Climate information websites: an evolving landscape

Abstract

The climate change agenda is populated by actors and agencies with different objectives, values, and motivations, yet many seek decision scale climate information to inform policy and adaptation responses. A central element of this network of activity is the climate information website (CIW) that has seen a rapid and organic growth, yet with variable content and quality, and unfettered by any code of practice. This builds an ethical–epistemic dilemma that warrants assessment as the presence of CIWs contribute to real‐world consequences and commitment. This study considers the context of CIW growth, and reviews a representative sample of CIWs to draw out key issues for consideration in CIW development. We assess content, function, and use‐case value through a dual approach of a typology and user experience narratives to evaluate the general efficacy of a CIW. The typology reveals strong contrasts in content, complicated interfaces, and an overload of choice making it difficult to converge on a stable outcome. The narratives capture user experience and highlight barriers that include navigation difficulties, jargon laden content, minimal or opaque guidance, and inferred information without context about uncertainty and limits to skill. This illuminates four concerns: (1) the ethics of information provision in a context of real‐world consequences; (2) interfaces that present barriers to achieving robust solutions; (3) weak capacity of both users and providers to identify information of value from the multimodel and multimethod data; and (4) inclusion of data that infer skill. Nonetheless, results provide a positive indication of a community of practice that is still maturing. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e470. doi: 10.1002/wcc.470 This article is categorized under: Climate Models and Modeling > Knowledge Generation with Models Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Scenario Development and Application

On the use and misuse of climate change projections in international development

“…Examples of products explicitly intended to inform local decision‐making include the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal, the United Kingdom Climate Projections (Frigg et al, ), the NASA NEX Global Daily Downscaled Climate Projections, the U.S. National Climate Assessment, the E.U. Climate4Impact initiative, the WorldClim Global Climate Data portal, the Partnership for Reilience and Preparedness (PREP), the TNC Climate Wizard and the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) climate portal, among others (Hewitson et al, ).…”

“…The prevailing emphasis on quantifying and reducing uncertainty in future climate change does not address this problem. Much more could be achieved through investigation of new methods to visualize and communicate projections in a way that emphasizes the deep uncertainties involved, while highlighting aspects about which we have more confidence (Adams et al, ; Daron, Lorenz, Wolski, Blamey, & Jack, ; EFSA, ; Hassenzahl, ; Hewitson et al, ; Risbey & Kandlikar, ; Spiegelhalter & Riesch, ). Emphasize model evaluation …”

“…Scalable solutions are needed, as the breadth of users and applications far exceeds the capacity to develop tailored solutions for all, but innovation is required to ensure that the fundamental limitations of long‐term projections are adequately and transparently represented (Adams et al, ; Hewitson et al, ). Such innovation will require us to develop new ways to assess confidence through expert judgment (Kandlikar, Risbey, & Dessai, ; Mastrandrea et al, ; Thangaratinam & Redman, ), supported by thorough model evaluation and scientific understanding (Hewitson et al, , ; James et al, ). Methods to distil the consequences of these evaluations for decision‐makers are lacking but should be prioritized.…”

Providing future climate projections using multiple models and methods: insights from the Philippines

“…These include the assessment and communication of natural climate variability in the context of projected changes, scientific challenges in weighting and/or selection of models at the experimental design stage, resource limitations for downstream impact assessments, improving communication platforms used to disseminate climate projections (see Hewitson et al 2017), and deepening understanding of the limitations of some users for assessing multiple future scenarios. We encourage others to further address these issues and share their experiences.…”

Decision support platforms for climate change adaptation: an overview and introduction

“…Climate experts involved in adaptation platform construction may have unrealistic expectations about decision-makers' ability and willingness to understand the jargon, complex scientific concepts, and limitations associated with climate change data (Hewitson et al 2017;Porter and Dessai 2017;Moser et al 2017), leaving users confused and, eventually, unwilling or unable to make use of the information provided (Hulme and Dessai 2008;Tang and Dessai 2012). One motivation behind building adaptation platforms is to address this cognitive barrier through strategies that include in-depth and continuing engagement and consultation with potential users to understand their needs (EEA 2015), simplicity of navigation through the platform, and use of accessible and (to the extent possible) jargon-free language (Lemos et al 2012;Moss et al 2013;Kirchhoff et al 2013).…”