Web tools to support Adaptation
Web tools to support Adaptation: www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au
Abstract
This year sees the completion of a new comprehensive set of climate change projections for Australia, produced by CSIRO in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology in close consultation with Natural Resource Management groups and the Australian research community.
Increasingly, end-users require ready access to projections through interactive web-based services. To meet this need, a broad range of information and data products have been made available through the Climate Change in Australia web-site: www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au.
The web-site aims to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of users, from newcomers to the field of climate science through to expert users seeking to download detailed datasets for use in impact assessments. To this end, a variety of interactive tools have been developed to deliver the information in an easy to understand form. During design and development, we were confronted with two major challenges: 1) finding ways to handle the enormous datasets involved while providing the flexibility, interactivity and responsiveness demanded by users; and 2) communicating the information in appealing and easy to use ways without compromising scientific credibility.
There are eight core web-tools: Australia’s Future Climate, Summary Data Explorer, Climate Analogues Mapper, Map Explorer, Plume Plot Generator, Thresholds Calculator, Marine Explorer, and Australian Climate Futures. We will present a brief description of each web-tool and then briefly demonstrate two of them: Australia’s Future Climate and the Map Explorer. The Australian Climate Futures web-tool will be demonstrated in a separate presentation [this line to be deleted if Australian Climate Futures abstract is not accepted].
Based on previous experience, we anticipate the web-site will be a major source of climate projections knowledge for the Australian community and provide quality data for use in impact assessments and adaptation programmes for years to come.