Now I See: Photovisualization to Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation

To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects as well as tradeoffs associated with climate adaptation practices. To have the greatest impact, photovisualizations should be used when producers are considering implementing high-cost or high-risk projects, when practices are likely to dramatically change the visual landscape, or when a practice is unfamiliar to a producer.

In the coming decades, climate change will continue to alter the weather patterns that affect agricultural systems (Tubiello et al. 2008). Recent scholarship has examined the many factors that influence the willingness or intention of agricultural producers to adopt climate adaptation practices. These factors include risk perceptions (e.g. Prokopy et al. 2015), social context (e.g. Casanova-Pérez et al. 2016), and access to information (e.g. Raymond and Robinson 2013), among others. Research in this domain provides guidance for the design of outreach, education, and technical assistance, specifically that which focuses on supporting the use of adaptation practices in various agricultural sectors.

Photovisualizations (PVZs) are tools increasingly used to help decision-makers in natural resources fields, especially those that engage public participation in management decisions (Pettit et al. 2011). These tools have been applied in public processes to assist participants to visualize the impacts associated with climate change (Sheppard and Meitner 2005; Sheppard et al. 2011). PVZs are accessible and complementary to other forms of communication and can help laypersons with limited background knowledge engage with technical topics (Lewis and Sheppard 2005). Our objectives were to determine (1) whether PVZ can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and if so, (2) what characteristics of PVZ are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices.