ADAPTATION SUPPORT TOOLS In order to adapt to climate change, tools are available that can help decision- and policymakers to determine which measures are most urgently needed. These adaptation support tools, as they are called, are as often as not created by scientists with limited conceptual or design input from actual users. To make matters worse, a lot of these tools are highly specialised and tricky to use, and the way they present their information is not geared towards lay users. David Rissik, deputy director at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, has one answer to this problem: ‘’There is a need for tools that are demand-driven and that have been tested at all stages of development, so that they better match the demand and the capabilities of the people who will actually be using them.” Rissik shared the experience he had gained in developing the CoastAdapt tool in Australia: he had had frequent contact with stakeholders and end users, who told him what they needed and expected from an adaptation support tool: alignment with activities being pursued by other groups, flexibility, easy accessibility, and reliability of information, and a ready connection with the sphere of concrete action. Rob Lokers, project manager ICT at the Wageningen University and Research Institute in the Netherlands, seconded Rissik’s views, and added that it is very important for developers of tools to get know users as early as possible in the conception and design stages and then the press on with development. He also stressed the importance of using visuals and infographics: “We need, not just technicians, but also usability experts, graphic designers and editors, who should ideally be journalists and not scientists.”
Chair: Roger Street UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), United Kingdom
"Engage intensively and as early as possible with your stakeholders, and continue to work closely with them on developing the tool. It is key to recognise their particular needs: no two sets of needs will be the same, so no two tools will be alike."
ROTTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS 10 - 13 MAY 2016
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