rproj, and you can run the code below to use the package.
devtools::load_all()
- Please explore the package vignette to use the package.
To run vignette/HELPS-vignette.Rmd, users need first download a set of example data into folder HELPS_Example_Data by running
devtools::load_all()
get_example_data()
The HELPS package operates on 0.5 degree resolution, bias-corrected outputs from Earth System Models and General Circulation Models participating in the CMIP process. Several options to access such data exist:
- The ISIMIP2b repository contains outputs from CMIP5-era models (GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, and MIROC5) for specific scenarios
- The ISIMIP3b repository contains outputs from CMIP6-era models (GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM1-2-HR, MRI-ESM2-0, and UKSEM1-0-LL) for specific scenarios
- If a user wishes to explore other CMIP models or bias-correct model data against different observational data than that used by ISIMIP, the BASD python package is available for ease of use. BASD implements an extension of the bias adjustment and statistical downscaling method used in ISIMIP3b (ISIMIP3BASD, [Lange 2021](https://zenodo.org/records/4686991 and https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3055/2019/)). The ISIMIP3BASD code base can also be used directly. For additional information, please see here
- If a user wishes to explore novel scenarios not covered by CMIP models or the ISIMIP collection, we suggest a combination of STITCHES emulation and BASD bias correction and downscaling.
HELPS has been tested with both ISIMIP data and outputs from BASD.
We welcome third-party contributions, which are essential for advancing the science and architecture of HELPS. We ask contributors to follow the How to Contribute that ease the maintainers’ organizational and logistical duties, while encouraging development by others. All contributors agree to abide by the code of conduct.