Localizing Climate Change: Nordic Homeowners’ Interpretations of Visual Representations for Climate Adaptation

Abstract

In recent years, effort has been put into developing various forms of climate visualization to create opportunities for people to explore and learn about local climate change risks and adaptation options. However, how target audiences make sense of such climate visualization has rarely been studied from a communication perspective. This paper analyzes how Nordic homeowners made sense of a specific climate visualization tool, the VisAdapt™ tool. Involving 35 homeowners from three cities in 15 group test sessions, this study analyzes the interpretive strategies participants applied to make sense of and assess the relevance of the visualized data. The study demonstrates that participants employed a set of interpretive strategies relating to personal experience and well-known places to make sense of the information presented, and that critical negotiation of content played an important role in how participants interpreted the content.

Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada

“…This finding aligns with previous research which suggests that visuals can make climate change impacts more concrete, relatable, and engaging (e.g. [ 21 , 34 , 35 ]) and further suggests that video in particular can change public attitudes on climate change (e.g. [ 36 ]).…”

“…While there has been an increase in development of online climate communication tools, less work has been done to test the user experience and response to CIWs [ 14 , 15 ] and climate visuals [ 21 , 22 ]. Understanding audience and user perceptions of climate communication approaches and platforms is critical for improving their efficacy, especially in cases where material creators and users may unknowingly have differing perceptions of how information is being interpreted, which can lead to misunderstanding, or worse, actual maladaptation [ 15 ].…”

On the call for issue advocates, or what it takes to make adaptation research useful

“…those that are already committed and work actively with the issue. These statements are in line with previous studies on climate communication (Ballantyne et al 2017) and the development of interactive tools (Glaas et al 2017;Neset et al 2016;Bohman et al 2015), which stress the importance of clear visual outputs for awareness raising and for creating engagement and involvement. In this context, maps as a medium for presenting information (related to practical implementation) were discussed in more detail.…”

Focus groups and serious gaming in climate change communication research—A methodological review

“…A fourth category focuses on media production and reception, and includes studies of how the media affect sense-making (e.g., . A fifth category of studies examines targeted audiences' understandings of different types of visualization, including through digital tools, in climate change communication (e.g., Gammelgaard Ballantyne et al, 2018;. It should be noted, though, that several of the studies touch upon topics of relevance to more than one of these categories.…”

“…In focus group studies, moderators often use material or interventions to spur discussions, such as images, video clips, short texts, or ranking exercises (Kitzinger, 1994;Wibeck et al, 2007). Similarly, several participatory studies, based on different methodologies, have discussed interactive visualization tools of various kinds (Bohman, Neset, Opach, & Rød, 2015;Gammelgaard Ballantyne et al, 2018;Sheppard et al, 2011;Wiréhn et al, 2017).…”