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In our case, most of our clients were used to the use of probabilistic forecasts and thus the concept of uncertainty was not an issue itself. However, the difference between scenarios and forecasts was not that straightforward to them. The visual capabilities of the SWICCA platform were really helpful to provide them with clear examples to base our explanations upon.
The direct meetings, during which we used the platforme together with the clients, proved to be the most efficient way to move towards confidence on the information. Their initial experience with the platform led to assuming the scenarios as forecasts, and they asked us about the probability of each one of them. Once we went through the SWICCA services with them, it was easy and clear how to deal with the information. This leads me to wonder about the potential new users and their initial expertise in this framework; we know that many people ignore the tutorials and “Readme instructions” and directly step into the stuff, especially if maps and graphs are readily available at one click. Maybe some automatic comments in balloon formats could pop out when clicking on a mapo r downloading data with key messages addressing this. I’m just thinking aloud…
The UCO team develops the case study “Snow effects for water availability” in the Guadalfeo River Basin, and these seasonal forecasts can be really valuable for our clients by using the river flow forecast as a basis for water resource management; additionally, the combination of precipitation and temperatura forecasts can assess the probability of snow occurrence and, thus, the likely seasonal pattern of the streamflow regime for the next months. The Rules Reservoir operational system particularly will be the primary user for this new service, followed by the small hydropower facilities (exploiting medium and low flows associated to both the wet and the snowmelt seasons) in the northern area of the basin. We, as knowledge purveyors, are first testing the seasonal forecasts provided so far (from May on) against the later observations, and checking their local skill. So far, river flow forecasts have provided very good performance in our basin, which is really promising; weather variables are less skilled, especially temperature has been overestimated, which may be a constraint since snow occurrence cannot be then accurately forecast from these data.
We need to wait for wet season to check out these preliminary results also during the medium and high flow periods. The reliability of the forecasts is key for getting the users involved in using them and getting advantage from them. Following this, we find really interesting the possibility of including different metrics to assess the skill of the forecasts, since we fully agree with the last comment posted.
Strategies to get clients really involved in these kind of projects’ development.
Previous experience on downscaling climate indicators in heterogeneous regions.
Key factors (success/failure) when implementing clients-oriented platforms for climate and water planning services.Little flexibility to hire human resources at the moment.
Needs for networking at a higher level in UE, but we are working through that!
e-mail for regular communication/notifications
Social media and forum for regular updating/contributions/discussion
Videoconference/Skype for project development, once a month during this first stage, once every two months later on.
Workshop, presential/virtual.Forum (this) with subscription so that automatic notification is received in my e-mail and I can then access to check out.
For networking, I would follow some Facebook profile with update news, but will maintain the main information in a private network. The same could be done to Twitter or other media profiles. The goal is that you don’t need to access regularly every different network you belong to, but rather receive in your favorite social media updates notifications, and know when you need to get in.
In my case, Facebook.
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