Climate services transformed: Decision-making practice for the coast in a changing climate

Abstract

Climate services provide access to regionally and globally relevant climate data and information. As such, they play an important role in informing decision makers about how to reduce the impact of climate-related hazards. We explored different types of climate services using examples grounded in real-world practice in New Zealand. From these we drew out universal lessons for developing and applying climate services including the importance of transparent and enabling governance arrangements, the value of regional/local government partnership and engaging collaboratively with communities, and the value of an adaptive pathways approach for shifting thinking from short-term protection strategies to a longer-term focus on ongoing and changing risks.