We plan to construct various climate change narratives together with experts, policymakers, and stakeholders by integrating citizen knowledge collected by citizen scientists through community-based monitoring with traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge. Then we plan to conduct deliberations with the participation of a wide range of people providing the narrative for them to deepen their understanding of climate change data and events, and to promote their attitude and behavior change toward building a decarbonized society and climate change-adaptative society. We aim to reflect the knowledge in policies and to build a legacy.

Why do this research?

Scientific findings on climate change are provided as open data, but it is anticipated that they will not be immediately utilized in policy-making or lead to understanding from stakeholders and citizens, as well as attitude and behavior changes toward the construction of a decarbonized and climate change-adaptive society. To achieve a change in attitudes and behaviors, it is essential for citizens to discover the phenomena that are thought to be affected by climate change by themselves. In this study, we assume that narratives which depict the relationship between events in a clear time series are important for encouraging changes in people's attitudes and behaviors such as the past (traditional knowledge; Information in historical materials such as traditions, traditions, and culture that have left an impact on current life), the present (citizen knowledge; Qualitative and quantitative information related to current environmental changes), and future (scientific knowledge; Quantitative projection information such as climate models and impact assessments).

Citizen science (community-based monitoring) is regarded as a powerful method for collecting citizen knowledge. In the context of climate change, practices such as observing the distribution of local flora and fauna, monitoring temperature and rainfall conditions, monitoring water and soil disasters, observing crops, and reporting on the awareness of seasonal changes are being implemented worldwide, but the situation in Japan is still not sufficiently implemented.

Therefore, in this research, we will first promote citizen science targeting the impacts of climate change in various fields in various regions. Then, we will expand the deliberative system to the citizen science platform that we have developed so far, so that citizen scientists in various regions will share the civic and traditional knowledge they have collected, and it will be easier to integrate it with scientific knowledge through deliberation with experts and policymakers. Based on these results, we will construct a narrative using methods such as sci-fi prototyping, conduct deliberations with the participation of a wide range of people, providing the narrative for them to deepen their understanding of climate change data and events, and to promote their attitude and behavior change toward building a decarbonized society and a climate change adaptation society. We aim to reflect the knowledge in policies and to build a legacy.

What we want to do

We first identify the fields, indicators, and methods that are considered effective for citizen scientists to monitor phenomena that appear to be the impacts of climate change together with experts. At the same time, we explore the feasibility of collecting citizen knowledge and traditional knowledge at domestic sites and share them on the platform. Furthermore, we examine the direction of the expansion of the platform. Also, we examine the mechanisms by which narratives of climate change immerse individuals and promote attitude and behavioral changes. We then establish a framework for international collaborative research focusing on citizen science related to climate change abroad.