User and provider perspectives on the supply and demand of future climate change information for adaptation decision making: a case study of the wine grape sector in Austra

Abstract

To manage climate change, primary industry stakeholders require, and hence increasingly request, information about the likely future climate of their region. When providing future climate information, researchers have tended to assume which characteristics of the climate information are most useful to Users in the primary industries in assisting short- and long-term decision-making for climate change adaptation. Further, there is an implicit assumption that more detailed, more complex information is more useful for decision making – despite mounting evidence in the literature that this is not necessarily the case. This has created a disconnect between the supply of, and demand for, particular types of future climate information. This research uses viticulture as a case study of a primary industry sector that is sensitive to climatic variability and climate change to explore this disconnect. It compares Users’ and Providers’ perspectives on Users’ future climate information needs for climate change adaptation decision making, as well as their perspectives on whether those needs are being met. Mixed methods are applied to examine the characteristics of future climate information, including the spatial and temporal scales, which are most useful to Users in viticulture for decision making regarding climate change adaptation. Viticulture User participants from across Australia require different types and complexities of information depending on the application and whether the decision they are making is for the short- or long-term. For long-term decisions (greater than one year in the future), lower resolution (coarser detail) is considered acceptable; Users prefer to receive future climate information presented in the form of homoclimes or climate analogues; and for that information to be averaged over areas the size of growing regions. Climate information is wanted over time periods that are a maximum of five to twenty years into the future. For short-term decisions (less than one year in the future), these Users want higher resolution (finer detail) climate information, averaged over 1-10 km grids, up to one year in the future because of the short-term focus. Users’ and Providers’ perspectives were compared as to whether or not they felt that co-production of information between Providers and Users was occurring in their region and/or sector. This research suggests that the rhetoric of co-production does not yet match the on-ground reality. Concerted effort is required by both Providers and Users to overcome the barriers to better engage and co-produce information by better understanding the challenges each faces. This process could be overseen by boundary organisations which could use “boundary chains” to meet User needs while sharing and therefore minimising the costs amongst multiple organisations. Secure and on-going government funding (which could be channelled through boundary organisations) and, changes to the requirements to receive project funding, would provide necessary support and impetus to this process. This research will help bridge the gap between the future climate information that Users receive from Providers and inform the types and scales of future climate information that Users in the viticulture sector consider useful in supporting effective action to adapt to climate change. The findings of this research are expected to have application beyond the particular case study sector.