Abstract
Inundation due to sea level rise is among the most expensive and deadly coastal hazards that can gradually impact small island coastal communities. The intent of this research is to look at ways how coastal island communities can be convincingly informed about the impacts of sea level rise; an understanding of these potential impacts is critical for people to engage in related adaptation actions. Effective climate communication may require more than just using language; the use of virtual reality, 3D spatial technology, and digital elevation models can prove equally or even more powerful to enable the portrayal of risks and dangers posed by climate change. Using a case study in Malta, we mapped impacts of the effects of sea-level rise on valuable real estate, critical public infrastructure, and natural resources. Coastal communities were then asked for their views on sea level rise after looking at precise but different modes of visualization of the same impact at specific coastal locations. Results showed a general preference for 3D over 2D visualizations, for various reasons, including a perception that these better reflect reality; 3D visualisations were also shown to be more effective in convincing respondents about the significance of sea level rise impacts. The results of this study provide valuable insights for local authorities to understand what may be needed to communicate messages related to climate change in an effective manner, ultimately contributing to enhancement of coastal resilience and climate adaptation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akerlof, K., DeBono, R., Berry, P., Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Clarke, K.-L., et al. (2010). Public perceptions of climate change as a human health risk: surveys of the United States, Canada and Malta. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7, 2559–2606.
Balke, K. (2009). Perception and role of 3D visualisations in planning: A case study of the Northwest passage scenic byways viewshed protection and visualisation project (Theses, dissertations, Professional Papers. Paper 740). http://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1759&context=etd. Accessed April 30, 2017.
Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED). (2009). The psychology of climate change communication: A guide for scientists, journalists, educators, political aides, and the interested public. New York: Earth Institute, Columbia University.
Church, J. A., Clark, P. U., Cazenave, A., Gregory, J. M., Jevrejeva, S., Levermann, A., … Unnikrishnan, A. S. (2013). Sea level change. In T. F. Stocke, D. Qin, G. K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. K. Allen, J. Boschung, … P. M. Midgley (Eds.), Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, United Kingdom, New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Church, J. A., Gregory, J. M., Huybrechts, P., Kuhn, M., Lambeck, M. T., Nhuan, D, … Woodworth, P. L. (2001). Changes in sea level. In J. T. Houghton, Y. Ding, D. J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P. J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell, & C. A. Johnson (Eds.), Climate change 2001: The scientific basis. Contribution of working group I to the third assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, United Kingdom, New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Department of Transport. (2010). Public attitudes towards climate change and the impact of transport: 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. London: GOV.UK.
European Environment Agency. (2016). Global and European sea-level. From https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/sea-level-rise-4/assessment-2. Accessed May 5, 2017.
Fabrikant, S. I., Hespanha, S. R., & Hegarty, M. (2010). Cognitively inspired and perceptually salient graphic displays for efficient spatial inference making. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(1), 13–29.
Galdies, C. (2012). Temperature trends in Malta (central Mediterranean) from 1951 to 2010. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-012-0187-7.
Galdies, C., Azzopardi, D., & Sacco, A. (2015). Large scale erosion mapping using LIDAR and USLE technique for landscape management in the island of Gozo, Malta. RSPSoc, NCEO and EOI-ST joint annual conference 2015. The University of Southampton. September 8–11, 2015.
Gifford, R., Kormos, C., & McIntyre, A. (2011). Behavioral dimensions of climate change: Drivers, responses, barriers, and interventions. WIREs Climate Change, 2(6), 801–827.
Haavisto, I. (2010). Työelämän kulttuurivallankumous. EVAn arvo-ja asennetutkimus 2010 [The cultural revolution of work life. EVA’s study of values and attitudes 2010]. EVA & Taloustieto Oy. Available from http://www.eva.fi/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/tyoelaman_kulttuurivallankumous.pdf. Accessed April 30, 2017.
Hagen, B., Middel, A., & Pijawka, D. (2015). European climate change perceptions: Public support for mitigation and adaptation policies. Environmental Policy and Governance, 26, 170–183.
Hansen, J., Sato, M., Hearty, P., Ruedy, R., Kelley, M., Masson-Delmotte, V., … Velicogna, I. (2016) Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: Evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16(6), 3761–3812.
Herring, J., VanDyke, M. S., Cummins, R. G., & Melton, F. (2016). Communicating local climate risks online through an interactive data visualization. Environmental Communication, 1–16.
IPCC. (2014). In Pachauri, R. K., Allen, M. R., Barros, V. R., Broome, J., Cramer, W., Christ, R., … van Ypersele, J. P. (Eds.), Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (p 151). Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC.
Lambeck, K., Anzidei, M., Antonioli, F., Benini, A., & Esposito, A. (2004). Sea level in roman time in the central mediterranean and implications for recent change. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 224(3), 563–575.
Lorenzoni, I., Nicholson-Cole, S., & Whitmarsh, L. (2007). Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environmental Change, 17, 445–459.
Malta Tourism Authority. (2016). Tourism in malta 2015. Available from http://www.mta.com.mt/research Accessed April 20, 2017.
Marx, S. M., Weber, E. U., Orlove, B. S., Leiserowitz, A., Krantz, D. H., et al. (2007). Communication and mental processes: Experiential and analytic processing of uncertain climate information. Global Environmental Change, 17, 47–58.
Moser, S. C. (2010). Communicating climate change: History, challenges, process and future directions. WIREs Climate Change, 1, 31–53.
Moser, S. C. (2014). Communicating climate change adaptation: The art and science of public engagement when climate change comes home. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews—Climate Change, 5, 337–358.
National Statistics Office. (2016). Demographic review 2014. Available from https://nso.gov.mt/en/publicatons/Publications_by_Unit/Documents/C3_Population_and_Tourism_Statistics/Demographic_Review_2014.pdf. Accessed April 30, 2017.
Nicholson-Cole, S. A. (2005). Representing climate change futures: A critique on the use of images for visual communication. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 29(3), 255–273.
Ockwell, D., Whitmarsh, L., & O’Neill, S. (2009). Reorienting climate change communication for effective mitigation: Forcing people to be green or fostering grass-roots engagement? Science Communication, 30(3), 305–327.
Patel, V. M., Dholakia, M. B., & Singh, A. P. (2013). Tsunami risk 3D visualizations of Okha coast, Gujarat (India). International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology, 2, 130–138.
Paul, F. (2011). Melting glaciers and icecaps. Nature Geoscience, 4(2), 71–72.
Retchless, D. P. (2014). Communicating climate change: spatial analog versus color-banded isoline maps with and without accompanying text. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 41(1), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2013.826479.
Sakellari, M. (2014). Cinematic climate change, a promising perspective on climate change communication. Public Understanding of Science, 24(7), 827–841.
Sheppard, S. R. J. (2005). Landscape visualisation and climate change: the potential for influencing perceptions and behaviour. Environmental Science & Policy, 8, 637–654.
Slovic, P., Finucane, M. L., Peters, E., & MacGregor, D. G. (2004). Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: Some thoughts about affect, reason, risk, and rationality. Risk Analysis, 24(2), 311–322.
Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). The rise of global warming skepticism: Exploring affective image associations in the United States over time. Risk Analysis, 32(6), 1021–1032.
Stanchev, H., Palazov, A., & Stancheva, M. (2009). 3D GIS model for flood risk assessment of Varna bay due to extreme sea level rise. Journal of Coastal Research, 1597–1601.
Stephens, S. H., DeLorme, D. E., & Hagen, S. C. (2014). An analysis of the narrative-building features of interactive sea level rise viewers. Science Communication, 36, 675–705. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547014550371.
Stephens, S. H., DeLorme, D. E., & Hagen, S. C. (2015). Evaluating the utility and communicative effectiveness of an interactive sea-level rise viewer through stakeholder engagement. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 29, 314–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651915573963.
Sutherland, M., & Seeram, A. (2011). Sea level rise modelling in support of socioeconomic impact analysis: Grande riviere, trinidad and tobago. In FIG working week 2011 bridging the gap between cultures, Marrakech, Morocco, May 18–22, 2011.
Svoboda, M. (2014). The long melt: The lingering influence of the day after tomorrow. Yale Climate Connections. https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2014/11/the-long-melt-the-lingering-influence-of-the-day-after-tomorrow/. Accessed April, 30 2017.
The World Bank. (2017). http://data.worldbank.org/country/malta. Accessed April 30, 2017.
Wardekker, J. A. (2004). Risk communication on climate change (Doctoral dissertation). Utrecht University, Utrecht, NL.
Weitekamp, B. (2012). Engagement through visualization: Sea level rise in the Matanzas River Basin (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). University of Florida. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00013310/00001/pdf. Accessed April 30, 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Claudia, A., Charles, G., Elisabeth, C. (2018). Can 3D Visualizations Really Convince Small Island Coastal Communities About the True Risks of Sea Level Rise?. In: Alves, F., Leal Filho, W., Azeiteiro, U. (eds) Theory and Practice of Climate Adaptation. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72874-2_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72874-2_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72873-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72874-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)