Communicating Climate Change through ICT-Based Visualization: Towards an Analytical Framework (original) (raw)

Visuals as a Catalyst for Climate Science Communication

If someone told you that your city produced 54 million tons of carbon dioxide gas each year in emissions, you might be impressed. But then you would realize you really have no idea what 54 million tons of gas looks like-is that a lot? A little? Is that concerning? And you're suddenly lost. In 2012, a data visualization firm called Real World Visuals and the Environmental Defense Fund recognized this as an opportunity to experiment with how they could make this very statistic, the annual CO 2 emissions for New York City, instantly understood by audiences "who don't know they need to know" (Real World Visuals, 2017). Their brilliant solution was to translate the volume of a single metric ton of carbon dioxide gas into a large blue sphere measuring 33 feet across. They then animated the streets of New York as these spheres accumulate at the rate of one per

A picture is worth a thousand data points: Exploring visualizations as tools for connecting the public to climate change research

Cogent Social Sciences, 2016

Data visualizations can serve as an integral component of online climate change research dissemination strategies, as they are effective and efficient ways for attracting diverse public audiences and delivering research information in a timely fashion. However, these visualizations can be highly varied in terms of form and ways of interaction, and this raises questions about the particular qualities of such media that influence their ability to connect with and inform diverse audiences. This study addresses these questions by building visualizations of secondary energy production and consumption trends in Canada and evaluating their impact through focus group methodology. Two visualizations were built that held contrasting features: an abstract, static visualization built in the form of a time-series graph and a dynamic, interactive visualization with a 'picturesque' design. The results indicate that the interactive visualization held higher potential for drawing in and maintaining audience interests, whereas the static visualization was more useful for users wishing to gain a more detailed understanding of the data. These findings suggest that both types of visualizations have complementary strengths, and collaboration between transdisciplinary research teams and graphic artists can lead to visualizations that attract diverse audiences and facilitate different information needs and access.

Visual Climate Change Communication: From Iconography to Locally Framed 3D Visualization

Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 2014

Climate change is an urgent problem with implications registered not only globally, but also on national and local scales. It is a particularly challenging case of environmental communication because its main cause, greenhouse gas emissions, is invisible. The predominant approach of making climate change visible is the use of iconic, often affective, imagery. Literature on the iconography of climate change shows that global iconic motifs, such as polar bears, have contributed to a public perception of the problem as spatially and temporally remote. This paper proposes an alternative approach to global climate change icons by focusing on recognizable representations of local impacts within an interactive game environment. This approach was implemented and tested in a research project based on the municipality of Delta, British Columbia. A major outcome of the research is Future Delta, an interactive educational game featuring 3-D visualizations and simulation tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation future scenarios. The empirical evaluation is based on quantitative pre/post game play questionnaires with 24 students and 10 qualitative expert interviews. The findings support the assumption that interactive 3D imagery is effective in communicating climate change. The quantitative postquestionnaires particularly highlight a shift in support of more local responsibility.

On Inconvenient Images: Exploring the Design Space of Engaging Climate Change Visualizations for Public Audiences

Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Visualisation in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis). , 2019

If there ever was a model theme for information visualization, climate change arguably checks all the boxes. Omnipresent and relevant, yet abstract and statistical by nature, as well as invisible for the naked eye-climate change is a subject matter in need for perception and cognition support par excellence. Consequently, a large number of data journalists and science communicators utilize visual representations of climate change data to provide (a) information, and to (b) raise consciousness and encourage behavioral adaptation. Multiple design strategies have been developed to make the complex (non-)phenomenon accessible for visual perception and reasoning of public audiences. Despite of its obvious societal relevance, the visualization community has not had a systematic look at this nascent application field until now. With this paper we aim to close this gap and survey climate change visualizations to explore their design space. With specific regard to visualizations geared to inform non-expert users in the context of journalism and science communication, we analyze a sample of representations to document design choices and communication strategies, including options of persuasive and engaging design.

Visualizing climate change: The potential of dome presentations as a tool for climate communication

Eurographics 2010-Areas …, 2010

This study presents the outline of a climate visualization programme directed to various target groups that was presented in a dome environment. The efforts of climate and visualization researchers to jointly develop presentations for immersive environments on the cause and effect of climate change as well as potential responses both in terms of national and international policy as well as individuals' lifestyles are described. Further we discuss the results of an evaluation with 64 participants of dome presentations. The results point towards an initial support for the dome visualization in terms of increased engagement of the audience. Further, visual representations such as choice of colouring and volume bar charts that were expected to be problematic by the research group were considered straightforward by the audience. In this paper we discuss visual representation and climate communication, and to what extent climate visualization in a dome environment can contribute to enhance the audience's understanding of the complexity of climate change issues.

Visualizing climate change impact with ubiquitous spatial technologies

2010

This paper further articulates the role of ubiquitous spatial technologies (e.g. Google Earth) as tools for analyzing, visualizing, and developing policy responses to predicted climate change impacts. Specifically, the efficiency and effectiveness of using the tools in the production of visualizations for the local level is studied. A brief background to climate change response reveals limited data and visualizations at the local level: ubiquitous spatial technologies can potentially fill the void. Case study data including temperature, rainfall and land suitability information from southwest Victoria (Australia) are used to test the hypothesis. The research team produced thirty short visualizations using minimal time, resources and a moderate skill base. The effectiveness of the visualizations was tested on a diverse group of stakeholders. It was found that the visuals provided contextual information and understandings of overarching climate change trends, however, integration with other datasets and higher levels of detail are required if the platform is to be used as a stand alone policy development tool. Moreover, the need to further develop design guidelines to guard against, or at least inform users about visual sensationalism is required.

Communicating local climate risks online through an interactive data visualization

Literature suggests a need to develop climate communication tools that focus on the impacts of climate change at local scales to increase proximity and communicate the risks on a more personal level. However, the nature of raw climate projection data makes accessibility by the lay audience a challenge and necessitates the need for innovative technological approaches to its distribution. ClimateData.US was created as an interactive visualization tool based on downscaled climate projection data to increase proximity and render climate change as salient and personally relevant. This experiment evaluated whether interacting with ClimateData.US influenced participants’ climate change attitudes and concern and whether this effect varied as a function of geographic proximity. Findings revealed strong effects—regardless of geographic proximity—for interacting with the website on participants’ perceived reality of climate change, attitude certainty, and concern for climate change.

Researching Visual Representations of Climate Change

Environmental Communication

This paper responds to Schaffer et al.'s (2016) call for greater clarity about the application of theory and method in research on mediated communication about climate-change. Specifically, it identifies conceptual and methodological challenges for researching visual representations of climate change. We suggest current research is impeded by a lack of methodological explication and an unclear relationship between theories of visual meaning and the application of social science methods such as content analysis and frame analysis. As a first step towards addressing these issues, we review existing research to identify the methodological procedures that require explication in order to support the replication of studies and the comparison of findings. We then draw on the seminal work of Roland Barthes' (1967, 1977) to examine how theories of visual meaning may be integrated into socialscientific research methods. Specifically, we demonstrate how Barthes' concepts of denotation, connotation and mythology may be related to research concerns about the selection of visual content, the classification of image frames, audience responses, and analyses of ideological meaning. The conclusion highlights further possibilities for developing a robust form of visual analysis that meets the standards of social scientific research while addressing the fundamental insights about visual meaning derived from cultural theories of meaning.

State of Climate Visualization - international research and practical applications

2009

In a time of global change and global resource constraints the academic community is constantly seeking new ways of communicating current research to inform the public and create a basis for decision making on an individual to global scale. For climate researchers, this challenge is pertinent, given the vast amount of information regarding issues, such as emissions, scenarios, trends, risks and options for mitigation and adaptation that flows through media every day. To create a solid representation of research data and scenarios as well as what impacts of climate change could imply in different regions, climate researchers have over the past years started to collaborate with designers and researchers within the field of visualization. Applications assisting data analysis as well as geospatial and abstract visual representations bear great potential for future research and science communication. We are referring to this transdisciplinary field of research and science communication as climate visualization.