Resolved Exiobase version 3 (REX3)

Description of the REX3 database

This repository provides the Resolved EXIOBASE database version 3 (REX3) of the study "Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports” published in Nature Sustainability. Also the REX3 database was used in Chapter 3 of the Global Resource Outlook 2024 from the UNEP International Resource Panel (IRP), including a data visualizer that allows for downscaling.
 
In REX3, Exiobase version 3.8 was merged with Eora26, production data from FAOSTAT, and bilateral trade data from the BACI database to create a highly-resolved MRIO database with comprehensive regionalized environmental impact assessment following the UNEP-SETAC guidelines and integrating land use data from the LUH2 database. REX3 distinguishes 189 countries, 163 sectors, time series from 1995 to 2022, and several environmental and socioeconomic extensions. The environmental impact assessment includes climate impacts, PM health impacts, water stress, and biodiversity impact from land occupation, land use change, and eutrophication.
 
The folders "REX3_Year" provide the database for each year. Each folder contains the following files (*.mat-files):
T_REX: the transaction matrix
Y_REX: the final demand matrix
Q_REX and Q_Y_REX: the satellite matrix of the economy and the final demand

The folder "REX3_Labels" provides the labels of the matrices, countries, sectors and extensions.

*The database is also available as textfiles --> contact livia.cabernard@tum.de
 

While Exiobase version 3.8.2 was used for the study "Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports” and the Global Resource Outlook 2024, the REX3 database shared in this repository is based on Exiobase version 3.8, as this is the earliest exiobase version that can be still shared via a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. However, the matlab code attached to this repository allows to compile the REX3 database with earlier exiobase versions as well (e.g., version 3.8.2), as described in the section below.

Codes to compile REX3 and reproduce the results of the study “Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports”

The folder "matlab code to compile REX3" provides the code to compile the REX3 database. This can also be done by using an earlier exiobase version (e.g., version 3.8.2). For this purpose, the data from EXIOBASE3 need to be saved into the subfolder Files/Exiobase/…, while the data from Eora26 need to be saved into the subfolder Files/Eora26/bp/…

The folder "R code for regionalized BD impact assessment based on LUH2 data and maps (Figure 1)" contains the R code to weight the land use data from the LUH2 dataset with the species loss factors from UNEP-SETAC and to create the maps shown in Figure 1 of the paper. For this purpose, the data from the LUH2 dataset (transitions.nc) need to be stored in the subfolder "LUH2 data".

The folder "matlab code to calculate MRIO results (Figure 2-5)" contains the matlab code to calculate the MRIO Results for Figure 2-5 of the study.

The folder "R code to illustrate sankeys – Figure 3–5, S10" contains the R code to visualize the sankeys.

Data visualizer to downscale the results of the IRP Global Resource Outlook 2024 based on REX3:

A data visualizer that is based on REX3 and allows to downscale the results of the IRP Global Resource Outlook 2024 on a country level can be found here.

Earlier versions of REX:

An earlier version of this database (REX1) with time series from 1995–2015 is described in Cabernard & Pfister 2021.

An earlier version including GTAP and mining-related biodiversity impacts for the year 2014 (REX2) is described in Cabernard & Pfister 2022.

Download & conversion from .mat to .zarr files for efficient data handling:
A package for downloading, extracting, and converting REX3 data from MATLAB (.mat) to .zarr format has been provided by Yanfei Shan here: https://github.com/FayeShan/REX3_handler. Once the files are converted to .zarr format, the data can be explored and processed flexibly. For example, you can use pandas to convert the data into CSV, or export it as Parquet, which is more efficient for handling large datasets. Please note note that this package is still under development and that more functions for MRIO analysis will be added in the future.