Socio-economic benefits of weather and climate services in Europe

Abstract

Abstract. There is a rising interest around the world for a better understanding of the economic and social value added of weather services. National hydro-meteorological services and international cooperative bodies in meteorology have ever more to justify their use of public budgets. Furthermore, the development of hydrological and meteorological services is to a large extent steered by expectations regarding the eventual benefits of the envisaged new developments. This article provides a compact overview of the impediments for uptake of socio-economic benefit (SEB) studies, methods and results of SEB studies to date. It also discusses some pitfalls and crucial steps to enhance a broader uptake of SEB studies.

Estimating the economic value of climate services for strengthening resilience of smallholder farmers to climate risks in Ethiopia: A choice experiment approach

“…Given the competition for scarce public funds (e.g. Rogers and Tsirkunov, 2013;Perrels et al, 2013), estimates of the economic value can help providers justify funding and guide priorities to invest in managing the impacts of weather and climate across economic sectors. A clear understanding of the value associated with climate services can help providers of the services to tailor the services to further maximize the value obtained from their use (Zillman, 2007).…”

Critical Analysis of the Value of Drought Information and Impacts on Land Management and Public Health

“…We found that that there have been significant efforts to understand the value of the information. Mutiple studies summarized the literature, including case studies, and methods of valuation of hydro-meteorological systems and meteorological information [16][17][18][19][20]. In addition, there was a number of empirical studies focused on different sectors (agriculture, residential, energy, health, multiple sectors or all sectors).…”

“…Nygård [30] estimated the costs of the Finnish marine monitoring program and used cost-benefit analysis to assess the value of environmental monitoring. [16] Hydrometeorological systems Multiple users/sectors Worldwide Literature review Leviäkangas [17] Meteorological information N/A Literature review Frei [10] Meteorology and climatology information Household, Ag, and energy Switzerland A case study using benefit transfer Anaman and Lellyett [8] Weather [18] Meteorological services N/A Worldwide Literature review Park et al [9] Meteorological services Household Korea Contingent valuation Kenkel and Norris [11] Real-time mesoscale weather information Agriculture Oklahoma Contingent valuation Frei et al [25] Meteorological services Transportation Switzerland Surveys Perrels et al [19] Weather and climate services N/A Europe Literature review Von Gruenigen et al [26] Meteorological services Transportation/aviation Switzerland The avoided cost Rogers and Tsirkunov [20] Early warning system N/A Worldwide Literature review Lazo et al [5] Weather forecasts Household U.S. Contingent valuation Kite-Powell [27] Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System Navigation Houston/Galveston, U.S.…”

Assessing the value of seasonal climate forecasts for decision‐making

“…In this context, valuation studies can be helpful in understanding the value and benefits of using weather and climate information (such as SCF) to support decision‐making processes. Other areas such as, climate services (Adams, Eitland, Vaughan, & Wilby, ; Anderson et al, ; Clements, Ray, & Anderson, ; Ferguson, Finucane, Keener, & Owen, ; Perrels, Frei, Espejo, & Jamin, ), meteorological services (Frei & von, ; Hallegatte, ; Perrels et al, ; Pilli‐Sihvola, Namgyal, & Dorji, ), humanitarian response (Drechsler & Soer, ; Rodrigues et al, ; Stephens, Perez, Kruczkiewics, Boyd, & Suarez, ; World Food Programme, ) and disaster risk reduction and management (Hallegatte, ; Practical Action, ) have all highlighted the need for such valuations and the pursuit for this type of studies can be underpinned by a number of reasons, including (adapted from Anderson et al, ; Clements et al, ; Freebairn & Zillman, ): Justify publicly expenditure in the provision of climate information and services. This is particularly relevant in the context of public services, such as those provided by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), where it is frequently argued the importance of ascertaining the benefits and services provided by NMHS and demonstrate how it supported better decision‐making and policy development in order to justify and secure sustained public investment.…”