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Decision-makers and scientists get down to the finer detail of the kind of information that should be available in the Atlas.
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Robust dialogue during the SARVA Users Workshop led to valuable practical input from the delegates into what information they would need from the SA Risk and Vulnerability Atlas to inform their decision-making at local and provincial government levels.
"The workshop did not only signal the start of the conversation between global change scientists and government decision-makers, but also the start of a very valuable learning process on both sides," SARVA Principal Scientist Dr Emma Archer told delegates at the conclusion of the workshop.
Comparing the Atlas to a massive filing cabinet with a whole range of hanging files, she said it was important to start populating the cabinet with the information that's currently available. The Atlas should be seen as a long-term project. As new data sets become available, these will be added to the data repository.
"What is crucial for the success of the project, is for the decision-makers in government to tell us what kind of information they would need to take out of the cabinet to enable them to put their global change adaptation strategies and action plans on the table," Archer emphasized.
"We would like to challenge policy-makers to join the global science researchers under the SARVA banner and to do their own case studies," she added. "Together, by looking at global change from all possible perspectives, we will be able to come to a better understanding of the kind of information the Atlas should ultimately make available to its users."
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