• Energy Research

Given that climate variability and change present unprecedented challenges to the rail sector, efforts to produce relevant climate data/information for climate risk management and adaptive decision making in the rail sector are gaining traction. However, inadequate understanding of climate change impact and information needs raises several concerns for the sector. This paper addressed the question: What climate risk information services are needed to support the adaptation needs of the rail sector? Data from interviews, literature reviews, and workshops were used. The results show that changes in precipitation, temperature, sea-level rise, and thunderstorms are the top drivers of climate risk in the sector. Additionally, the need for tailor-made climate information to manage these changes is in high demand. Although insufficient, rail organizations use special protocols to manage climate risk. Understudied countries have operational and design standards formulated in metrics and codes related to specific critical weather conditions as part of their Natural Hazard Management process. However, desirable adjustments in the standards are currently based on past events rather than future climate conditions. Future climate change information is relevant for medium- to longer-term decisions, strategy, and policymaking. For operational and design standards, weather and climate information provided by national weather service agencies are used but they also refer to the European standards and databases. National level data/information is preferred for developing thresholds for standards yet pan-European level information is also relevant in filling in missing data gaps. Therefore, rail organizations operate on flexibility and a “use of best available data” policy. Understanding how climate information is used to support decision-making in the rail sector is by no means an easy task given the variety of decisions to be taken at different spatial and temporal scales. However, stakeholder engagement proved to be an important step to better inform tailor-made information that is user relevant.

Climate change is already impacting the horticulture sector in Kenya. Even though the effects of climate change will be severe, adaptation to climate change still has little priority at the local and county level. This paper discusses the development of the agricultural climate atlas for Kajiado and Kiambu counties in Kenya as a climate information service to support the horticulture sector. This climate service for smallholder farmers aims to bridge the gap between climate research and data provision and the uptake by farmers and farmer organizations on the ground. Rather than developing a generic service for the whole of the country, we followed a local, bottom-up approach. Working at the county level, we tried to capture local needs. The result is a co-created atlas for two counties, for specific crops. The approach can be scaled up to other counties and other crops. We elaborate on our approach, and discuss lessons learned, challenges, and future work opportunities. The development of the climate atlas shows the importance of co-creation and user engagement. In addition, flexibility in the output and process was crucial. The main challenge remains to keep engagement high after completion of the project.

By 2050, 75 % of the world's population will live in cities and the occurrence of heat wave events might have doubled. Mapping the climate and land use change impact for urban heat events should set the agenda for adaptation planning at the local scale. Literature on urban heat mapping does not reveal a clear indicator to visualise the urban heat impacts that includes consequences of land use and climate changes for planning purposes. This paper introduces a stepwise approach to develop a single complex indicator to map the urban heat impact for local climate adaptation planning processes. Information on climatic drivers and land use characteristics are combined and projected for future land use and climate change impacts. Next, several visualisation techniques are developed to investigate which techniques are most effective to visualise complex information with multiple variables in one visualisation. A usability test is performed to investigate how indicator and map meet the information and communication needs of policy makers. Our findings reveal that it is important to add information on future impacts to set the agenda for adaptation planning at the local scale. Applying cartographic techniques in a map series presentation has proven to be effective to map complex information in a single image and fulfil most of the identified information needs. Based on our finding, we introduce the information enrichment chain as a promising approach to support local adaptation planning.

Climate change is an important additional risk for the financial sector. For (large) investments in real estate, it is becoming increasingly important to take climate related risks into account. Yet, generating tailored physical climate risk information to make meaningful decisions about investment portfolios remains difficult. Using literature review, semi-structured interviews and reflection on four case studies implemented in the Netherlands, this paper presents lessons learned and recommendations for improving Physical Climate Risk Assessments (PCRA) for the financial sector. Results from the literature review show that simply selecting a PCRA methodology does not guarantee uptake of information by end-users, because there is no single approach that is suitable for all contexts. From the case interviews, we conclude that effective PCRA information is helpful for the financial sector in several ways; first, it supports investors to pinpoint which assets need attention and how much money is required to mitigate the impacts. Second, they serve as a template upon which clients make purchasing decisions. Third, they serve as a tool for determining the choice of building materials and the structure of properties. Fourth, they assist firms in the development of plausible adaptation strategies. Furthermore, we identified five cardinal points (that incorporate the perspectives of both providers and end-users) to improve the PCRA process: 1) Engagement and co-production, 2) Needs identification, 3) Data availability and quality, 4) Internal integration, and 5) Communication. These recommendation points will serve as a valuable reference to guide the selection and implementation of the most appropriate PCRA method for a given situation.

With the concept of climate services rapidly climbing research and research-funding agendas worldwide, the time is ripe for a debate about the objectives, scope and content of such services.

Climate change will have an impact on various sectors, such as housing, infrastructure, recreation and agriculture. Climate change may change spatial demands. For example, rising temperatures will increase the need for recreation areas, and areas could be assigned for water storage. There is a growing sense that, especially at the local scale, spatial planning has a key role in addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. This paper promotes an approach to help translate information on climate change impacts into a guiding model for adaptive spatial planning. We describe how guiding models can be used in designing integrated adaptation strategies. The concept of guiding models has been developed in the 1990s by Tjallingii to translate the principles of integrated water management in urban planning. We have integrated information about the present and future climate change and set up a climate adaptation guiding model approach. Making use of climate adaptation guiding models, spatial planners should be able to better cope with complexities of climate change impacts and be able to translate these to implications for spatial planning. The climate adaptation guiding model approach was first applied in the Zuidplaspolder case study, one of the first major attempts in the Netherlands to develop and implement an integrated adaptation strategy. This paper demonstrates how the construction of climate adaptation guiding models requires a participatory approach and how the use of climate adaptation guiding models can contribute to the information needs of spatial planners at the local scale, leading to an increasing sense of urgency and integrated adaptation planning process