A sustainable knowledge repository for decision support in climate change adaptation

Abstract

Issues around climate change are being examined globally across various disciplines and informed decisions at community levels are required within wider national responses. Research addressing decision support for managing the possible impacts on human communities has to date been limited. As climate science knowledge and government policy changes, information must be updated for dissemination to regional implementers. Traditional knowledge repositories for decision support however work on static models, expensive to update in dynamic fields. This paper describes a process for developing a sustainable knowledge repository for decision support that can assist local policy development in climate change applications. An ontology guaranteeing the semantic integrity of the repository is a central feature. Using a semantic wiki approach the semantic integrity of the knowledge base is combined with the update of emergent findings from multiple stakeholders. Both methodological and practical aspects for developing an information framework to support climate change decision makers are addressed.