Building an integrated U.S. national climate indicators system

Melissa A. Kenney, Anthony C. Janetos, Glynis C. Lough

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

During the development of the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment, an indicators system was recommended as a foundational product to support a sustained assessment process (Buizer et al. 2013). The development of this system, which we call the National Climate Indicators System (NCIS), has been an important early product of a sustained assessment process. In this paper, we describe the scoping and development of recommendations and prototypes for the NCIS, with the expectation that the process and lessons learned will be useful to others developing suites of indicators. Key factors of initial success are detailed, as well as a robust vision and decision criteria for future development; we also provide suggestions for voluntary support of the broader scientific community, and for funding priorities, including a research team to coordinate and prototype the indicators, system, and process. Moving forward, sufficient coordination and scientific expertise to implement and maintain the NCIS, as well as creation of a structure for scientific input from the broader community, will be crucial to its success.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSpringer Climate
PublisherSpringer
Pages85-96
Number of pages12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameSpringer Climate
ISSN (Print)2352-0698
ISSN (Electronic)2352-0701

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank the editors of the special issue, four anonymous reviewers, and Michael Gerst for comments that have improved the manuscript. Kenney’s work was supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant NA09NES4400006 and NA14NES4320003 (Cooperative Climate and Satellites-CICS) at the University of Maryland/ESSIC. The National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, and specifically Caroline Dougherty, Karin Rogers, Ian Johnson, and Jim Fox collaborated with Kenney and Ainsley Lloyd and co-authored the NCIS Style Guide (Online Resource 3). Current and previous Indicators Research Team members include Ainsley Lloyd, Michael Gerst, Rebecca Aicher, Felix Wolfinger, Omar Malik, Sarah Anderson, Julian Reyes, Allison Bredder, Amanda Lamoureux, Maria Sharova, Eric Golman, Ella Clarke, Ryan Clark, Christian McGillen, Justin Shaifer, Olivia Poon, Jeremy Ardanuy, Ying Deng, Marques Gilliam, Andres Moreno, Jordan McCammon, Naseera Bland, and Michael Penansky. Members of the Indicators Technical Teams and NCADAC Indicators Working Group are included in Kenney et al. (2014).

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments The authors thank the editors of the special issue, four anonymous reviewers, and Michael Gerst for comments that have improved the manuscript. Kenney’s work was supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant NA09NES4400006 and NA14NES4320003 (Cooperative Climate and Satellites-CICS) at the University of Maryland/ESSIC. The National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, and specifically Caroline Dougherty, Karin Rogers, Ian Johnson, and Jim Fox collaborated with Kenney and Ainsley Lloyd and co-authored the NCIS Style Guide (Online Resource 3). Current and previous Indicators Research Team members include Ainsley Lloyd, Michael Gerst, Rebecca Aicher, Felix Wolfinger, Omar Malik, Sarah Anderson, Julian Reyes, Allison Bredder, Amanda Lamoureux, Maria Sharova, Eric Golman, Ella Clarke, Ryan Clark, Christian McGillen, Justin Shaifer, Olivia Poon, Jeremy Ardanuy, Ying Deng, Marques Gilliam, Andres Moreno, Jordan McCammon, Naseera Bland, and Michael Penansky. Members of the Indicators Technical Teams and NCADAC Indicators Working Group are included in Kenney et al. (2014).

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht (outside the USA) 2015.

Keywords

  • Executive order
  • National climate
  • National climate assessment
  • National research council report
  • Technical team

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