“Socio-economic implications of climate change on coastal fishing communities: A case study from Mumbai, India” (original) (raw)
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Overcoming Barriers during the Co-Production of Climate Information for Decision-Making
Climate Risk Management, 2015
The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (GLISA) has led the codevelopment of usable climate information for decision-making in several case study projects. Although each case study is with a unique partnering organization made up of different stakeholders with varying information needs and capabilities, several patterns have emerged that GLISA has identified and overcome to advance the practice of applied climate information. There are three main barriers that GLISA encounters at the onset of many of the case studies: 1) mismatched terminology used by scientists and stakeholders to describe the types of information that are available and needed for problem solving (translation); 2) unrealistic expectations regarding the development of climate information products for problem solving; and 3) disordered integration of when stakeholders want to bring climate information into decision-making processes. Although some or all of these barriers are likely to exist at the onset of any new climate information partnership, GLISA has developed methods for overcoming them more quickly so that the process of co-developing usable climate information is more efficient and effective. In this paper we describe in detail GLISA's experiences that have led to the realization of these barriers and the steps GLISA has taken to overcome them. We also relate these arriers to literature o the usa ilit gap et ee li ate s ie e a d information use in decision-making as well as uncertainty cascades in climate change adaptation. These experiences demonstrate that climate scientists performing outreach experience similar struggles as the stakeholders they interact with. However, they also reveal potential for other climate-centered boundary organizations to cultivate their own capacities to overcome these challenges in their partnerships.
Informing Decisions with Climate Change Information
Springer Climate, 2018
This chapter offers a synthesis of perspectives to better communicate climate information for decision-making. Climate communication does not begin by considering how projected climate change influences long-term investments for infrastructure planning, or what far-sighted policy can manage social and environmental change. When centred on useful application, climate change communication begins by considering what information is already known and what drives the need for new knowledge. Traditionally driven by scientists, communicating what is known about climate change is increasingly influenced by the decision-makers who will use this information. Better understanding is needed of the ways in which existing and new mechanisms develop observations and analytic outputs to become the knowledge needed, especially considering the limits of what can be known. How information is derived influences how it can be communicated, from numeric model outputs to scenario visualizations. By involving stakeholders in both generating and communicating climate information from its initial development, many more actors can consider when, and how, to use knowledge of climate change.
Capacity development through the sharing of climate information with diverse user communities
Earth Perspectives, 2014
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is a premier global research and capacity development institution focused on enhancing society's capability to understand, use, manage and evaluate climate information. Its goal is to strengthen the technical capacity of individuals and organizations in order to increase the demand for climate information and its application. In the early years of IRI, staff trained local meteorologists and decision makers, often in developing countries, on using information products that IRI's forecast group judged would be of value. However, in the last decade, IRI's approach to training has evolved into one that is more user-driven. Today, users are brought on board during the development of training curricula to learn what information and methodologies would be most useful for their local needs. This establishes a sense of trust and ownership in the training process. Approaches are tailored to different contexts and communities, and focus is placed on cultivating long-lasting partnerships. The work presented in this article demonstrates the evolution of IRI's capacity building and development processes. It highlights how the IRI implements capacity development activities, with a particular emphasis on the early engagement of practitioners and end users. Numerous examples are provided of the successes related to knowledge gains and to the concrete applications of climate information that can occur when the design and implementation of activities are preformed in an integrative manner. This approach builds channels for interaction among practitioners, policymakers, scientists and other societal decision making groups. Though it has seen numerous successes, the IRI is continually evaluating its capacity development methods and looking for ways to improve upon them.
Using Expert and Non-expert Models of Climate Change to Enhance Communication
2015
Climate change is a significant global risk that is predicted to be particularly devastating to coastal communities. Climate change adaptation and mitigation have been hindered by many factors, including psychological barriers, ineffective outreach and communication, and knowledge gaps. This qualitative study compares an expert model of climate change risks to county administrators’ “mental” models of climate change and related coastal environmental hazards in Crystal River, Florida, USA. There were 24 common nodes in the expert and the combined non-expert models, mainly related to hurricanes, property damage, and economic concerns. Seven nodes mentioned by non-experts fit within, but were not a part of, the expert model, primarily related to ecological concerns about water quality. The findings suggest that effective climate outreach and communication could focus on compatible parts of the models and incorporate local concerns to find less controversial ways to discuss climaterelated hazards.
Ocean & Coastal Management, 2013
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are considered innovative tools to cope with climate change related issues and support decision-makers in a sustainable management of natural resources and in the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and adaptation plans. Involving DSS end users since the beginning of the development of a DSS is recognised as fundamental in order to design a tool that can meet stakeholders needs. However, from the analysis of the risk based DSSs at the regional and/or local scale, emerges a lack of application of participatory approaches, despite their acknowledged relevance to the current scientific literature and regulations. Accordingly, in order to respond to the needs of the DSS end users (i.e. public institutions dealing with coastal management and administration), this paper describes the development of a participative approach for a DSS named DESYCO, aimed at the assessment of climate change related impacts and risks on natural and human systems. The participative approach was carried out by means of the integration of participative moments in the DESYCO framework, the identification of potential end users through a preliminary stakeholder analysis and finally the design, administration and analysis of a questionnaire addressed to the end users identified in the case study area of the North Adriatic Italian coast. 37 potential DSS end users for the case study were identified and addressed by a survey investigating their knowledge about climate change impacts on coastal zone, ICZM strategy and implementation, DSS functionalities. The questionnaire allowed to gain information that both confirmed the validity of the methodology choices of DESYCO and supplied some useful contribution to the selection of further stakeholders. From the results it emerges a lack of knowledge about ICZM and climate change issues. Moreover public institutions ask for short time frame hazard scenarios while the DSS, depending on the available information supplied by models, focuses especially on long term scenarios.
Psychological Science, 2009
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assesses information relevant to the understanding of climate change and explores options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC reports communicate uncertainty by using a set of probability terms accompanied by global interpretational guidelines. The judgment literature indicates that there are large differences in the way people understand such phrases, and that their use may lead to confusion and errors in communication. We conducted an experiment in which subjects read sentences from the 2007 IPCC report and assigned numerical values to the probability terms. The respondents' judgments deviated significantly from the IPCC guidelines, even when the respondents had access to these guidelines. These results suggest that the method used by the IPCC is likely to convey levels of imprecision that are too high. We propose an alternative form of communicating uncertainty, illustrate its effectiveness, and suggest several addition...
Environmental Research Letters, 2018
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Mini-me: Why do climate scientists' misunderstand users and their needs
Increasingly climate scientists and the users of climate information are being asked to deliberately co-produce knowledge to improve decision-making about adaptation to climate change. To do this, scientists not only need to be committed and willing to interact with users but also have the capacity to listen, understand, and respond to their needs. Yet little is known about how climate scientists perceive users and respond to their needs when deliberately co-producing knowledge. Using the case study of the UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) we seek to address this gap. Drawing on interviews with climate scientists, boundary workers, and government officials involved in UKCP09, we investigate how perceptions of users and their needs are constructed as well as the difficulties in responding to them. Our research shows that climate scientists struggle to respond to users other than a small cadre of actors like themselves – highly technical and highly numerate – mini-mes; as what constitutes 'credible, usable, and relevant' science is different for users and scientists. Others involved in UKCP09 considered a broader set of users, with more heterogeneous capacities, as the target audience. We find that the climate scientists' narrow perceptions of users were strongly influenced by (i) their past experiences; (ii) the level and type of scientist-user interactions; and (iii) the institutional setting in which the science took place. This research suggests that climate scientists need broader social support from other experts as well as institutional goals geared towards a broader set of users if they are to successfully co-produce climate knowledge.