The overwhelming jungle of climate information and the role of climate services.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Buontempo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
National Programmes ◽  
Relevant Variables ◽  
Engineering Standards ◽  
Climate Service ◽  
Different Sources

<div>Climate adaptation often requires high resolution information about the expected changes in the statistical distribution of user-relevant variables. Thanks to targeted national programmes, research projects and international climate service initiatives  this kind of information is not only becoming more easily available but it is also making its way into building codes, engineering standards as well as the risk assessments for financial products.  If such an increase in the use of climate data can be seen as a positive step towards the construction of a climate resilient society, it is also true that the inconsistencies that exist between the information derived from different sources of information, have the potential to reduce the user uptake, increase the costs of adaptation and even undermine the credibility of both climate services and the underpinning climate science.</div><div>This paper offers a personal reflection on the emerging user requirements in this field. The presenation also aims at suggesting  some prelimimary ideas in support of the development of appropriate methodologies for extracting robust evidence from different sources in a scalable way.</div>

Visualisation in climate services: status and recommendations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Terrado ◽  
Diana Urquiza ◽  
Sara Octenjak ◽  
Andria Nicodemou ◽  
Dragana Bojovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Multidimensional Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Choropleth Maps ◽  
Climate Service

<p>The visual communication of climate information is one of the cornerstones of climate services. Characteristics that make a climate service self-explanatory rely on the visual modes it employs, e.g. maps, graphs or infographics, and the visual channels applied for the translation of multidimensional data, e.g. combination of colours, shapes or slopes. </p><p>Climate scientists have traditionally used predetermined types of visualisations to present climate data, including flood maps, heat maps or choropleth maps. However, such a tradition neglects a plethora of stakeholders (e.g. businesses, policy makers, citizens) that are increasingly involved in climate adaptation and that are less familiar with the traditional ways of presenting these data. In this sense, there is a need to advance towards climate services visualisations that can guide climate change adaptation decisions by helping users to interpret and use the information as simply and quickly as possible.</p><p>Effective visualisations should achieve a balance between the amount of represented data, its robustness (i.e. the representation of scientific confidence and consensus) and saliency (i.e. the relevance of the information to user needs). Therefore, choices regarding the representation of probabilities (e.g. using terciles or information on extreme events), the representation of uncertainty (e.g. showing the ensemble range or filtering by a skill threshold), the type of visual encoding (e.g. selection of the colour palette, use of shapes and sizes) as well as the terminology and language used, are some aspects that can significantly impact the way users interpret climate data.</p><p>We describe the main challenges for the visualisation of climate services identified during a visualisation workshop with representatives from 22 climate services projects involved in the Climateurope network, an EU-funded coordination and support action. In break-out group discussions, participants shared their experiences in the development of effective climate services visualisations and the lessons learned. Findings show that the chosen representation of uncertainty and probabilities tends to be case specific and that there is a preference for interactive visualisations where information is gradually disclosed. Minimising the use of technical concepts in visualisations was highlighted as an objective that requires further attention. The analysis of the obtained results provides a picture of the current status of the climate services visualisation field in Europe and gives recommendations for the development of the next generation of climate services.</p>

scholarly journals Trials, Errors, and Improvements in Coproduction of Climate Services

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (8) ◽  
pp. 1419-1428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik W. Kolstad ◽  
Oda N. Sofienlund ◽  
Hanna Kvamsås ◽  
Mathew A. Stiller-Reeve ◽  
Simon Neby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Service Projects ◽  
Climate Service

AbstractClimate change yields both challenges and opportunities. In both cases, costly adaptations and transformations are necessary and desirable, and these must be based on realistic and relevant climate information. However, it is often difficult for climate scientists to communicate this information to decision-makers and stakeholders, and it can be equally difficult for such actors to interpret and put the information to use. In this essay, we discuss experiences and present recommendations for scientists producing climate services. The basis is our work in several climate service projects. One of them aimed to provide local-scale climate data for municipalities in western Norway and to explore how the data were interpreted and implemented. The project was first based solely on climate science expertise, and the participants did not have sufficient competence on coproduction and knowledge about the regulatory and political landscape in which municipalities operate. Initially, we also subscribed to an outdated idea of climate services, where knowledge providers (climate scientists) “deliver” their information to knowledge users (e.g., municipal planners). Increasingly, as stressed in the literature on coproduction of knowledge, we learned that climate service should be an iterative process where actionable information is coproduced through two-way dialogue. On the basis of these and other lessons learned the hard way, we provide a set of concrete recommendations on how to embed the idea of coproduction from the preproposal stage to beyond the end of climate service projects.

scholarly journals Towards more effective visualisations in climate services: best practices and recommendations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Terrado ◽  
Luz Calvo ◽  
Diana Urquiza ◽  
Sara Octenjak ◽  
Andria Nicodemou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Distribution Functions ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Service Projects ◽  
Choropleth Maps ◽  
Climate Service

<p>The visual communication of climate information is one of the cornerstones of climate services. Characteristics that make a climate service self-explanatory rely on the type of representation used, e.g. interactive or static maps, charts or infographics, and the visual channels applied for the translation of multi-dimensional data, e.g. combination of colour, size, opacity, shapes and other characteristics.</p><p>Climate scientists have traditionally used predetermined types of visualisations to represent climate data, including maps (e.g. flood maps, heat maps, choropleth maps), line graphs, and probability distribution functions (PDFs). However, such a tradition neglects a plethora of stakeholders (e.g. businesses, policy makers, citizens) that are increasingly involved in climate adaptation and that are less familiar with the traditional ways of presenting these data.</p><p>Effective visualisations should achieve a balance between the amount of represented data, its robustness (i.e. the representation of scientific confidence and consensus) and saliency (i.e. the relevance of the information to user needs). Choices regarding the representation of uncertainty as well as the terminology and language used in visualisations, can significantly impact the way users interpret climate data. This calls for a standardised approach for the visualisation of climate services, which can benefit from best practices applied in other disciplines, such as user experience, visualisation design, graphic design and cognitive psychology.</p><p>We describe the main challenges for the visualisation of climate services identified during a visualisation workshop with representatives from 22 climate service projects involved in the Climateurope network, an EU-funded coordination and support action. In break-out group discussions, participants shared their experiences in the development of climate services visualisations and the lessons learned. Findings show that the chosen representation of uncertainty tends to be case specific and that, in general, there is a preference for interactive visualisations where information is gradually disclosed. Inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and aspects related to terminology and language, which are part of the service co-development, require further attention. The analysis of the obtained results provides a picture of the current practice of the climate services visualisation field in Europe and allows to identify recommendations for the development of the next generation of climate services.</p>

scholarly journals Translational Science for Climate Services: Mapping and Understanding Users’ Climate Service Needs in CSSP China

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
Sarah Opitz-Stapleton ◽  
Roger Street ◽  
Qian Ye ◽  
Jiarui Han ◽  
Chris D. Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Service Needs ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Translational Science ◽  
Regular User ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Climate Service ◽  
User Groups

AbstractThe Climate Science for Service Partnership China (CSSP China) is a joint program between China and the United Kingdom to build the basis for climate services to support the weather and climate resilient economic development and welfare in China. Work Package 5 (WP5) provides the translational science on identification of: different users and providers, and their mandates; factors contributing to communication gaps and capacities between various users and providers; and mechanisms to work through such issues to develop and/or evolve a range of climate services. Key findings to emerge include that users from different sectors have varying capacities, requirements, and needs for information in their decision contexts, with a current strong preference for weather information. Separating climate and weather services when engaging users is often not constructive. Furthermore, there is a need to move to a service delivery model that is more user-driven and science informed; having sound climate science is not enough to develop services that are credible, salient, reliable, or timely for diverse user groups. Greater investment in building the capacity of the research community supporting and providing climate services to conduct translational sciences and develop regular user engagement processes is much needed. Such a move would help support the China Meteorological Administration’s (CMA) ongoing efforts to improve climate services. It would also assist in potentially linking a broader group of “super” users who currently act as providers and purveyors of climate services because they find the existing offerings are not relevant to their needs or cannot access CMA’s services.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1186 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Mind the Gap: Towards a Typology of Climate Service Usability Gaps

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Raaphorst ◽  
Gerben Koers ◽  
Gerald Jan Ellen ◽  
Amy Oen ◽  
Bjørn Kalsnes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
The North ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Climate Service ◽  
North And South

Literature on climate services presents a large diversity of different services and uses. Many climate services have ‘usability gaps’: the information provided, or the way it is visualized, may be unsuitable for end users to inform decision-making processes in relation to adaptation against climate change impacts or for the development of policies to this end. The aim of this article is to contribute to more informed and efficient decision-making processes in climate adaptation by developing a typology of usability gaps for climate services. To do so, we first present and demonstrate a so-called ‘climate information design’ (CID) template with which to study and potentially improve the visual communicative qualities of climate services. Then, two climates services are selected for a further, qualitative explorative case study of two cases in the north and south of the Netherlands. A combination of focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews are used to collect data from Dutch governmental stakeholders as well as private stakeholders and NGOs. This data is then coded to discover what usability gaps are present. We then present twelve different types of usability gaps that were encountered as a typology. This typology could be used to improve and redesign climate services.

scholarly journals Designing a Climate Service for Planning Climate Actions in Vulnerable Countries

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Christiana Photiadou ◽  
Berit Arheimer ◽  
Thomas Bosshard ◽  
René Capell ◽  
Maria Elenius ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Climate Service ◽  
Climate Analysis ◽  
International Experts ◽  
Active Interaction

The next generation of climate services needs not only tailoring to specific user needs but to provide, in addition, access to key information in a usable way that satisfies the needs of different users’ profiles; especially web-based services. Here, we present the outcomes from developing such a new interactive prototype. The service provides data for robust climate analysis to underpin decision-making when planning measures to compensate for climate impact. The goal is to facilitate the communication on climate information between climate modelling communities and adaptation or mitigation initiatives from vulnerable countries that are applying for funds from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). A participatory process was ensured during four workshops in four pilot countries, with an audience of national and international experts. During this process it was made clear that in all countries there is a strong need for knowledge in climate science, while in most countries there was also an increasing need of capacity in hydrological modelling and water management. The active interaction during the workshops was found necessary to facilitate the dialogue between service developers and users. Understanding the users, transparency on potentials and limitations of climate services together with capacity development in climate science and methods were required components in the development of the service.

scholarly journals Capturing and Sharing Our Collective Expertise on Climate Data: The CHARMe Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Clifford ◽  
Raquel Alegre ◽  
Victoria Bennett ◽  
Jon Blower ◽  
Cecelia Deluca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Web Standards ◽  
Interactive Data ◽  
Climate Time Series ◽  
Community Access

Abstract For users of climate services, the ability to quickly determine the datasets that best fit one’s needs would be invaluable. The volume, variety, and complexity of climate data makes this judgment difficult. The ambition of CHARMe (Characterization of metadata to enable high-quality climate services) is to give a wider interdisciplinary community access to a range of supporting information, such as journal articles, technical reports, or feedback on previous applications of the data. The capture and discovery of this “commentary” information, often created by data users rather than data providers, and currently not linked to the data themselves, has not been significantly addressed previously. CHARMe applies the principles of Linked Data and open web standards to associate, record, search, and publish user-derived annotations in a way that can be read both by users and automated systems. Tools have been developed within the CHARMe project that enable annotation capability for data delivery systems already in wide use for discovering climate data. In addition, the project has developed advanced tools for exploring data and commentary in innovative ways, including an interactive data explorer and comparator (“CHARMe Maps”), and a tool for correlating climate time series with external “significant events” (e.g., instrument failures or large volcanic eruptions) that affect the data quality. Although the project focuses on climate science, the concepts are general and could be applied to other fields. All CHARMe system software is open-source and released under a liberal license, permitting future projects to reuse the source code as they wish.

What methods of interaction with users have proved to better perform for advanced co-development of climate services in the water sector?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Polo ◽  
Rafael Pimentel ◽  
María José Pérez-Palazón ◽  
Pedro Torralbo ◽  
Little Lorna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Scenarios ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Water Sector ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Climate Service ◽  
Development Approach ◽  
Adequate Communication ◽  
Key Questions

<p>A wide offer of climate data sources/services is currently available dealing with future climate scenarios and projections. A huge effort has been done at European scale to promote and share openly this information. However, their use is not extensive and their potential is frequently underexploited. There is usually a significant gap between the complexity of climate metadata and the users’ capability of exploiting them. Furthermore, this gap is also found between the expertise of climate data providers and the every-day operation of the different potentially interested end-users. Additionally, in some sectors users are not aware of climate service capabilities which prevent them from valuing and then demanding such services.</p><p>In this context, co-development improves and fosters climate services’ usability and uptake when compared to a traditional one-side development approach, since it best meets users’ needs and demands. However, co-development can be time-consuming for both sides and less effective than expected if an adequate communication design is missing. In this context, what methods of interaction with users have proved to better perform for advanced co-development of climate services? And, what factors have best motivated users to interact? are key questions to provide guidelines and profit from the on-going initiatives.</p><p>Three different approaches with users (mainly in the water sector) were tested: guided online surveys (anonymous users); focus groups (users known to different partners in the project); case study clients (users regularly interact with project partners). Indicators and metrics were used to evaluate and value the contribution from each group in the context of co-development of climate services that give future projections of water availability. The results of this comparison provide a conceptual framework to design and apply co-development strategies for climate services oriented to different groups within the water sector.</p><p>This work was funded by the project AQUACLEW, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Commission [Grant 690462].</p>

The Climate Information platform: A climate science basis for climate adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frida Gyllensvärd ◽  
Christiana Photiadou ◽  
Berit Arheimer ◽  
Lorna Little ◽  
Elin Sjökvist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Indicators ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Scientific Framework

<p>The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) are collaborating on a project providing expert services for enhancing the climate science basis of GCF-funded activities. The goal is to ensure that the causal links between climate and climate impacts, and between climate action and societal benefits, are fully grounded in the best available climate data and science.  Five pilot countries are participating in this phase of the project: St Lucia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, Cambodia, and Paraguay, with an audience of national experts, international stakeholders, and policy and decision makers.</p><p>The scientific framework which we follow here is a compendium of available data, methods and tools for analysing and documenting the past, present and potential future climate conditions which a GCF-funded project or adaptation plan might seek to address. Through the WMO-GCF-SMHI project, the methodology, scientific framework, data, methods and tools to link global to local data are complemented by hands-on support, backed by access to relevant data and tools through a structured access platform.</p><p>In this presentation we elaborate on the lessons learnt from a number of workshops that were designed for the five pilot countries. The main focus of the workshops was a hands-on opportunity of national experts and international stakeholders to work with the WMO methodology in order to develop a GCF proposal for future funding. The participants in each country worked intensively during a five-day workshop on each step of the methodology: Problem definition, Identification of climate science basis, Interpretation of data analysis, selection of best adaptation/mitigation options, and assessment of adaptation/mitigation effectiveness.</p><p>Assessing past and current climate and climate projections is the basis for inferring real and potential climate change and related impacts. For this, SMHI has developed a new interactive online platform/service (https://climateinformation.org/) to facilitate the communication between the GCF and developing countries and provide access to state of the art climate data to be used in impact assessment planning. The new service provides data for robust climate analysis to underpin decision-making when planning measures for climate adaptation or mitigation. Readily available climate indicators will help defining future problems, assess climatic stressors, and analyse current and future risks. This makes a climate case, which is the basis for developing interventions and propose investments. In particular the service provides:</p><ul><li>Easy access to many climate indicators, based on state-of-the-art climate science.</li> <li>Instant summary reports of climate change for any site on the globe.</li> <li>Guidance on how to link global changes to local observations.</li> </ul>

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