A Met Office hackathon has produced a wide range of innovative ideas for ways to bring together data and other information to improve the UK’s resilience to a changing climate.
Virtual 3-D visualisations, storytelling, interactive projections, digital platforms, the use of webcams and a participatory art project were just some of the solutions participants came up with over the course of the two-day Climate Data Challenge.
The online event, which ran from 16-17 March 2021, brought together people from organisations including the Met Office, academia, other research establishments, Government departments and the private sector.
Participants explored data sets such as UKCP18 and heard from a range of experts, who were also on hand to provide information at key points during the event.
The event set out challenges under three themes:
Marine and coastal
Challenge 1: Bridging the gap between our experiences and the science
Challenge 2: Protecting our coastal communities
Nature-based solutions
Challenge 1: Options for Nature Based Solutions in the Urban environment
Challenge 2: What is the best use for our land?
Sustainable development
Challenge 1: Taking a systems approach to Putting Climate in Context
Challenge 2: Support the most vulnerable communities.
Challenges were put forward in collaboration with delivery partners including Ordnance Survey, British Red Cross, Centre for Disaster Protection, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, NERC (National Environment Research Council), UK Hydographic Office, The James Hutton Institute, BioSS, UK GBC, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, National Oceanographic Centre, Medin and the UK Climate Resilience Programme.
The virtual hackathon was preceded by two “pre-events” earlier in March at which delegates were able to share ideas about how to tackle the challenges and to form teams.
The Climate Data Challenge, which was fuelled by an additional culinary one (participants were sent pizza-making ingredients to keep them going through the long hours of work) produced some incredible outputs from the intensive two days spanning visualisations, proofs of concept and many creative solutions.
To explore the presentations and outputs visit GitHub to see the full collection. You can also look at the hashtag #ClimateDataChallenge on social media.
A presentation of the ideas for the Marine and Coastal challenges can be found here.
