Thomas Heberden Diary

Building UK climate resilience through bridging the qualitative-quantitative data divide

Objectives

Our purpose is to develop a framework for bringing the knowledge and experiences contained within qualitative information in each of these disciplines of past extreme and mundane events together with existent quantitative information. This information will then be available to inform climate service provision charting the effects of past climate variability and extreme weather events, ultimately helping to improve the resilience of the most vulnerable communities to future climate change risks. To achieve this our key objectives are as follows:    

  1. To identify existing datasets used by different organisations and practitioners, and those datasets currently developed within the different disciplines detailing past climatological and hydrological events. It will also determine what and where data gaps exist and how can these be addressed.
  2. To explore current approaches to bridging across the qualitative-quantitative data divide (e.g. the application of indices to qualitative data). Identify whether new approaches can be applied to bridging the data divide from other disciplines (e.g. engineering).
  3. In consultation and working with project partners, to determine the mechanism and forms of data that would be of greatest utility to practitioners for improving climate resilience. 
  4. Through co-production develop and share a protocol for all disciplines to work with in bridging across the qualitative-quantitative divide 
  5. To make this protocol available for a wide range of practitioners and stakeholders to facilitate the development of historically informed climate services