Climate Data Standards and Tool Usability Assessments for ESTCP Climate Resilience

Abstract

With the effects of a changing climate and extreme weather events on Department of Defense (DoD) infrastructure threatening its ability to execute its mission, the Biden administration is requiring climate considerations to be an integral part of all DoD strategy, planning, and programming activities. To support this mission, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) developed a new focus area in Climate Resilience (CR) which will invest in innovative technologies and methodologies that address climate resilience issues facing DoD installations today and in the near future. The goal of this paper is to further investigate the use of climate data standards and tool usability assessments to help improve proposal responses for ESTCP CR fiscal year 2024 proposals and beyond. Climate models are a tool that can be used to better understand the ways in which the climate is changing for a region. While global climate models (GCMs) can provide information at a large scale, more localized information is needed for installation-specific assessments. Dynamic downscaling (DD) and statistical downscaling (SD) are two promising methods for providing more localized climate information from GCSMs. Similarly, new decision-making tools are likely to be needed for decision makers across the Department. However, because installation-level decision makers are already overloaded with tools, climate information should be incorporated seamlessly into existing tools when possible. If it is not possible, objective usability testing (e.g., NASA Task Load Index, System Usability Scale, User Engagement Scale) should be completed to ensure the tool generates value-add for the end users. Proposals should also clearly state who the intended end users are and the benefits of the proposed tool.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2023
Accession Number
AD1216790

Entities

People

  • Gifford J. Wong
  • Isaac S. Chappell
  • Jennifer L. Bewley
  • Zachary M. Berzolla

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Beta Testing
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Change Adaptation
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Environmental Security
  • Information Science
  • Management Personnel
  • Resilience
  • Sea Level Rise
  • Standards
  • Storm Surges
  • Surveys
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Economics
  • Software Engineering.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.