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Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation
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Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2020) | Viewed by 26349

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Björn-Ola Linnér

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Guest Editor
Department of Thematic Studies—Environmental Change, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, 58183 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: climate policy; societal transformations towards sustainability; sustainable development interlinkages; tools for climate visualization
Dr. Tina Neset

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Climate Science and Policy Research, Department of Thematic Studies (Environmental Change), Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: visualization of climate and environmental change; serious gaming; citizen science resource management and vulnerability assessments related to agriculture and food security
Dr. Mattias Hjerpe

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Climate Science and Policy Research, Department of Thematic Studies (Environmental Change), Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: urban climate transitions; how visualization can support development; evaluation of climate policies and transitions; how urban vulnerability can be visualized and how such visualizations are understood by policy-makers, planners, and other staff
Dr. Erik Glaas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Climate Science and Policy Research, Department of Thematic Studies (Environmental Change), Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Interests: finding forms for supporting environmental management and decision-making through visualization; communication and developed planning; public engagement on climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Visualization is discussed as an effective means to support the analysis of, learning about, and implementation of climate change adaptation. This diverse, broad, and multidisciplinary research field in the making answers to societal needs for climate services and policy support, but also includes critical studies from, for example, environmental communication, sense making, and political science. This Special Issue aims to take a grip on this science of visualization for climate adaptation, by analyzing the current research trends and collecting novel studies within three themes of research that have grown substantially over the past years. Scholars interested in contributing to this Special Issue are asked to provide an extended abstract of a maximum of 400 words to the respective coordinator on either of the research themes presented below, by no later than 15 August 2019 , describing the aim, structure, and expected result of the proposed paper.

Theme 1: Visualization and Climate Change Adaptation Policy

Coordinator: Dr. Mattias Hjerpe

The first theme focuses on public policy processes. Invited papers should address, for example, (a) the visualization of climate policy, goals, and outcomes, and the development of such policies; (b) visualization of climate adaptation progresses and/or how climate adaptation policy intersects with mitigation and/or sustainable development policies and goals; and (c) how decision-making about climate change adaptation is or could be influenced/supported by visualization at different levels, in different sectors and locations.

Theme 2: Visualization and Climate Change Adaptation Needs and actions

Coordinator: Dr. Erik Glaas

The second theme targets the visualization of climate change vulnerability and adaptation as a means to support the implementation of adaptation actions. Invited papers should address, for example, (a) how climate vulnerabilities, risks, opportunities, and adaptation alternatives at different levels, in different sectors and locations, can be visualized, and/or (b) how such visualizations can influence what actions are taken “on the ground”.

Theme 3: Visualization and Citizen Engagement, Co-Design, and Interactivity for Climate Change Adaptation

Coordinator: Dr. Tina Neset

The third theme zooms in on visualization as a means to spur engagement with climate change adaptation. Invited papers should address the role of visualization tools, serious games, interactive applications, and arts in creating engagement, interactivity, and learning for climate adaptation, and/or how these could be co-designed and developed to support planning, policy-making, education, or research, so as to enhance participation in climate adaptation.

Prof. Björn-Ola Linnér
Dr. Tina Neset
Dr. Mattias Hjerpe
Dr. Erik Glaas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Climate change adaptation
  • Visualization
  • Policy support
  • Learning
  • Public engagement
  • Vulnerability

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5021 KiB  
Article
Visualizations of Projected Rainfall Change in the United Kingdom: An Interview Study about User Perceptions
by Astrid Kause, Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Fai Fung, Andrea Taylor and Jason Lowe
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2955; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072955 - 8 Apr 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4565
Abstract
Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, [...] Read more.
Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, we presented 24 participants from climate-conscious organizations across the UK with three prototypical visualizations about projected future rainfall, adopted from the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections: (1) Maps displaying a central estimate and confidence intervals, (2) a line graph and boxplots displaying change over time and associated confidence intervals, and (3) a probability density function for distributions of rainfall change. We analyzed participants’ responses using “Thematic Analysis”. In our analysis, we identified features that facilitated understanding—such as colors, simple captions, and comparisons between different emission scenarios—and barriers that hindered understanding, such as unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, confusing usage of probabilistic estimates, and expressions of relative change in percentages. We integrate these findings with the interdisciplinary risk communication literature and suggest content-related and editorial strategies for effectively designing visualizations about uncertain climate projections for audiences with limited climate expertise. These strategies will help organizations such as National Met Services to effectively communicate about a changing climate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation)
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18 pages, 10482 KiB  
Article
Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation
by Tina-Simone Neset, Lotta Andersson, Ola Uhrqvist and Carlo Navarra
Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1789; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051789 - 27 Feb 2020
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 9921
Abstract
Serious gaming has gained increasing prominence in climate change communication, and provides opportunity to engage new audiences and new platforms for knowledge co-creation and dialogues. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a serious game on climate adaptation, primarily targeted towards high [...] Read more.
Serious gaming has gained increasing prominence in climate change communication, and provides opportunity to engage new audiences and new platforms for knowledge co-creation and dialogues. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a serious game on climate adaptation, primarily targeted towards high school students, practitioners and politicians. The game aims to provide an experience of the impact of climate adaptation measures, and illustrates links with selected Agenda 2030 goals, which the player has to consider, while limiting impacts of hazardous climate events. The game design builds on the key goals in Education for Sustainable Development combining comprehensive views, action competence, learner engagement and pluralism. This study draws on game sessions and surveys with high school students in Sweden, and aims to assess to what extent different aspects of the game can support an increased understanding of the needs and benefits of adaptation actions. The results of this study indicate that the game can engage players to reflect upon challenges related to climate adaptation decision making, but also point towards the challenge of including a high degree of complexity which can make it difficult to grasp consequences of individual measures, as well as to link these to the natural variability of the occurrence of extreme climatic events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation)
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21 pages, 2692 KiB  
Article
Mind the Gap: Towards a Typology of Climate Service Usability Gaps
by Kevin Raaphorst, Gerben Koers, Gerald Jan Ellen, Amy Oen, Bjørn Kalsnes, Lisa van Well, Jana Koerth and Rutger van der Brugge
Sustainability 2020, 12(4), 1512; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041512 - 18 Feb 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4586
Abstract
Literature on climate services presents a large diversity of different services and uses. Many climate services have ‘usability gaps’: the information provided, or the way it is visualized, may be unsuitable for end users to inform decision-making processes in relation to adaptation against [...] Read more.
Literature on climate services presents a large diversity of different services and uses. Many climate services have ‘usability gaps’: the information provided, or the way it is visualized, may be unsuitable for end users to inform decision-making processes in relation to adaptation against climate change impacts or for the development of policies to this end. The aim of this article is to contribute to more informed and efficient decision-making processes in climate adaptation by developing a typology of usability gaps for climate services. To do so, we first present and demonstrate a so-called ‘climate information design’ (CID) template with which to study and potentially improve the visual communicative qualities of climate services. Then, two climates services are selected for a further, qualitative explorative case study of two cases in the north and south of the Netherlands. A combination of focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews are used to collect data from Dutch governmental stakeholders as well as private stakeholders and NGOs. This data is then coded to discover what usability gaps are present. We then present twelve different types of usability gaps that were encountered as a typology. This typology could be used to improve and redesign climate services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation)
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20 pages, 3366 KiB  
Article
Vulnerability Visualization to Support Adaptation to Heat and Floods: Towards the EXTRA Interactive Tool in Norrköping, Sweden
by Tomasz Opach, Erik Glaas, Mattias Hjerpe and Carlo Navarra
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1179; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031179 - 6 Feb 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3080
Abstract
Municipal actors are increasingly expected to consider climate adaptation in operative and strategic work. Here, digital environments can support strategic decisions and planning through visual representations of local climate risks and vulnerabilities. This study targets visualization of vulnerability to heat and floods as [...] Read more.
Municipal actors are increasingly expected to consider climate adaptation in operative and strategic work. Here, digital environments can support strategic decisions and planning through visual representations of local climate risks and vulnerabilities. This study targets visualization of vulnerability to heat and floods as a means of supporting adaptation action in preschools, primary schools, caring units, and municipal residential buildings in Norrköping, Sweden. Workshops with sector leaders identified vulnerability indicators used as a basis for collecting, calculating and representing self-assessed vulnerability of individual units and buildings. Informed by user inputs, a map-based interactive visual tool representing resulting vulnerability scores and risk maps was developed to support (1) planners and sector leaders in strategic prioritization and investments, and (2) unit heads in identifying adaptation measures to reduce local flood and heat risks. The tool was tested with adaptation coordinators from targeted sectors. The study finds that the tool made it possible to overview climate risks and adaptation measures, which arguably increases general governance capacity Allowing yearly updates of set scores, the tool was also found to be useful for monitoring how vulnerability in the municipality evolves over time, and for evaluating how adaptive efforts influence calculated risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation)
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16 pages, 2200 KiB  
Article
Visualization for Citizen Participation: User Perceptions on a Mainstreamed Online Participatory Tool and Its Usefulness for Climate Change Planning
by Erik Glaas, Mattias Hjerpe, Martin Karlson and Tina-Simone Neset
Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020705 - 18 Jan 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3269
Abstract
Citizen participation is obligated in municipal planning but is often criticized because of its inadequate implementation. To increase the usefulness of citizen participation and the involvement of underrepresented groups, online participatory tools (OPTs) have attracted attention, in particular, on topics related to climate [...] Read more.
Citizen participation is obligated in municipal planning but is often criticized because of its inadequate implementation. To increase the usefulness of citizen participation and the involvement of underrepresented groups, online participatory tools (OPTs) have attracted attention, in particular, on topics related to climate change. Although many OPTs have been developed and are becoming more widely used, assessments of their usefulness in real-world planning remain scarce. This study aimed to disentangle prospects and pitfalls of this still novel way of practicing citizen dialogue. Specifically, we apply criteria derived from related literatures to assess a mainstreamed OPT in Norrköping, Sweden. The CityPlanner™ tool was discussed with citizens and planners using focus group methodology and semi-structured individual interviews. Moreover, citizen contributions in four applications of the OPT were analyzed. The results reveal that the biggest challenges for citizen dialogues on planning in general and on climate change, in particular, appear not mainly rooted in the technical functions of the OPT. Rather, problems lie in (i) the lack of municipal strategy for citizen participation and in applying OPTs, (ii) a disparagement in citizens’ abilities to contribute to forming robust and sustainable cities, and (iii) in diverging views about the role of citizen contributions. This is reflected in how the OPT is used. While the examined OPT shows potential, the results indicate that visualized contexts for planning might be too scant to be entirely meaningful, and it lacks mechanisms for feedback. Not using the full potential of the OPT makes citizens less engaged and risks to adversely affect learning and citizens’ contributions to solving complex issues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visualization for Climate Change Adaptation)
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