Climate services: some experiences from practice (Speaker Janette Bessembinder)

Speaker Janette Bessembinder (KNMI Weather and Climate Services)

Since 2005 I work at KNMI on tailoring of climate data, also called climate services, and I focussed especially on the interaction with the users of climate information. This interaction process and its challenges aren’t documented very often, however they provide a lot of information on how to get more effective interaction. Similarly, in many projects on Climate Services people describe the so-called good or best practices as examples for others on how to use climate data and information. However, personally I learned most from the “bad” or improper practices that I saw. These were mainly due to a lack of knowledge by the users and providers of climate information or by a lack of dialogue between users and providers. When developing or delivering climate services, (climate) scientists often do not realize that they may have a different view compared to users on what is known or logical when using climate data. At the same time users sometimes do not have any idea of what climate information can and cannot be provided. To improve the quality of climate services it would be good to promote the sharing of observed improper uses and challenges related to the use and interpretation of climate data and information. This information is as useful as the description of best practices. During the colloquium, I will share some of my experiences from the past 13 years and the lessons learned. Describing the “bad” practices may not be that straightforward, since no one wants to figure in an example of incorrect or improper climate data use. For that reason I have constructed sometimes examples similar to the original improper practices.