Understanding Climate Change- Visual communication for scientific facts

Graduation Projekt Website: https://climatechange.infografia-design.de/ Climate change is happening now. Because of our dependence on fos-sil fuels, climate change will continue into the future with relatively unpredictable impacts on humans and the environment. There are several psychological barriers and other challenges that prevent peo-ple from committing themselves to the cause of mitigating climate change through behavioral change. The complexity of the issue, its abstract nature and the uncertainties associated with predictions and scientific research make it difficult for non-experts to grasp. Interdis-ciplinary collaborations can overcome the insular focus of climate change science. A shared methodology that combines best practic-es from other disciplines like psychology, marketing and visual com-munication, may help to better results when trying to communicate complex messages to the mainstream public. This research explores the above points and then develops a series of recommendations for climate change communication based on the gained knowledge. The graduation project (a Website) is based on these recommenda-tions https://climatechange.infografia-design.de

Geovisual analytics for spatial decision support: Setting the research agenda

This article summarizes the results of the workshop on Visualization, Analytics & Spatial Decision Support, which took place at the GIScience conference in September 2006. The discussions at the workshop and analysis of the state of the art have revealed a need in concerted cross‐disciplinary efforts to achieve substantial progress in supporting space‐related decision making. The size and complexity of real‐life problems together with their ill‐defined nature call for a true synergy between the power of computational techniques and the human capabilities to analyze, envision, reason, and deliberate. Existing methods and tools are yet far from enabling this synergy. Appropriate methods can only appear as a result of a focused research based on the achievements in the fields of geovisualization and information visualization, human‐computer interaction, geographic information science, operations research, data mining and machine learning, decision science, cognitive science, and other disciplines. The name ‘Geovisual Analytics for Spatial Decision Support’ suggested for this new research direction emphasizes the importance of visualization and interactive visual interfaces and the link with the emerging research discipline of Visual Analytics. This article, as well as the whole special issue, is meant to attract the attention of scientists with relevant expertise and interests to the major challenges requiring multidisciplinary efforts and to promote the establishment of a dedicated research community where an appropriate range of competences is combined with an appropriate breadth of thinking

Understanding Climate Change - Visual Communication for scientific facts

Graduation Project: Understanding Climate Change, https://climatechange.infografia-design.de/ Climate change is happening now. Because of our dependence on fossil fuels, climate change will continue into the future, with relatively unpredictable impacts on humans and the environment. There are several psychological barriers and other challenges that prevent people from committing themselves to the cause of mitigating climate change through behavioral change. The complexity of the issue, its abstract nature and the uncertainties associated with predictions and scientific research make it difficult for non-experts to grasp. Interdisciplinary collaborations can overcome the insular focus of climate change science. A shared methodology that combines best practices from other disciplines like psychology, marketing and visual communication, may help to better results when trying to communicate complex messages to the mainstream public. This research explores the above points and then develops a series of recommendations for climate change communication based on the gained knowledge. The graduation project (a Website) is based on these recommendations https://climatechange.infografia-design.de

Communicating Sustainability with Visuals: Issue Perception and Issue Engagement

Today the list of environmental disasters threatening lives and natural resources has expanded to include many causes. Even though sustainable solutions have never been so urgent, public still issues low priority to many of these serious threats. Many impacts of environmental deprivation, such as coastal land loss, are invisible to the untrained eye, causing individuals to distance themselves psychologically from the risks. The slow pace of environmental degradation constitutes one of the biggest challenges in sustainability communication. The success of sustainable development will require the public to undergo a significant shift in thinking about environmental issues. This dissertation systemically investigates the influence of visual imagery on how people perceive environmental change. It explores visuals’ ability to influence issue urgency, issue importance, issue engagement, and issue salience. The relationship between these variables is investigated in a sequential and mixed-method format that involves content analysis and focus group discussions Results, which were interpreted in the context of the Visual Perception Model, suggested that affect and cognition influences one another to shape environmental perceptions. Particularly, images that incorporate hypothetical future scenarios are more likely to convey the urgency and importance of an issue. While images with an added affective component (positive and negative cues) make messages more engaging, they can also reduce motivation to take action. Willingness to support environmental solutions appears to be a result of public’s ability to visualize short-term goals and successes