Decision support experiments and evaluations using seasonal to ...

a receptive audience for new tools and ideas.
Flexible and appropriate sources of funding
must be found that recognize benefits received
by various constituencies on the one hand, and
ability to pay on the other. A combination of
privately-funded, as well as publicly-supported
revenue sources may be appropriate in many
cases—both because of the growing demands
on all sources of decision-support development,
and because such a balance better satisfies
demands that support for these experiments be
equitably borne by all who benefit from them
(Cash and Buizer, 2005). Federal agencies within
CCSP can help in this effort by developing a
database of possible funding sources from all
sectors, public and private (CDWR, 2007b).
There is a need to balance national decisionsupport
tool production against customizable,
locally specific conditions. Given the diversity
of challenges facing decision makers, the diverse
needs and aspirations of stakeholders, and
the diversity of decision-making authorities,
there is little likelihood of providing comprehensive
climate services or “one-stop-shop”
information systems to support all decision
making or risk assessment. Support for tools
to help communities and other self-organizing
groups develop their own capacity and conduct
their own assessments within a regional context
is essential.
There is a growing push for smaller scale
products that are tailored to specific users, as
well as private sector tailored products (e.g.,
“Weatherbug”). However, private sector products
are generally available only to specific
paying clients, and may not be equitable to
those who lack access to publicly-funded information
sources. Private observing systems
also generate issues related to trustworthiness
of information and quality control. What are
the implications of this push for proprietary
vs. public domain controls and access? This
problem is well-documented in policy studies
of risk-based information in the fields of food
labeling, toxic pollutants, medical and pharmaceutical
information, and other forms of public
disclosure programs (Graham, 2002).
Decision-Support Experiments and Evaluations using Seasonal to
Interannual Forecasts and Observational Data: A Focus on Water Resources
4.5 FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS
AND PRIORITIES
Six major research needs are at the top of our list
of priorities for investigations by government
agencies, private sector organizations, universities,
and independent researchers. These are:
1. Better understanding the decision context
within which decision support tools are
used,
2. Understanding decision-maker perceptions
of climate risk and vulnerability;
3. Improving the generalizability/transferability
of case studies on decision-support
experiments,
4. Understanding the role of public pressures
and networks in generating demands for
climate information,
5. Improving the communication of uncertainties,
and
6. Sharing lessons for collaboration and partnering
with other natural resource areas.
Better understanding of the decision-maker
context for tool use is needed. While we know
that the institutional, political and economic
context has a powerful influence on the use
of tools, we need to learn more about how to
promote user interactions with researchers
at all junctures within the tool development
process.
The institutional and cultural circumstances of
decision makers and scientists are important to
determining the level of collaboration, Among
the topics that need to be addressed are the
following:
• understanding how organizations engage
in transferring and developing climate
variability information,
• defining the decision space occupied by
decision makers,
• determining ways to encourage innovation
within institutions, and
• understanding the role of economics and
chain-of-command in the use of tools.
Access to information is an equity issue: large
water management agencies may be able to afford
sophisticated modeling efforts, consultants
to provide specialized information, and a higher
quality of data management and analysis, while
smaller or less wealthy stakeholders generally
Those most likely
to use weather and
climate information
are individuals who
have experienced
weather and climate
problems in the past.
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