Communicating the e-Science of Climate Change

Whilst human-induced climate change is widely recognised as a global challenge to society, a sharp divide is apparent between what scientists can offer through eScience - in terms of climate change projection and possible solutions - and what potential users of this information seek.

Human-induced climate change poses two specific challenges. First: that of understanding how the global climate is likely to change; its impact on society and the societal response. Second: achieving a rapid and efficient transition to a low carbon economy given constrained resources, existing technological solutions and the varied behavioural response of societies and individuals. In addressing both these challenges, scientists have made extensive use of eScience - both through technical and applications developments of high performance computing, complex numerical modelling and data mining.

To the frustration of policy makers, businesses and social scientists, there remains a substantial communication ‘gap’ between the knowledge and information derived from this use of eScience and its ‘usability’ in other domains. This proposed theme aims to bring together participants on both sides of this communication gap to explore appropriate solutions and applications. The overall aim will be to provide more usable eScience and eSocial Science outputs for practical users of this information.

This Theme will deliver:

• A clear exposition of the problem faced by users of the climate change outputs of eScience;
• For three specific climate-related case studies, cross fertilization of ideas from both technical and application experts and practical users of this information on how the knowledge can be framed to more effectively engage users;
• Specific outputs to support the development of the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, which will be published in 2009;
• High-impact scientific papers on the interactions between eScience and Social Science in the context of climate change projection, mitigation and adaptation.
• Design specifications for models and tools to bridge the communication gap.