Vulnerability to natural hazards has many components. It is about exposure to various natural disasters, but a place's vulnerability also depends on its capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from shocks resulting from natural extreme events. To avoid increased place vulnerability due to the anticipated negative effects of climate change, local authorities need to know which places are the most vulnerable and what makes these areas vulnerable. We have developed ViewExposed to provide this information. Knowing where the most vulnerable areas are is very useful for local stakeholders, since these places may be most in need of adaptation strategies. However, stakeholders also need to have an understanding of what makes these areas vulnerable. ViewExposed provides this information using a parallel coordinates plot, a table view, sparklines, and a profile report. Although vulnerability assessment data are complex, ViewExposed has an easy-to-use interface facilitating a high degree of user interaction through multiple and linked views. An improved understanding of the many aspects of vulnerability has a far-reaching potential to inform users efficiently about factors that influence the overall vulnerability and, as a consequence, can help raise people's awareness of what makes places vulnerable to natural threats. RÉSUMÉLa vulnérabilité aux dangers naturels est constituée de nombreux éléments. C'est une question d'exposition à diverses catastrophes naturelles, mais la vulnérabilité d'un endroit dépend aussi de sa capacité de se préparer aux chocs découlant d'événements naturels extrêmes, d'y réagir et de s'en remettre. Afin d'éviter la vulnérabilité locale accrue à cause des effets négatifs prévus des changements climatiques, les autorités locales doivent connaître les endroits les plus vulnérables et les causes de leur vulnérabilité. Nous avons mis au point ViewExposed pour fournir cette information. Il est aussi très utile pour les intervenants locaux de connaître les endroits les plus vulnérables, car c'est peut-être à leur sujet qu'il faut le plus de stratégies d'adaptation. Les intervenants doivent toutefois comprendre aussi la cause de ces vulnérabilités. ViewExposed fournit ces renseignements en utilisant un tracé à coordonnées parallèles, une vue de tableau, des graphiques Sparklines et un rapport de profil. Même si les données d'évaluation de la vulnérabilité sont complexes, ViewExposed offre une interface facile à utiliser qui facilite une grande interaction entre les usagers grâce à des vues multiples et liées. Une compréhension améliorée des nombreux aspects de la vulnérabilité offre de vastes possibilités d'informer les usagers de façon efficiente au sujet de facteurs qui jouent sur la vulnérabilité globale et, par conséquent, peut aider à sensibiliser davantage les gens à ce qui rend des endroits vulnérables aux menaces naturelles.Mots clés : visualisation géographique, cartographie interactive, vulnérabilité intégrée, dangers naturels, café mondial, Norvège

Journal of Risk ResearchThe future climate in the Nordic countries is expected to become "warmer, wetter, and wilder", and it is anticipated that this will cause more extreme weather events. Therefore, local authorities need to increase their ability to assess weather-related hazards such as floods, landslides, and storms, as well as people's sensitivity and capacity to cope with or adjust to such events. In this article, we present an integrated assessment of vulnerability to natural hazards, which incorporates both exposure and social vulnerability. An increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events may make local societies more exposed, but how these societies will change in the future may increase or decrease their vulnerability to extreme weather events. In our assessment, we screen places and rank them by their relative scores on exposure and vulnerability indices. We also design a web-based visualization toolViewExposed -which shows maps that reveal a considerable geographic variation in integrated vulnerability. ViewExposed makes it easy to identify the places with the highest integrated vulnerability, and it facilitates the understanding of the factors that make these places exposed and/or vulnerable. As empirical validation, we correlate the exposure indices with insurance claims due to natural damage. However, we also emphasize a dialogue with relevant stakeholders to ensure a participatory validation. Our top-down exposure and vulnerability assessment benefits from a participatory bottom-up assessment, which is crucial for such an assessment to be used to support decisions on where necessary adaptive and preventive measures to climate-change-related hazards should be carried out.

This study explores the role of geographic visualization for supporting the implementation of climate change adaptation. Interviews and group discussions with planners and decision makers indicate that geographic visualization bears primary potential for communicative purposes. In order to respond to analytical needs a high level of interactivity including the exploration of background data and the ability to link the tools with own databases were some of the key requirements made by the participants. The study concludes that more than better climate predictions, awareness and involvement may be precisely what is needed to narrow the implementation gap in climate change adaptation.

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Climate change communication on anticipated impacts and adaptive responses is frequently presented as an effective means to facilitate implementation of adaptation to mitigate risks to residential buildings. However, it requires that communication is developed in a way that resonates with the context of the target audience, provides intelligible information and addresses perceived barriers to adaptation. In this paper we reflect upon criteria for useful climate change communication gained over a three year development process of a web-based tool -VisAdapt TMaimed at increasing the adaptive capacity among Nordic homeowners. Based on the results from continuous user-testing and focus group interviews we outline lessons learned and key aspects to consider in the design of tools for communicating complex issues such as climate change effects and adaptive response measures.

In this article we present the design and implementation of the web-based visualization tool VisAdapt, developed to support homeowners in the Nordic countries to assess anticipated climate change risks, which are expected to negatively impact their living conditions and to identify possible adaptation measures. The tool guides the user through a three-step visual exploration process to facilitate the exploration of risks and adaptive action, specifically modified to the users' location and house type. We have developed VisAdapt over the course of three years in close collaboration with domain experts and end users to ensure the validity of the included data and the efficiency of the visual interface. Although Nordic homeowners are the targeted end-users of VisAdapt, the insights gained from the development process and the lessons learned from the project could be valuable for researchers in a wide area of application domains. These include how to make global changes tangible on the local level, how to develop easily accessible flow of information and how to incorporate end-user evaluations in the development process.2