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Members of CSAG have been involved in a study investigating how different visualisations of historical and future climate information are interpreted. The research, led by Joseph Daron, used an online survey to gather data from the climate scientist and practitioner communities, with a focus on those working in the African vulnerability, impacts and adaptation communities.

In total, we received 272 complete responses and this has provided us with a wealth of interesting data. We have spent some time analysing the data and we are currently busy writing up the results. If you are interested in the results, please have a look at this youtube presentation which discusses some of the key findings. At some point in the near future we hope to submit an academic paper presenting the findings from the study and this will be shared as soon as it becomes available.

 

2 Responses to “Visualising Climate Information: Survey Results”

  1. Joseph Daron

    Glad you found the study interesting Simon and thanks for your questions and comments. I think “survey fatigue” is a real issue but in our experience we received generally positive feedback and, as far as I know, most people were happy to spend the time answering the questions. Not surprsingly we received the majority of responses within a few days of sending the survey out via email. It is difficult to know how many people received the advert – perhaps just over 2,000? Around 500 people started the survey and 272 completed it. And on average, people took between 30 and 40 minutes to complete. Some people completed it in 20 mins or less, which was the aim, but inevitably a lot of people took longer to complete the survey. We did not explicitly ask where the respondents were from but approx 140 of 272 respondents focused their work on Africa with most of those (over 100) focusing on southern Africa. I am not sure how to answer your question about simplifying climate science because that was not really our focus. Rather, we were looking at different ways of visualising the same climate information, irrespective of the complexity of the science. Thanks again for your comments and we will defintely send you the paper when it is finished…hopefully in the not too distant future. Best wishes, Joseph

  2. Simon Nampindo

    Online surveys are becoming very popular for getting information quickly, but also had to control in terms of quality of responses. There is also a growing fatigue with some many monkey surveys received by would-be resource persons. Do you think this is just a delusion or perception issue? What was your experience with the timing, and survey return. How many out of the 272 respondents were actually from Africa. In your opinion, did trying to simplify the climate science result in ambiguous responses. Overall, this is a very good study. I wish it had also captured the key sources of climate change information, particularly in Africa. Excellent job, I look forward to the report. Simon