Towards more effective visualisations in climate services: good practices and recommendations

Visualisations are often the entry point to information that supports stakeholders’ decision- and policy-making processes. Visual displays can employ either static, dynamic or interactive formats as well as various types of representations and visual encodings, which differently affect the attention, recognition and working memory of users. Despite being well-suited for expert audiences, current climate data visualisations need to be further improved to make communication of climate information more inclusive for broader audiences, including people with disabilities. However, the lack of evidence-based guidelines and tools makes the creation of accessible visualisations challenging, potentially leading to misunderstanding and misuse of climate information by users. Taking stock of visualisation challenges identified in a workshop by climate service providers, we review good practices commonly applied by other visualisation-related disciplines strongly based on users’ needs that could be applied to the climate services context. We show how lessons learned in the fields of user experience, data visualisation, graphic design and psychology make useful recommendations for the development of more effective climate service visualisations. This includes applying a user-centred design approach, using interaction in a suitable way in visualisations, paying attention to information architecture or selecting the right type of representation and visual encoding. The recommendations proposed here can help climate service providers reduce users’ cognitive load and improve their overall experience when using a service. These recommendations can be useful for the development of the next generation of climate services, increasing their usability while ensuring that their visual components are inclusive and do not leave anyone behind.The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 689029 (Climateurope), 776787 (S2S4E), 776467 (MED-GOLD) and 869565 (VitiGEOSS).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Current practice in climate service visualization: taking the pulse of the providers’ community

Climateurope Workshop on the Visualization of Climate Services Barcelona Supercomputing Center’s (BSC) Earth Sciences Department organized the workshop in the framework of the Horizon 2020–funded Coordination and Support Action Climateurope. The workshop aimed to discuss different aspects of the state-of-the-art of visualizations used in climate services and produce a publication on the synthesis and recommendations. We invited participants from different projects linked to the Climateurope network, including EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) and European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) projects as well as a few national projects and private contracts. The workshop was attended by representatives of 22 projects.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreements 689029 (Climateurope) and 776467 (MED-GOLD). The authors want to acknowledge the different climate services projects that participated in the workshop, including Climate-fit.city (73004), Digital-Water.city (20954), IMPREX (641811), PRIMAVERA (641727), RECEIPT (820712), S2S4E (776787), SECLI-FIRM (776868), VISCA (730253), CIREG, Clim2power, CoCliME, EVOKED, ISIpedia, MEDSCOPE, SENSES, WATExR, C3S_429g_BSC, and the inDust COST Action (16202). We would also like to thank the participation of the projects Seasonal Hurricane Predictions, KNMI climate scenarios, and eClimViz. We also acknowledge BSC colleagues Diana Urquiza, Andria Nicodemou, and Sara Octenjak for helping to run the workshop.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Seasonal Climate Prediction: A New Source of Information for the Management of Wind Energy Resources

Climate predictions tailored to the wind energy sector represent an innovation in the use of climate information to better manage the future variability of wind energy resources. Wind energy users have traditionally employed a simple approach that is based on an estimate of retrospective climatological information. Instead, climate predictions can better support the balance between energy demand and supply, as well as decisions relative to the scheduling of maintenance work. One limitation for the use of the climate predictions is the bias, which has until now prevented their incorporation in wind energy models because they require variables with statistical properties that are similar to those observed. To overcome this problem, two techniques of probabilistic climate forecast bias adjustment are considered here: a simple bias correction and a calibration method. Both approaches assume that the seasonal distributions are Gaussian. These methods are linear and robust and neither requires parameter estimation—essential features for the small sample sizes of current climate forecast systems. This paper is the first to explore the impact of the necessary bias adjustment on the forecast quality of an operational seasonal forecast system, using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts seasonal predictions of near-surface wind speed to produce useful information for wind energy users. The results reveal to what extent the bias adjustment techniques, in particular the calibration method, are indispensable to produce statistically consistent and reliable predictions. The forecast-quality assessment shows that calibration is a fundamental requirement for high-quality climate service.The authors acknowledge funding support from the RESILIENCE (CGL2013-41055-R) project, funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the FP7 EUPORIAS (GA 308291) and SPECS (GA 308378) projects. Special thanks to Nube Gonzalez-Reviriego and Albert Soret for helpful comments and discussion. We also acknowledge the COPERNICUS action CLIM4ENERGY-Climate for Energy (C3S 441 Lot 2) and the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) project funded from ERA-NET Plus, topic FP7-ENERGY.2013.10.1.2. We acknowledge the s2dverification and SpecsVerification R-based packages. Finally we would like to thank Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière, Oriol Mula and Nicolau Manubens for their technical support at different stages of this project.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Foraging movements of Audouin’s gull (Larus audouinii) in the Ebro Delta, NW Mediterranean: A preliminary satellite-tracking study

5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tableA knowledge of the foraging strategies of marine predators is essential to understand the intrinsic factors controlling their distribution, abundance and their ecological function within the marine ecosystem. Here, we investigated for the first time the foraging movements and activity patterns of Audouin’s gull Larus audouinii by using satellite-tracking data from eight breeding adults in the main colony of the species worldwide (Ebro Delta, NW Mediterranean). Tagged gulls foraged in the marine area close to the breeding colony (62% of foraging locations) and in the terrestrial area of the Ebro Delta (mainly rice fields; 38% of foraging locations). The foraging activity patterns changed significantly throughout the day; lower from dusk through the first half of the night (19-1 h; 32% of active locations) and higher during the rest of the day (1–19 h; 75.5 ± 4.3% of active locations). These results confirm the foraging plasticity of this seabird and, based on previous information about the dietary habits of this species, we hypothesize how its time-dependent activity patterns and habitat use could be associated with variations in the availability of marine food resources (e.g. diel vertical migrations of pelagic fish) and the exploitation of terrestrial resources (e.g. American crayfish Procambarus clarkii)Research funds were provided by a project funded by Capital Energy through agreement with Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (Contract 304683). I. C. was funded by a PhD fellowship of the University of Barcelona. J. N. was supported by a postdoctoral contract of Juan de la Cierva program (MICINN-JDC, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). A. C. was funded by a PhD fellowship of the Government of Catalonia (2009FIC75)Peer reviewe

Foraging movements of Audouin’s gull (Larus audouinii) in the Ebro Delta, NW Mediterranean: A preliminary satellite-tracking study

5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tableA knowledge of the foraging strategies of marine predators is essential to understand the intrinsic factors controlling their distribution, abundance and their ecological function within the marine ecosystem. Here, we investigated for the first time the foraging movements and activity patterns of Audouin’s gull Larus audouinii by using satellite-tracking data from eight breeding adults in the main colony of the species worldwide (Ebro Delta, NW Mediterranean). Tagged gulls foraged in the marine area close to the breeding colony (62% of foraging locations) and in the terrestrial area of the Ebro Delta (mainly rice fields; 38% of foraging locations). The foraging activity patterns changed significantly throughout the day; lower from dusk through the first half of the night (19-1 h; 32% of active locations) and higher during the rest of the day (1–19 h; 75.5 ± 4.3% of active locations). These results confirm the foraging plasticity of this seabird and, based on previous information about the dietary habits of this species, we hypothesize how its time-dependent activity patterns and habitat use could be associated with variations in the availability of marine food resources (e.g. diel vertical migrations of pelagic fish) and the exploitation of terrestrial resources (e.g. American crayfish Procambarus clarkii)Research funds were provided by a project funded by Capital Energy through agreement with Fundació Bosch i Gimpera (Contract 304683). I. C. was funded by a PhD fellowship of the University of Barcelona. J. N. was supported by a postdoctoral contract of Juan de la Cierva program (MICINN-JDC, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). A. C. was funded by a PhD fellowship of the Government of Catalonia (2009FIC75)Peer reviewe

Users’ Cognitive Load: A Key Aspect to Successfully Communicate Visual Climate Information

The visual communication of climate information is one of the cornerstones of climate services. It often requires the translation of multidimensional data to visual channels by combining colors, distances, angles, and glyph sizes. However, visualizations including too many layers of complexity can hinder decision-making processes by limiting the cognitive capacity of users, therefore affecting their attention, recognition, and working memory. Methodologies grounded on the fields of user-centered design, user interaction, and cognitive psychology, which are based on the needs of the users, have a lot to contribute to the climate data visualization field. Here, we apply these methodologies to the redesign of an existing climate service tool tailored to the wind energy sector. We quantify the effect of the redesign on the users’ experience performing typical daily tasks, using both quantitative and qualitative indicators that include response time, success ratios, eye-tracking measures, user perceived effort, and comments, among others. Changes in the visual encoding of uncertainty and the use of interactive elements in the redesigned tool reduced the users’ response time by half, significantly improved success ratios, and eased decision-making by filtering nonrelevant information. Our results show that the application of user-centered design, interaction, and cognitive aspects to the design of climate information visualizations reduces the cognitive load of users during tasks performance, thus improving user experience. These aspects are key to successfully communicating climate information in a clearer and more accessible way, making it more understandable for both technical and nontechnical audiences.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreements 776787 (S2S4E), 776613 (EUCP), and (ClimatEurope). This work was also supported by the MEDSCOPE project. MEDSCOPE is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by AEMET (ES), ANR (FR), BSC (ES), CMCC (IT), CNR (IT), IMR (BE), and Météo-France (FR), with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). The research team would like to thank the participants of the test who generously shared their time and opinions for the purposes of this research. This study is a part of the PhD of the corresponding author, Luz Calvo.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Exploring the landscape of seasonal forecast provision by Global Producing Centres

Despite the growing demand for seasonal climate forecasts, there is limited understanding of the landscape of organisations providing this critically important climate information. This study attempts to fill this gap by presenting results from an in-depth dialogue with the organisations entrusted with the provision of seasonal forecasts by the World Meteorological Organisation, known as the Global Producing Centres for Long-Range Forecasts (GPCs-LRF). The results provide an overview and detailed description of the organisational setup, mandate, target audience of GPCs-LRF and their interactions with other centres. Looking beyond the GPCs-LRF to other centres providing seasonal forecasts, some of which have been rapidly taking prominent places in this landscape, revealed a heterogeneous and still maturing community of practice, with an increasing number of players and emerging efforts to produce multi-model ensemble forecasts. The dialogues pointed at the need to not only improve climate models and produce more skilful climate forecasts, but also to improve the transformation of the forecasts into useful and usable products. Finally, using the lenses of credibility, salience and legitimacy, we explore ways to bridge the fragmentation of the information offered across the organisations considered and the people involved in the delivery and use of seasonal forecasts. The paper concludes by suggesting ways to address the boundary crossing between science, policy and society in the context of seasonal climate prediction.We would like to thank all the study participants for their valuable contributions and feedback to the paper, and Diana Urquiza for designing the figure. An earlier version of this paper was presented in the workshop “Quality of Climate Information for Adaptation” in October 2020. This research has been supported by the EU H2020 project FOCUS-Africa (GA 869575).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version