Van-KIRAP Project
Communicating the Effects of Climate Change
Operational version of a web-based Climate Information Services Portal.
The Challenge
Vanuatu is highly exposed to climate variability and change and has already been significantly affected by changing weather patterns and warming oceans. The Green Climate Fund Van-KIRAP Project in Vanuatu is delivering climate science to support decision makers and communities in Vanuatu to prepare for and adapt to climate variability and change. This project is led by SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Program) in partnership with VMGD (Vanuatu Meteorology & Geo-hazards Department) and delivery partners including CSIRO, BOM (Bureau of Meterology) and APCC (APEC Climate Centre). The development of the Van KIRAP portal is a key activity as part of the CSIRO scope of work and is being undertaken by Frontier SI as part of a consortium of delivery partners with complementary expertise. It builds on previous work which developed a demonstration version Van-KIRAP Portal in 2020, to now deliver a fully operational Van-KIRAP Portal which will enhance the online visualisation, geospatial referencing and analytics of climate and related non-climate data and information in the form of climate information services.
Partners
The Van KIRAP portal delivery partners are CSIRO, NGIS and Veris.
The Solution
This project builds on preliminary activities undertaken by FrontierSI, NGIS and CSIRO to develop a conceptual design and plan for the full Van KIRAP Climate Information Services portal. This includes a detailed specification for the technical requirements (hardware and software), data requirements (to populate the portal), user functionality and capacity development needs. A version of the portal will be delivered which will include spatial layers to demonstrate utility for sectoral climate impact assessments across relevant case studies.
The proposed activities required to deliver the Van-KIRAP Portal include:
- Portal Development
- Requirements Gathering
- Capacity Building
- User Support
- Final Deliverables and Documentation
Impact
The services delivered by the Van-KIRAP portal will provide an evidence basis to inform sectoral decision-making related to climate risk across multiple timescales, from the current climate (weather to seasonal scale) to future climate forecasts (multi-decadal, climate change scale). End-users of these services, and by association the Van-KIRAP portal, will range from different tiers of government (national and provincial) to local communities and community groups, NGOs, industry associations and the private sector more generally.
The long-term outcome of the Van-KIRAP project is to build capacity for enhanced, localised climate action and associated resilience at a sectoral and local community level to the physical impacts and risks of current and future climate variability and change. The intention is that climate information services developed through the Van-KIRAP project for end-user applications across five priority sectors in Vanuatu (tourism, fisheries, agriculture, infrastructure and water) will be delivered in part, digitally via the Van-KIRAP portal.