Transforming Access to and Use of Climate Information Products Derived from Remote Sensing and In Situ Observations

Making climate-sensitive economic sectors resilient to climate trends and shocks, through adaptation to climate change and managing uncertainties associated with climate extremes, will require effective use of climate information to help practitioners make climate-informed decisions. The provision of weather and climate information will depend on the availability of climate data and its presentation in formats that are useful for decision making at different levels. However, in many places around the world, including most African countries, the collection of climate data has been seriously inadequate, and even when available, poorly accessible. On the other hand, the availability of climate data by itself may not lead to the uptake and use of such data. These data must be presented in user-friendly formats addressing specific climate information needs in order to be used for decision-making by governments, as well as the public and private sectors. The generated information should also be easily accessible. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), has been making efforts to overcome these challenges by supporting countries to improve the available climate data, as well as access to and use of climate information products at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Challenges to the availability of climate data are alleviated by combining data from the national weather observation network with remote sensing and other global proxies to generate spatially and temporally complete climate datasets. Access to climate information products is enhanced by developing an online mapping service that provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing and visualizing climate information products such as maps and graphs.

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ENACTS: Transforming Climate Services Across Africa

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-39 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tufa Dinku

Keyword(s):

Effective Means ◽

National Level ◽

Columbia University ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽

Institutional Infrastructure ◽

International Research Institute ◽

Information Products

Despite recent and mostly global efforts to promote climate services in developing countries, Africa still faces significant limitations in its institutional infrastructure and capacity to develop, access, and use decision-relevant climate data and information products at multiple levels of governance. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Columbia University&#8217;s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, strives to overcome these challenges by targeting the way climate-sensitive decisions are made at the local, regional, and national levels. The ENACTS approach is executed by working directly with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) to build capacity for improving the availability, access, and use of quality climate data and information products at relevant spatial and temporal scales. The ENACTS approach has shown to be an effective means to transform decision-making surrounding vulnerabilities and risks at both national and local scales in over a dozen countries at the national level as well as at regional level East and West Africa. In the ENACTS approach, challenges to the availability of climate data are alleviated by combining quality-controlled station observations with global proxies to generate spatially and temporally complete climate datasets. Access to climate information is enhanced by developing an online mapping service that provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing and visualizing climate information products. Use of the generated climate data and the derived information products are promoted through raising awareness in relevant communities, training users, and co-production processes.

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ENACTS: Advancing Climate Services Across Africa

Frontiers in Climate ◽

10.3389/fclim.2021.787683 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Tufa Dinku ◽

Rija Faniriantsoa ◽

Remi Cousin ◽

Igor Khomyakov ◽

Audrey Vadillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Multiple Scales ◽

Effective Means ◽

National Level ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽

Institutional Infrastructure ◽

International Research Institute ◽

Information Products

Despite recent and mostly global efforts to promote climate services in developing countries, Africa still faces significant limitations in its institutional infrastructure and capacity to develop, access, and use decision-relevant climate data and information products at multiple levels of governance. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), strives to overcome these challenges by co-developing tailored, actionable, and decision-relevant climate information with and for a wide variety of users at the local, regional, and national levels. This is accomplished through an approach emphasizing direct engagement with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and users of their products, and investments in both technological and human capacities for improving the availability, access, and use of quality climate data and information products at decision-relevant spatial and temporal scales. In doing so, the ENACTS approach has been shown to be an effective means of transforming decision-making surrounding vulnerabilities and risks at multiple scales, through implementation in over a dozen countries at national level as well as at the regional levels in both East and West Africa. Through the ENACTS approach, challenges to availability of climate data are alleviated by combining quality-controlled station observations with global proxies to generate spatially and temporally complete climate datasets. Access to climate information is enhanced by developing an online mapping service that provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing and visualizing climate information products. Use of the generated climate data and the derived information products is promoted through raising awareness in relevant communities, training users, and co-production processes.

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The role of knowledge networks in facilitating the creation of climate information services

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7570 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Francesca Larosa ◽

Marta Bruno-Soares

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Diffusion Of Innovations ◽

Information Services ◽

Knowledge Networks ◽

Knowledge Network ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Climate Services ◽

Under Performing

Knowledge networks are collections of individuals who work together across organizational, spatial and disciplinary boundaries to develop and share a body of knowledge. Climate services are tools and applications that help support decision-making by transforming climate data into information tailored to specific users. They call for co-development practices to facilitate successful collaboration between different stakeholders. Knowledge networks for climate services are intermediaries that can facilitate the interaction between upstream (providers) and downstream (users) actors operating at various scales (local, national, regional and supranational). Such knowledge networks can therefore assist decision-making processes of a wide set of users by creating networking opportunities and disseminating usable climate information. The aim of this work is to frame and assess the efficiency of knowledge networks for climate services in promoting innovation and facilitate its diffusion. We used semi-structured interviews with knowledge networks managers to collect information about their purpose, process and audience. &#160;We then assess the efficiency of knowledge networks by performing content analysis of interviews with knowledge network managers and by checking for the existence of inconsistencies or gaps with the initial objectives. We find that knowledge networks for climate services pursue four objectives: coordination, innovation promotion, science-policy interface and support to members. We also find that knowledge networks are well-recognised players in disseminating knowledge and opportunities to climate services practitioners and policy makers. However, we observe a lack of adequate tools to monitor the activities of different members. On the communication side, knowledge networks for climate services mostly interact with developers of climate services but face challenges in sharing members&#8217; activities with users. Our work fills a significant knowledge gap and helps providing new tools of performance assessment in absence of a clearly defined methodology. The identification of bottlenecks and under-performing mechanisms in the climate information services sphere allows the elaboration of strategies to improve the status quo and facilitates the diffusion of innovations such as climate services.

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The role of knowledge networks in facilitating the creation of climate information services

10.5194/ems2021-11 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Francesca Larosa ◽

Marta Bruno-Soares

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Information Services ◽

Knowledge Networks ◽

Knowledge Network ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

The Status ◽

Science Policy Interface ◽

Under Performing

Knowledge networks are collections of individuals and teams who work together across organizational, spatial and disciplinary boundaries to invent and share a body of knowledge. Climate services are tools and application that support decision-making by transforming raw climate data into tailored information. They call for co-development practices in place and for successful collaboration between different stakeholders. Knowledge networks for climate services are intermediaries that facilitate the interaction between upstream (providers) and downstream (user) actors operating at various scales (local, national, regional and supranational). They assist the decision-making process of a wide set of users by creating windows of opportunity and by delivering usable climate information. The aim of this work is to frame and assess the efficiency of knowledge networks for climate services in promoting innovation and facilitate its diffusion. First, we characterize knowledge networks learning from insights of a multidisciplinary literature. Second, we analyse the purpose, the process and the audience of each knowledge network for climate services by screening their programmatic documents. We then assess the efficiency of knowledge networks by performing content analysis of interviews with knowledge network managers and by checking for the existence of inconsistencies or gaps with the initial objectives. We find knowledge networks for climate services pursue four objectives: coordination, innovation promotion, science-policy interface and support to members. We also find inadequate tools to monitor the members activities, but a strong positioning within the climate services domain. On the communication side, knowledge networks for climate services mostly interact with developers of climate services but they face challenges in sharing the members&#8217; activities with users. Our work fills a significant knowledge gap and helps providing new tools of performance assessment in absence of a clearly defined methodology. The identification of bottlenecks and under-performing mechanisms in the climate information services sphere allows the elaboration of strategies to improve the status quo and facilitates the diffusion of these innovations.

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Users cognitive load: A key aspect to successfully communicate visual climate information

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-20-0166.1 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-42

Author(s):

Luz Calvo ◽

Isadora Christel ◽

Marta Terrado ◽

Fernando Cucchietti ◽

Mario Pérez-Montoro

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Response Time ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Cognitive Capacity ◽

Multidimensional Data ◽

User Centered Design ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

User Centered

AbstractThe visual communication of climate information is one of the cornerstones of climate services. It often requires the translation of multidimensional data to visual channels by combining colors, distances, angles, and glyph sizes. However, visualizations including too many layers of complexity can hinder decision-making processes by limiting the cognitive capacity of users, therefore affecting their attention, recognition, and working memory. Methodologies grounded on the fields of user-centered design, user interaction and cognitive psychology, which are based on the needs of the users, have a lot to contribute to the climate data visualization field. Here, we apply these methodologies to the redesign of an existing climate service tool tailored to the wind energy sector. We quantify the effect of the redesign on the users’ experience performing typical daily tasks, using both quantitative and qualitative indicators that include response time, success ratios, eye-tracking measures, user perceived effort and comments among others. Changes in the visual encoding of uncertainty and the use of interactive elements in the redesigned tool reduced the users’ response time by half, significantly improved success ratios, and eased decision making by filtering non-relevant information. Our results show that the application of user-centered design, interaction, and cognitive aspects to the design of climate information visualizations reduces the cognitive load of users during tasks performance, thus improving user experience. These aspects are key to successfully communicating climate information in a clearer and more accessible way, making it more understandable for both technical and non-technical audiences.

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Why the use of weather and climate information is essential for SDG implementation

10.5194/ems2021-482 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

David Griggs

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

United Nations ◽

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Services ◽

2030 Agenda ◽

Weather And Climate ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Development Goals

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an ambitious plan for &#8220;people, &#8220;planet and prosperity&#8221;. At its core are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the achievement of which is critically affected by weather and a changing climate. To that end emphasis has been given to delivering weather and climate services, with information packaged in ways that support timely decision making.Yet often these approaches tend not to address which decision-making processes need what information, why they need it, or what form they need it in. They have also tended to be focussed on specific situations and SDGs (such as SDG 14, 15) where the need for weather and climate information is clear and obvious.In this presentation, we will look at how weather and climate information impinges on different decision making contexts, requiring that information to be tailored in new ways. In doing so we will identify key action areas that need to be addressed to improve integration of weather and climate information into SDG decision making.&#160;

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Satellite-based climate information within the WMO RA VI Regional Climate Centre on Climate Monitoring

Advances in Science and Research ◽

10.5194/asr-11-25-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 25-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Obregón ◽

H. Nitsche ◽

M. Körber ◽

A. Kreis ◽

P. Bissolli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Regional Climate ◽

Regional Scale ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Product Portfolio ◽

Climate Information ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

Climate Monitoring ◽

The World

Abstract. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) established Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) around the world to create science-based climate information on a regional scale within the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The paper introduces the satellite component of the WMO Regional Climate Centre on Climate Monitoring (RCC-CM) for Europe and the Middle East. The RCC-CM product portfolio is based on essential climate variables (ECVs) as defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), spanning the atmospheric (radiation, clouds, water vapour) and terrestrial domains (snow cover, soil moisture). In the first part, the input data sets are briefly described, which are provided by the EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) Satellite Application Facilities (SAF), in particular CM SAF, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Climate Change Initiative (CCI). In the second part, the derived RCC-CM products are presented, which are divided into two groups: (i) operational monitoring products (e.g. monthly means and anomalies) based on near-real-time environmental data records (EDRs) and (ii) climate information records (e.g. climatologies, time series, trend maps) based on long-term thematic climate data records (TCDRs) with adequate stability, accuracy and homogeneity. The products are provided as maps, statistical plots and gridded data, which are made available through the RCC-CM website (www.dwd.de/rcc-cm).

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Towards a Traceable Climate Service: Assessment of Quality and Usability of Essential Climate Variables

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11101186 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 1186 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Yijian Zeng ◽

Zhongbo Su ◽

Iakovos Barmpadimos ◽

Adriaan Perrels ◽

Paul Poli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Scientific Quality ◽

Service Needs ◽

Climate Data ◽

Climate Services ◽

Carbon Cycles ◽

Usability Assessment ◽

Information Products ◽

Climate Service

Climate services are becoming the backbone to translate climate knowledge, data & information into climate-informed decision-making at all levels, from public administrations to business operators. It is essential to assess the technical and scientific quality of the provided climate data and information products, including their value to users, to establish the relation of trust between providers of climate data and information and various downstream users. The climate data and information products (i.e., from satellite, in-situ and reanalysis) shall be fully traceable, adequately documented and uncertainty quantified and can provide sufficient guidance for users to address their specific needs and feedbacks. This paper discusses details on how to apply the quality assurance framework to deliver timely assessments of the quality and usability of Essential Climate Variable (ECV) products. It identifies an overarching structure for the quality assessment of single product ECVs (i.e., consists of only one single variable), multi-product ECVs (i.e., more than one single parameter), thematic products (i.e., water, energy and carbon cycles), as well as the usability assessment. To support a traceable climate service, other than rigorously evaluating the technical and scientific quality of ECV products, which represent the upstream of climate services, how the uncertainty propagates into the resulting benefit (utility) for the users of the climate service needs to be detailed.

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Delivering Climate Services: Organizational Strategies and Approaches for Producing Useful Climate-Science Information

Weather Climate and Society ◽

10.1175/wcas-d-11-00034.1 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 14-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

Elizabeth C. McNie

Keyword(s):

Time Management ◽

Information Needs ◽

Social Process ◽

Basic Research ◽

Climate Science ◽

Climate Information ◽

Organizational Strategies ◽

Climate Services ◽

Missed Opportunities ◽

Science Information

Abstract Despite numerous and widespread calls for more “useful” climate-science information to inform policy, most climate science is still produced in a way that is consistent with the “linear model” of research that favors pure basic research over other approaches, resulting in missed opportunities to link useful climate science with decision makers. To improve the ability to adapt to a changing climate, it is necessary to improve the linkages between the production and supply of climate-science information with users’ needs to ensure that the climate science is contextual, credible, trusted, and understood by the users. This paper reports on research that evaluated how three Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) programs produced useful climate information for improved decision support in a variety of sectors. Research indicates that these organizations utilized several processes and approaches to produce useful climate information, including identifying users’ information needs; translating, communicating, and sharing knowledge; producing and situating social capital; building capacity in the user community to understand and utilize the climate-science information; and maintaining a flexible and nimble organization guided by strong leadership. The process of linking the production and supply of climate-science information with users’ demands is a complex, highly contextual social process that requires ample resources and time management, research agendas that are “end to end” and can respond to changing contexts, and organizational commitment to support “use-inspired” research. Additional research is needed to improve evaluation methods and metrics used to assess climate-service organizations.

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Climate information needs of Gascoyne - Murchison pastoralists: a representative study of the Western Australian grazing industry

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture ◽

10.1071/ea04275 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 45 (12) ◽

pp. 1613 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

D. U. Keogh ◽

I. W. Watson ◽

K. L. Bell ◽

D. H. Cobon ◽

S. C. Dutta

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Lead Time ◽

Information Needs ◽

Lead Times ◽

Climate Information ◽

Test Question ◽

Research Project ◽

Climate Research ◽

Climate Forecasting ◽

Climate Forecasts

The Gascoyne–Murchison region of Western Australia experiences an arid to semi-arid climate with a highly variable temporal and spatial rainfall distribution. The region has around 39.2 million hectares available for pastoral lease and supports predominantly cattle and sheep grazing leases. In recent years a number of climate forecasting systems have been available offering rainfall probabilities with different lead times and forecast periods; however, the extent to which these systems are capable of fulfilling the requirements of the local pastoralists is still ambiguous. Issues can range from ensuring forecasts are issued with sufficient lead time to enable key planning or decisions to be revoked or altered, to ensuring forecast language is simple and clear, to negate possible misunderstandings in interpretation. A climate research project sought to provide an objective method to determine which available forecasting systems had the greatest forecasting skill at times of the year relevant to local property management. To aid this climate research project, the study reported here was undertaken with an overall objective of exploring local pastoralists’ climate information needs. We also explored how well they understand common climate forecast terms such as ‘mean’, ‘median’ and ‘probability’, and how they interpret and apply forecast information to decisions. A stratified, proportional random sampling was used for the purpose of deriving the representative sample based on rainfall-enterprise combinations. In order to provide more time for decision-making than existing operational forecasts that are issued with zero lead time, pastoralists requested that forecasts be issued for May–July and January–March with lead times counting down from 4 to 0 months. We found forecasts of between 20 and 50 mm break-of-season or follow-up rainfall were likely to influence decisions. Eighty percent of pastoralists demonstrated in a test question that they had a poor technical understanding of how to interpret the standard wording of a probabilistic median rainfall forecast. This is worthy of further research to investigate whether inappropriate management decisions are being made because the forecasts are being misunderstood. We found more than half the respondents regularly access and use weather and climate forecasts or outlook information from a range of sources and almost three-quarters considered climate information or tools useful, with preferred methods for accessing this information by email, faxback service, internet and the Department of Agriculture Western Australia’s Pastoral Memo. Despite differences in enterprise types and rainfall seasonality across the region we found seasonal climate forecasting needs were relatively consistent. It became clear that providing basic training and working with pastoralists to help them understand regional climatic drivers, climate terminology and jargon, and the best ways to apply the forecasts to enhance decision-making are important to improve their use of information. Consideration could also be given to engaging a range of producers to write the climate forecasts themselves in the language they use and understand, in consultation with the scientists who prepare the forecasts.

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