Climate services aim at providing knowledge about climate change and its impacts to different target groups. Advanced preparation of information shows options for action for policy makers to appropriately respond to the consequences of climate change. When translating climate data into climate services the project EVOKED prioritizes user's knowledge. The project is part of the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) and is initiated by the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI Climate), a pan-European intergovernmental initiative concerning climate research.

Aims and methodology

The objective of EVOKED is to re-frame the risk and uncertainty associated with climate data into knowledge products which are understandable and useful for end-users concerned with risk mitigation and adaptation. This enhances the value of data the scientific community produces for end-users and for decisions related to adaptation planning.

We engage end-users in a Living Labs approach and encourage them to evoke their perceptions of risk and uncertainty, and identify which kind of data or presentation causes action towards climate adaptation. In the context of a Living Lab, we will initiate a feedback loop which includes:

• a co-design process between users, climate knowledge providers and translators;
• the co-development of products such as visualization tools and climate- and socio-economic change scenarios;
• field trials to co-validate the operational products and their potential to initiate climate adaption measures;
• the re-assessment of risk and uncertainty to evaluate the user experience.

The project team will implement Living Labs in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany at established case study areas. EVOKED will focus on the vulnerable sectors of water management, disaster risk reduction and coastal management.

Work package description

Work Package 1: Beginning with a user-centered design ensures that the needs and limitations of a potential product or service are placed at the forefront (WP1 Co-Design).

Work Package 2: Transforming design to developing visualization tools and climate change scenarios generates new ideas and encourages knowledge exchange between the partners to better understand risk and uncertainty (WP2 Co-Develop).

• Supervised by Prof. Dr. Athanasios Vafeidis

Work Package 3: Validating assumptions on climate adaptation measures and their implementation using a collaborative modeling process will facilitate the joint formation of negotiated solutions, increasing ownership and acceptance
(WP3 Co-Validate).

Work Package 4: Assessing user satisfaction provides feedback to bridge the process-content gap to improve each step in the EVOKED framework and ultimately help build engaged communities (WP4 Co-Evaluate).

Funding:

• The Research Council of Norway: RCN (NO)
• FORMAS (SE)
• NOW (NL)
• Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (DE) with co-funding by European Union