Climate stories are a form of structured communication designed to share information, experiences and targeted messages about climate change/adaptation. Stories should ideally be compelling and entertaining and may combine text with supporting media or scientific data. The target audience can be the general public or specific group(s). The story can be used to convey all kinds of publicly important messges around climate change. Defining the audience and the core message are essential components in the process so that the story appeals to the audience and the core message can be communicated clearly.
The level of complexity is completely dependent on the ambitions of the story. The development of the climate stories requires an iterative approach between the technical developers and the city representatives. A good and engaging narrative takes time to develop. In addition, access to high quality media (images, maps, plots, videos) greatly improves the ability to create a compelling and impactful story. Implementing the story requires a platform as a basis– this can be as simple as a document, or as complex as a specialised story mapping software.
Climate Adaptation Services (CAS)
Felix van Veldhoven, felix@climateadaptationservices.com
NGI
James Strout, james.michael.strout@ngi.no
Link to the City hubs climate stories tool
See also the publicly available REACHOUT Deliverable 1.3, ‘Climate stories: initial stories’
Data protection
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036599.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036599.
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The climate story is highly versatile and can integrate the results of any climate tool. Climate tools that produce easy-to-understand visuals are easiest to integrate into a climate narrative. Map-based tool outputs are especially impactful.
The creative process of developing a climate story helps identify needs for new outputs or products from the tools, for example developing easy to understand infographics expressing some of the more complicated scientific content of the tools.
Short summary: A story about Jan and Maria during extreme precipitation.
Theme: Flooding
End user: Citizens