What users wanted

The development and delivery of UKCP09 reflects users’ requirements to a greater extent than previous climate change scenarios. There have been two main areas of user engagement – a User consultation and the UKCP09 Users’ panel.

UKCP09 user consultation

UKCIP consulted with a wide range of stakeholders to determine user preferences for the format and delivery of UKCP09. Many of the issues raised have influenced and informed the development of UKCP09.

  • A majority of respondents had used the UKCIP02 climate change scenarios, most commonly accessing them through the summary report, technical report or electronic maps.
  • There is a wide spectrum of user needs and the UKCIP02 scenarios have been employed for a broad range of uses. These can be crudely divided into those associated with specific research, policy or design decisions, and those associated with general awareness-raising and communication.
  • The clear presentation of the UKCIP02 climate change scenarios, particularly the language and maps were said to make them easy to use.
  • Cited barriers to the use of UKCIP02 included the spatial resolution, treatment of uncertainties, format and access.
  • A slight preference for 30-year time-slices.
  • A strong preference for using 1961–1990 as the baseline period.
  • A slight preference for having aggregated results for administrative ‘regions’ (the English regions and devolved administrations) and river catchments.
  • Considerable interest in using future daily time-series, though a general lack of experience in using weather generators to produce this information.
  • A preference for visualising modelled climate change scenarios as pre-prepared PDF graphs and maps, as well as the underlying information, for both individual 25 x 25 km grid squares and larger aggregated areas.
  • A majority of respondents use current-day weather and climate information in their decision-making.
  • A majority of respondents have some degree of awareness about the vulnerability of their sector or organisation to present-day future climate risks, though few thresholds are known.
  • Most respondents to the web-based consultation require climate change information on a timescale of the next 20–50 years. Participants at meetings and workshops indicated a preference for nearer-term climate change information (next 10 years or less).
  • Further analysis reveals that different user groups can be described based on how climate information is used. For some responses to the web-based consultation, preferences from each user group differ significantly from the overall totals. These include preferences for spatial aggregation and delivery of probabilistic climate change information.

Consultation sessions were also held at several events and meetings. Write-ups are available for some of these:

Event name Date
UKCIP User Forum 2004 (Newcastle) –
Write-up available (pdf, 120 KB)		 24 Feb 2004
Energy sector workshop 13 April 2005
UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) meeting 23 May 2005
London Urban Heat Island workshop 19 Aug 2005
OFWAT meeting 28 Sep 2005
Environment Agency meeting 17 Oct 2005
Inter-regional Climate Change Coordinators Group meeting 17 Oct 2005
CLIFFS (Climate Impacts Forecasting for Slopes) workshop – Write-up available (pdf, 110 KB) 26 Oct 2005
UKCIP User Forum 2005 (Birmingham ) 1 Nov 2005
Sectoral workshops at Adaptation Policy Framework (APF) events – Write-up available (pdf, 200 KB) 8/16 Nov 2005
South West Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SWCCIP) meeting 11 Jan 2006
Scottish Climate Impacts Partnership (SNIFFER) workshop – Write-up available (pdf, 230 KB) 15 May 2006
South East Climate Change Partnership (SECCP) workshop – Write-up available (pdf, 210 KB) 15 Jun 2006
Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE) workshop – Write-up available (pdf, 260 KB) 14 Sep 2005
Association of British Insurers (ABI) workshop 27 Sep 2005