In AQUACLEW (Advancing the QUAlity of CLimate services for European Water), a project funded by JPI Climate and the ERA-NET Consortium 'European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS), we examined different ways of improving the usability of existing Climate Services across Europe tackling key aspects in Climate Services improvement: user engagement, lack of resolution, uncertainties, and the need of an evaluation. The rationale of the project is based on an interactive process between service developers and users in seven study cases across Europe assessing the implications of Climate Service' advancement in users' decision-making process. A qualitative evaluation assessment allowed us to identify-four pillars when improving the quality of the climate services in the water sector: (1) Robustness, accounting for better quality of the service' information in certain aspects; (2) Recruitment, understood as a need of involving users more actively in CS structures; (3) Reform, highlighting the possible need for changes in both the service structure and users mindsets; and (4) Reflection, as a process of continuous evaluation of the climate service during its life.

By definition a climate service (CS) is a provision of climate information to assist decision-making. Therefore, CS users are the crucial agent in the CS production chain. User role needs to go further than only making use of the CS, their function must be taken into account during CS design and implementation. This can be accomplished by creating a feedback loop, in which users interact with CS developers. Nevertheless, the a priori user knowledge (i.e. their background, expectations of CS, previous experiences with CS) can condition user role in this co-development process. Identifying this previous knowledge and how this can condition user perception about CS is not easy. On-line surveys and personal interviews which are the most extended technique to gather information about users, on the one hand, are not usually designed to dig into the user a priori knowledge, and on the other hand, can be influenced by many subjective aspects. This work tries to assess the role of user previous knowledge and the perception that users have about CS. An experiment was designed and carried out with about 100 final year bachelor and master engineering students (agronomic, civil, forestry, geotechnical, hydraulic) across Europe (Germany, Austria, France and Spain) as potential CS users with similar initial knowledge. In the experiment the student population was split into two samples. Specific CS training was given to one, no training to the other. Therefore, users with and without a priori knowledge about CS were simulated. Then a role game, in which they become consultants hired by a water management authority to make a decision regarding the management of a lake, was played. Different levels of information (i.e. ensemble mean, ensemble spread, robustness of climate model) are provided to the students along the game to evaluate basic climate concepts. Experiment results show that previous knowledge has a role in the decision taken by the users. Trained users required more complex information before being willing to make a decision, while non-trained ones trust less complex information. No significant differences were found between countries or the two educational levels. This work was funded by the project AQUACLEW, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Commission [Grant 690462].

AQUACLEW (Advancing Data Quality for European Water Services) is an ERA4CS project with the overall goal to improve quality of climate services. The project brings together nine European organisations, with different experience and expertise in developing climate services, providing data and collaborating with users. The project aims to investigate how to increase user uptake in a broad community using general information from a web interface, as well as tailored user-specific decision-support in seven case studies across Europe. Additionally, we track our ‘climate friendliness’ throughout the project. AQUACLEW uses innovative research techniques and integrated co-development with users to advance the quality and usability of climate services for a number of water related sectors. We pose the following research questions: 1) how do we improve co-development to better incorporate multiple user feedbacks along the entire climate service production chain, from research to production, service use and decision making? 2) How should data, quality-assurance metrics and guidance be tailored along the whole data-production chain to closer meet user requirements, including resolution and precision? Firstly, initial results show that the iterative approach between providers and users of data, demands confidence building through active engagement and involvement of experts to think on different pathways of action for users to interact with climate services and to integrate climate projections into their practice. To facilitate this interaction a number of online activities were designed: a guided-tour for the climate service, feedback loops, and game-like activities were included in the meetings with focus groups. Secondly we focused on investigating how data, quality-assurance metrics and guidance could be tailored along the whole data-production chain to closer meet user requirements, through three different experiments following different protocols. Protocols were developed for differentiated split sample testing in hydrological models and bias adjustment methods, and an expert elicitation. All three protocols were applied across four of seven case studies that had common factors to test the improvements of data production. The protocols had a strong impact through improved data quality in impact assessments for climate change adaptation in water management, thus decision-making can be better supported. Lastly, we found preliminarily that ‘climate friendly’ efforts have provoked regular discussions within the consortium, suggestions for new ways to be climate friendly, challenges to travel by train and to find online solutions.

This article aims to make a contribution to a more nuanced, theory-based interpretation of current dynamics of Collaborative Consumption (CC). First, I develop my own definition of CC practices, highlighting the engagement of at least two individuals who get involved in direct interaction and make use of the same units of goods and services. This conceptualisation leads me to a compilation of some exemplary CC practices. Empirical data shows a very uneven diffusion of these practices in France and in Germany. Social Practice Theory (SPT) is suggested as very fruitful theoretical framework to explain these diverging dynamics. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, I then compare two specific CC forms, P2P accommodation and cohousing. My analysis shows that P2P accommodation has formed a highly attractive practice configuration with very good chances to 'recruit hosts', while cohousing presents a rather demanding 'practice-as-entity' with rather restricted opportunities to find practitioners. To conclude, I suggest to complement SPT with insights from the Multi-Level-Perspective in order to better account for 'systemic', vertical processes, which affect the 'availability' of practice elements. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.