Climate services: from CLARA project, a Multi-User Forum to co-desing them with final users

Posted on

The first Multi-User Forum (MuF) Workshop of CLARA project took place on March 6-7, 2018 in Stockholm, hosted by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).

CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services) is a Horizon 2020 funded innovation action coordinated by the CMCC Foundation, set to develop a number of advanced climate services building upon the newly developed Copernicus Climate Change Services – seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. The MuF of the CLARA project involves representatives from a wide range of public bodies and authorities, irrigators’ associations, energy producers, civil protection, insurance companies, and other financial organizations across Europe. It was created to support the co-design and co-development of innovative applications in the field of climate services, to inform and review the project’s development, and stimulate collaboration among the end-users, purveyors, and services providers.

The workshop brought together more than 40 members of the MuF, engaged into five break-out groups mirroring CLARA’s thematic priorities: disaster risk reduction, water resource management, agriculture and food (security), renewable energy sources, and air pollution. Discussions focused on the co-generation of climate services, operational uses of near-term climate prediction, and management of underlying uncertainties. The break-out sessions usefully allowed for capturing participants’ experiences on co-generation and to spot what they recognise as critical success factors for users’ engagements in developing climate services. In this respect, finding a “common language” and “glossary” between users and developers emerged as a crucial requirement for successful co-generation processes. Participants also explored the relevance of seasonal forecasts in their areas of work and opportunities for their operational and policy applications. On the second day of the Workshop, attention was drawn on how uncertainty in seasonal forecast can be dealt with and communicated to end-users.

Jaroslav Mysiak, Director of the RAAS division at the CMCC Foundation, chaired the welcoming session and introduced the CLARA project. Activities throughout the workshop were supported and facilitated by researchers Elisa Calliari and Francesca Larosa (RAAS division), Elisa Delpiazzo (ECIP division), and Giuliana Barbato (REHMI divisions).

Start typing and press Enter to search

Shopping Cart