GTAP-InVEST User Guide

1. Introduction

This is the User Guide for GTAP-InVEST, a new earth-economy model introduced in “Investing in nature can improve equity and economic returns” (Johnson et al. 2023, PNAS). The content here originally derived from the supplemental information document included with PNAS article. However, development on the model is progressing rapidly, so please refer to this document, which will remain up-to-date. For additional details, please see the GTAP-InVEST Github repository (github.com/jandrewjohnson/gtap_invest). All code and results of the model are available and licensed under a permissive open-source license. Full results may be downloaded at justinandrewjohnson.com/gtap_invest/results.

2. Contents

Narrative chapters

GTAP Database reference

The current GTAP-Invest pipeline uses the GTAP 12 Data Base (released 2025), aggregated for analysis. Older v11 references are kept for archival comparison.

GTAP-Invest aggregation (v12_s26_r50)

The GTAP-Invest pipeline runs on an aggregated form of the full database — 50 regions and 26 sectors — so simulations are tractable and aligned with the resolution at which SEALS land-use change and InVEST ecosystem services can be coupled to the economic model.