Visually communicating future climate in a web environment

Weather, Climate, and Society
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

While there is growing demand for use of climate model projections to understand the potential impacts of future climate on resources, there is a lack of effective visuals that convey the range of possible climates across spatial scales and with uncertainties that potential users need to inform their impact assessments and studies. We use usability testing including eye tracking to explore how a group of resource professionals (foresters) interpret and understand a series of graphical representations of future climate change, housed within a web-based decision support system (DSS), that address limitations identified in other tools. We find that a three-map layout effectively communicates the spread of future climate projections spatially, that location-specific information is effectively communicated if depicted both spatially on a map and temporally on a time series plot, and that model error metrics may be useful for communicating uncertainty and in demonstrating the utility of these future climate datasets.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Visually communicating future climate in a web environment
Series title Weather, Climate, and Society
DOI 10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0152.1
Volume 12
Issue 4
Year Published 2020
Language English
Publisher American Meteorological Society
Contributing office(s) Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center
Description 20 p.
First page 877
Last page 896
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details