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Now available in PDF format: Abstract Book [7.4 Mb] (posted 10 November 2005)

Abstracts for Posters

Decision Support: Processes & Products (P-DS)

Sub-Theme 3: Interface Between Users & Information

P-DS3.1

Ensuring Climate Services for the Nation

Roger Pulwarty, NOAA/CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, CO 80305, roger.pulwarty@noaa.gov

Kelly Redmond, Western Regional Climate Center Reno, NV 89510

Fiona Horsfall, NOAA/NWS Climate Services Division Silver Spring, MD 20910

Phil Pasteris, USDA/NRCS Portland, OR 97214

Nolan Doesken, Colorado Climate Center, Fort Collins, CO 80523

Harvey Hill, Department of Agriculture, Saskatchewan, CA

Climate services have been defined as the timely production and delivery of useful climate data, information and knowledge to decision makers (NRC, 2001). In this paper, we map the evolution of the idea of climate services and describe the network and infrastructure existing and needed to develop and coordinate such services. Experiences are drawn from the NWS field offices, the State Climatologists, Regional Climate Centers, RISAs, USDA NRCS and Extension services, the NCTP program, the private sector and others. Cases are drawn from, among others, the 1997-1998 ENSO and the extended drought in the Western U.S. and their impacts in different sectors and watersheds. A major goal for effecting "services" is to design a cooperative implementable mechanism for ensuring that climate-related information (across timescales) is developed and provided at national, regional, state and local levels in ways that better inform decision making. While existing "service-type" activities can be identified in many settings, we show that the problem is actually one of crafting effective implementation strategies for cooperation among several entities, highlighting potential synergies or common interests among the different groups. The development of well-structured paths from observations, modeling and research to usable information requires careful (i.e. acceptable and credible) integration of management and decision making groups (private, state, federal etc.), knowledge provision systems, and the implementing agencies and information providers. We assess whether/how these integrated perspectives and information have been used and have value for decision-making among federal, state and local agencies and actors For this presentation we focus on identifying key players, and existing and needed information networks for managing climate-related risks, opportunities and information within which NOAA activities are embedded.

P-DS3.2

SPARC: Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate

Roger Pielke Jr., University of Colorado, pielke@colorado.edu

Each day, in the face of deep uncertainty, millions of decisions are made that respond to and influence the behavior of climate. How does the nation's multibillion dollar investment in climate research affect those decisions? How can the societal value of this scientific investment be enhanced? These are the core organizing questions for Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC) which conducts research and assessments, outreach, and education aimed at helping climate science policies better support climate-related decision making in the face of fundamental and often irreducible uncertainties. SPARC's current research focuses on science policy decision making with respect to the carbon cycle, water, extreme events and ecosystems. SPARC is a joint project of the University of Colorado's Center for Science and Policy Technology Research and the Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy, & Outcomes, sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF) under its program on Decision Making Under Uncertainty. http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/sparc/

P-DS3.3

The Multiple Audiences Problem in Constructing Effective Syntheses of Scientific Information for Purposes of Influencing Public Policy

William F. Eadie, San Diego State University, weadie@mail.sdsu.edu

Kerk F. Kee, San Diego State University

Public policy on topics of scientific research is influenced by communication from a number of sources: the scientific community, corporate and media interests, governmental agencies, nongovernmental research and policy organizations, the activist community, and by perceptions of the beliefs of the "silent public." The information needs of these groups differ and require the construction of different yet consonant messages for communication to be effective.

While policymakers themselves may seem to be the prime target for messages describing scientific findings that have policy implications, we argue that such direct contact is generally ineffective. We suggest instead that messages should be constructed to reach audiences who are likely to be successful in making the topic a salient one to the policymakers they are able to influence.

Constructing variations to messages requires two steps. First, the scientific community needs consensus about findings on topics where it believes changes of policy are most pressing. Second, the leaders of this effort need to identify those individuals and groups who are most able to succeed in influencing the largest number of policymakers, identify the information needs of such opinion leaders, and construct variations on the consensus synthesis to meet those differing information needs.

This presentation analyzes the problem of multiple audiences for scientific information, suggests how information needs might vary among these multiple audiences, and offers strategies for constructing variations on messages to meet differing information needs. We will draw from recent work on how audiences use specialized information and on the nature of news consumption in the U.S. in constructing our recommendations.

[Poster PDF]

P-DS3.4

An Analysis of Some Problems in the Transmission and Use of Climate Research by Public Policy Decision Makers and Some Suggestions for Improving the Process Using Currently Available Tools

Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute, mebell@cei.org

Christopher Horner, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Marlo Lewis, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Iain Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute

An enormous amount of high-quality scientific research on a wide variety of topics relevant to the public debate over climate policy has been and is being done. However, the usefulness of that research to the policy-making community has often been limited and compromised by a number of factors involved in the translation of complex, technical research into the policy vocabulary of the political arena. This presentation will consider and analyze several notable instances in which the needs of policy makers have been poorly served by climate science research, not because of the research itself, but by distortions and misapprehensions introduced in this translation process. Several suggestions for improving the process and minimizing these distortions and misapprehensions by using tools developed over many decades in the context of other but similar research/public policy/political decision-making interfaces will be made.

P-DS3.5

Development and Gap Analysis of Climate Change Educational Resources Collection for K-12

Mark S. McCaffrey, CIRES Education & Outreach, mark.mccaffrey@colorado.edu

Frank Niepold, NOAA OGP Climate Education, frank.niepold@noaa.gov

In the minds of many citizens in the United States, the topic of "climate change" is clouded with confusion. While there is strong consensus within the climate research community about the general range and causes of natural variations in the climate system, as well the role of human activities on the Earth's climate system, these complex topics are poorly understood by many decision-makers, teachers, the general public, and the decision-makers of the future: science students. While the Climate Change Science Program's Strategic plan called for the development of materials to help these audiences understand the basics of climate processes and dynamics, to date no such materials for a general audience have been developed, tested or disseminated. One recent effort to communicate the basics of climate change and variability may hold potential for helping CCSP meet its communication goals. The Climate Change Collection (http://serc.carleton.edu/climatechange/) developed as a pilot project for the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE Climate Change Collection, NSF Award Number 0435645) is a high-quality, annotated thematic collection of 40 seminal digital resources that were identified and annotated by a review team of science experts and educators, who examined digital resources for scientific accuracy, currency and usefulness to science educators. An experiment in digital science education collection development, the effort brought together a community of experts through an interdisciplinary review board supported by an extended network of climate scientists and educational researchers, developers, and practitioners. This work contributed to the broad DLESE collection in an exceedingly important area of the Earth sciences, while producing and refining a protocol for collection-building that can be transferred to other Earth science domains. Based on the findings of the pilot project, a further gap analysis is needed along with new products/curricular products to facilitate climate education in the K-12 classroom. Time will be given to discussions and potential collaborations.

[Poster PDF]

P-DS3.6

Documenting Glacier Change and Landscape Evolution: An Alaskan Example of Providing Scientific Information to Support Decision Making and Outreach and Education

Bruce Molnia, U.S. Geological Survey, bmolnia@usgs.gov

This abstract summarizes experiences in providing U.S. National Park Service (NPS) decision makers and outreach personnel with scientific information about the impacts of climate variability within specific NPS units. Glaciers are Earth's largest freshwater reservoir, a sensitive indicator of changing climate, and an important component of many subpolar ecosystems. They also annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Glacier Bay National Park (GLBA), Kenai Fjord National Park (KEFJ), and more than a dozen other glacier-hosting NPS units. Therefore, NPS resource managers have a strong and immediate interest in understanding how their glacier resources and associated ecosystems have changed, are changing, and will change in response to climate variability. Consequently, unequivocal information that provides insights and answers into this response is critical for policy- and decision-making and for adaptive management and planning.

For GLBA and KEFJ, NPS resource managers needed information that: 1) Assessed the post-Little-Ice-Age behavior of glaciers; 2) Developed easy-to-understand visual products to convey the results of these assessments; 3) Documented vegetative succession in newly ice-free areas; and 4) Provided information about past and present rates of change that could serve as a basis for predicting future changes.

One approach employed to respond to this need was photographic documentation of long-term change. Beginning in 2002, Park locations which had been photographed in the late-19th- and early-20th-centuries were revisited. Using historical photographs to identify the exact locations from which they were made, more than 175 sites have been examined. At each, the field of view shown in the historical photograph is duplicated. Then, differences between the modern and historic images are quantitatively and qualitatively assessed. For GLBA, this results in a fiord by fiord history of glacier change and landscape evolution, and a visual documentation of more than a century of change. Resulting data are also used to produce GIS coverage for inclusion in a GLBA-wide management GIS. Additionally, visualizations are shared with NPS Rangers who provide visitors with information about the Park's changing natural environment. A similar assessment is underway for KEFJ.

This cooperation with NPS resource managers and outreach personnel is an excellent example of how information developed through scientific research on climate variability and change is serving NPS customer needs on a number of levels, ranging from providing quantitative information to support resource managers in their decision making, to providing site-specific, unambiguous visual documentation to be shared with the public.

[Poster PDF]