scholarly journals Tailoring the visual communication of climate projections for local adaptation practitioners in Germany and the UK

2015 ◽  
Vol 373 (2055) ◽  
pp. 20140457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Lorenz ◽  
Suraje Dessai ◽  
Piers M. Forster ◽  
Jouni Paavola
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Information Content ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
User Group ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Clear Link ◽  
The Uk

Visualizations are widely used in the communication of climate projections. However, their effectiveness has rarely been assessed among their target audience. Given recent calls to increase the usability of climate information through the tailoring of climate projections, it is imperative to assess the effectiveness of different visualizations. This paper explores the complexities of tailoring through an online survey conducted with 162 local adaptation practitioners in Germany and the UK. The survey examined respondents’ assessed and perceived comprehension (PC) of visual representations of climate projections as well as preferences for using different visualizations in communicating and planning for a changing climate. Comprehension and use are tested using four different graph formats, which are split into two pairs. Within each pair the information content is the same but is visualized differently. We show that even within a fairly homogeneous user group, such as local adaptation practitioners, there are clear differences in respondents’ comprehension of and preference for visualizations. We do not find a consistent association between assessed comprehension and PC or use within the two pairs of visualizations that we analysed. There is, however, a clear link between PC and use of graph format. This suggests that respondents use what they think they understand the best, rather than what they actually understand the best. These findings highlight that audience-specific targeted communication may be more complex and challenging than previously recognized.

scholarly journals Visualizations of Projected Rainfall Change in the United Kingdom: An Interview Study about User Perceptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Kause ◽  
Wändi Bruine de Bruin ◽  
Fai Fung ◽  
Andrea Taylor ◽  
Jason Lowe
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Confidence Intervals ◽  
Line Graph ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
User Perceptions ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Rainfall Change ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Relative Change

Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, we presented 24 participants from climate-conscious organizations across the UK with three prototypical visualizations about projected future rainfall, adopted from the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections: (1) Maps displaying a central estimate and confidence intervals, (2) a line graph and boxplots displaying change over time and associated confidence intervals, and (3) a probability density function for distributions of rainfall change. We analyzed participants’ responses using “Thematic Analysis”. In our analysis, we identified features that facilitated understanding—such as colors, simple captions, and comparisons between different emission scenarios—and barriers that hindered understanding, such as unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, confusing usage of probabilistic estimates, and expressions of relative change in percentages. We integrate these findings with the interdisciplinary risk communication literature and suggest content-related and editorial strategies for effectively designing visualizations about uncertain climate projections for audiences with limited climate expertise. These strategies will help organizations such as National Met Services to effectively communicate about a changing climate.

scholarly journals Assessing the quality of state-of-the-art regional climate information: the case of the UK Climate Projections 2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 168 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Baldissera Pacchetti ◽  
Suraje Dessai ◽  
David A. Stainforth ◽  
Seamus Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Independence Number ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
Adaptation Decision ◽  
The Uk

AbstractIn this paper, we assess the quality of state-of-the-art regional climate information intended to support climate adaptation decision-making. We use the UK Climate Projections 2018 as an example of such information. Their probabilistic, global, and regional land projections exemplify some of the key methodologies that are at the forefront of constructing regional climate information for decision support in adapting to a changing climate. We assess the quality of the evidence and the methodology used to support their statements about future regional climate along six quality dimensions: transparency; theory; independence, number, and comprehensiveness of evidence; and historical empirical adequacy. The assessment produced two major insights. First, a major issue that taints the quality of UKCP18 is the lack of transparency, which is particularly problematic since the information is directed towards non-expert users who would need to develop technical skills to evaluate the quality and epistemic reliability of this information. Second, the probabilistic projections are of lower quality than the global projections because the former lack both transparency and a theory underpinning the method used to produce quantified uncertainty estimates about future climate. The assessment also shows how different dimensions are satisfied depending on the evidence used, the methodology chosen to analyze the evidence, and the type of statements that are constructed in the different strands of UKCP18. This research highlights the importance of knowledge quality assessment of regional climate information that intends to support climate change adaptation decisions.

Evaluating the quality of model-based regional climate information: the case of the UK Climate Projections 2018

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Baldissera Pacchetti ◽  
Suraje Dessai ◽  
Seamus Bradley ◽  
David A. Stainforth
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Probabilistic Uncertainty ◽  
The Uk

<p>The kind of long-term regional climate information that is increasingly important for making adaptation decisions varies in temporal and spatial resolution, and this information is usually derived from Global Climate models (GCMs). However, information about future changes in regional climate also comes with high degrees of uncertainty–an important element of the information given the high decision stakes of climate change adaptation.</p><p> </p><p>Given these considerations, Baldissera Pacchetti et al. (in press) have proposed a quality assessment framework for evaluating the quality of regional climate information that intends to inform decision making. Evaluating the quality of this information is particularly important for information that is passed on to decision makers in the form of climate services. The framework has five dimensions along which quality can be assessed: diversity, completeness, theory, adequacy for purpose and transparency.  </p><p> </p><p>Here, we critically evaluate this framework by applying it to one example of climate information for adaptation: the UK Climate Projections of 2018 (UKCP18). There are two main motivations for the choice of UKCP18. First, this product embodies some of the main modeling strategies that drive the field of climate science today. For example, the land projections produced by UKCP18 provide probabilistic uncertainty assessments using multi-model and perturbed physics ensembles (MME and PPE), use locally developed GCMs and the models from the international Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), perform dynamical downscaling for producing information at the regional scale and further fine grain information with convection permitting models. Second, the earlier version of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) has received criticism from philosophers of science. The quality assessment framework proposed by Baldissera Pacchetti et al. partly aims to reveal whether the pitfalls identified by philosophers in UKCP09 persist in UKCP18.</p><p> </p><p>We apply the quality assessment framework to four strands of the UKCP18 land projections and illustrate whether and to what extent each of these strands satisfies the quality dimensions of the framework. When appropriate, we show whether quality varies depending on the variable of interest within a particular strand or across strands. For example, the theory quality dimension highlights that epistemic quality along this dimension is better satisfied for estimates about variables that depend on thermodynamic principles (e.g. global average temperature) than fluid dynamical theory (e.g. precipitation) (see, e.g., Risbey and O’Kane 2011) independently of the strand under assessment. We conclude that for those dimensions that can be evaluated, UKCP18 is not sufficiently epistemically reliable to provide information of high quality for all of the products provided.</p>

scholarly journals Assessing the quality of state-of-the-art regional climate information: the case of the UK Climate Projections 2018

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Baldissera Pacchetti ◽  
Suraje Dessai ◽  
David Stainforth ◽  
Seamus Bradley
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
Adaptation Decision ◽  
The Uk ◽  
User Perspectives ◽  
Probabilistic Projections

<p>We assess the quality of state-of-the-art regional climate information intended to support adaptation decision-making. We use the UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) as an example of such information. The probabilistic, global and regional land projections of UKCP18 exemplify some of the key methodologies that are at the forefront of providing regional climate information for decision support in adapting to a changing climate. We assess the quality of the evidence and the methodology used to support their statements about future regional climate derived from these projections along five quality dimensions: transparency, theory, diversity, completeness and adequacy for purpose. The assessment produced two major insights. First, the main issue that taints the quality of UKCP18 is the lack of transparency. The lack of transparency is particularly problematic if the information is directed towards non-expert users, who would need to develop technical skills to evaluate the quality and epistemic reliability of this information. Second, the probabilistic projections are of lower quality than the global projections. This assessment is a consequence of both lack of transparency in the probabilistic projections, and the way the method is used and justified to produce quantified uncertainty estimates about future climate. We suggest how higher quality could be achieved. This can be achieved by improving transparency of evidence and methodology and by better satisfying other dimensions through changes in elements of evidence and methodology. We conclude by recommending further avenues for testing the effectiveness of the framework and highlighting the need for further research in user perspectives on quality.</p>

scholarly journals Survey of young people in one region of the UK on accessing COVID-19 information (SOCIAL)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e000942
Author(s):  
Oliver G P Lawton ◽  
Sarah A Lawton ◽  
Lisa Dikomitis ◽  
Joanne Protheroe ◽  
Joanne Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Education Gaps ◽  
The Uk

COVID-19 has significantly impacted young people’s lives yet little is known about the COVID-19 related sources of information they access. We performed a cross-sectional survey of pupils (11–16 years) in North Staffordshire, UK. 408 (23%) pupils responded to an online survey emailed to them by their school. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data. Social media, accessed by 68%, played a significant role in the provision of information, despite it not being considered trustworthy. 89% felt that COVID-19 had negatively affected their education. Gaps in the provision of information on COVID-19 have been identified.

scholarly journals Experiences and impact of international medical volunteering: a multi-country mixed methods study

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. e041599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary McCauley ◽  
Joanna Raven ◽  
Nynke van den Broek
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
International Medical ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Medical Volunteers ◽  
The Impact

ObjectiveTo assess the experience and impact of medical volunteers who facilitated training workshops for healthcare providers in maternal and newborn emergency care in 13 countries.SettingsBangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, UK and Zimbabwe.ParticipantsMedical volunteers from the UK (n=162) and from low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) (n=138).Outcome measuresExpectations, experience, views, personal and professional impact of the experience of volunteering on medical volunteers based in the UK and in LMIC.ResultsUK-based medical volunteers (n=38) were interviewed using focus group discussions (n=12) and key informant interviews (n=26). 262 volunteers (UK-based n=124 (47.3%), and LMIC-based n=138 (52.7%)) responded to the online survey (62% response rate), covering 506 volunteering episodes. UK-based medical volunteers were motivated by altruism, and perceived volunteering as a valuable opportunity to develop their skills in leadership, teaching and communication, skills reported to be transferable to their home workplace. Medical volunteers based in the UK and in LMIC (n=244) reported increased confidence (98%, n=239); improved teamwork (95%, n=232); strengthened leadership skills (90%, n=220); and reported that volunteering had a positive impact for the host country (96%, n=234) and healthcare providers trained (99%, n=241); formed sustainable partnerships (97%, n=237); promoted multidisciplinary team working (98%, n=239); and was a good use of resources (98%, n=239). Medical volunteers based in LMIC reported higher satisfaction scores than those from the UK with regards to impact on personal and professional development.ConclusionHealthcare providers from the UK and LMIC are highly motivated to volunteer to increase local healthcare providers’ knowledge and skills in low-resource settings. Further research is necessary to understand the experiences of local partners and communities regarding how the impact of international medical volunteering can be mutually beneficial and sustainable with measurable outcomes.

scholarly journals How is the COVID-19 lockdown impacting the mental health of parents of school-age children in the UK? A cross-sectional online survey

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. e043397
Author(s):  
Austen El-Osta ◽  
Aos Alaa ◽  
Iman Webber ◽  
Eva Riboli Sasco ◽  
Emmanouil Bagkeris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

ObjectiveInvestigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on feelings of loneliness and social isolation in parents of school-age children.DesignCross-sectional online survey of parents of primary and secondary school-age children.SettingCommunity setting.Participants1214 parents of school-age children in the UK.MethodsAn online survey explored the impact of lockdown on the mental health of parents with school-age children, and in particular about feelings of social isolation and loneliness. Associations between the UCLA Three-Item Loneliness Scale (UCLATILS), the Direct Measure of Loneliness (DMOL) and the characteristics of the study participants were assessed using ordinal logistic regression models.Main outcome measuresSelf-reported measures of social isolation and loneliness using UCLATILS and DMOL.ResultsHalf of respondents felt they lacked companionship, 45% had feelings of being left out, 58% felt isolated and 46% felt lonely during the first 100 days of lockdown. The factors that were associated with higher levels of loneliness on UCLATILS were female gender, parenting a child with special needs, lack of a dedicated space for distance learning, disruption of sleep patterns and low levels of physical activity during the lockdown. Factors associated with a higher DMOL were female gender, single parenting, parenting a child with special needs, unemployment, low physical activity, lack of a dedicated study space and disruption of sleep patterns during the lockdown.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 lockdown has increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness among parents of school-age children. The sustained adoption of two modifiable health-seeking lifestyle behaviours (increased levels of physical activity and the maintenance of good sleep hygiene practices) wmay help reduce feelings of social isolation and loneliness during lockdown.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 pandemic social restriction measures on people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in the UK: a mixed-methods study

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e048772
Author(s):  
Toby O Smith ◽  
Pippa Belderson ◽  
Jack R Dainty ◽  
Linda Birt ◽  
Karen Durrant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Musculoskeletal Diseases ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Healthcare Provision ◽  
Social Restriction ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

ObjectivesTo determine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic social restriction measures on people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) and to explore how people adapted to these measures over time.DesignMixed-methods investigation comprising a national online longitudinal survey and embedded qualitative study.SettingUK online survey and interviews with community-dwelling individuals in the East of England.ParticipantsPeople in the UK with RMDs were invited to participate in an online survey. A subsection of respondents were invited to participate in the embedded qualitative study.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe online survey, completed fortnightly over 10 weeks from April 2020 to August 2020, investigated changes in symptoms, social isolation and loneliness, resilience and optimism. Qualitative interviews were undertaken assessing participant’s perspectives on changes in symptoms, exercising, managing instrumental tasks such a shopping, medication and treatment regimens and how they experienced changes in their social networks.Results703 people with RMDs completed the online survey. These people frequently reported a deterioration in symptoms as a result of COVID-19 pandemic social restrictions (52% reported increase vs 6% reported a decrease). This was significantly worse for those aged 18–60 years compared with older participants (p=0.017). The qualitative findings from 26 individuals with RMDs suggest that the greatest change in daily life was experienced by those in employment. Although some retired people reported reduced opportunity for exercise outside their homes, they did not face the many competing demands experienced by employed people and people with children at home.ConclusionsPeople with RMDs reported a deterioration in symptoms when COVID-19 pandemic social restriction measures were enforced. This was worse for working-aged people. Consideration of this at-risk group, specifically for the promotion of physical activity, changing home-working practices and awareness of healthcare provision is important, as social restrictions continue in the UK.

scholarly journals The impact of sitting time and physical activity on mental health during COVID-19 lockdown

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Pears ◽  
Susanna Kola-Palmer ◽  
Liane Beretta De Azevedo
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Depression Score ◽  
Sitting Time ◽  
Multiple Stepwise Regression Analysis ◽  
Previous Diagnosis ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objective The primary aim of this study was to investigate the association between physical activity (PA) and sitting time on adults’ mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety and wellbeing) and the influence of mediators and confounders. Methods An online survey was disseminated in the UK between May and June 2020. A total of 284 participants (33.5 ± 12.4 years) self-reported their PA, sitting time and mental health through validated questionnaires. Results Multiple stepwise regression analysis revealed that being of younger age, female, on a lower income, with one or more comorbid health conditions, with a previous diagnosis of mood disorder and increased sitting time independently correlated with higher depression scores (F (13,219) = 12.31, p < 0.001), and explained 42% of the variance. Similar results were found for wellbeing where socio-demographic, health outcomes and sitting time influenced the subjective wellbeing (F (14,218) = 5.77, p < 0.001, 27% variance), although only socio-demographic and health outcomes contributed to the variation in anxiety score (F (13,219) = 7.84, p < 0.001, 32% variance). PA did not explain variation when sitting time was taken into account in any of the models. Combined analysis revealed that participants with lower sedentary time (< 8 h) and with both low or moderate and high PA presented a significantly lower depression score [low PA: (B = −2.7, 95% CI −4.88, −0.52); moderate and high PA (B = −2.7, −4.88, −0.52)]. Conclusion Sitting time was strongly associated with adverse mental health during COVID-19 lockdown and should be considered in future public health recommendations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document