As part of our ongoing series of five in-person workshops across Europe, PCP WISE continued its journey with a dynamic and collaborative stop on July 2, in Barcelona, Catalunya—focusing on the role of climate data in end-user decision-making.
📍 Co-organised by IEEC (The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia) and ICGC (The Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia), the workshop was structured around interactive group activities guided by the sensemaking methodology, which challenges participants to reflect on how they perceive, interpret, and act within complex systems. In this case, the system in focus was the Catalan climate services ecosystem.
👉 The main task aimed to identify available, usable, and missing water-related climate information, while encouraging participants to explore their own assumptions and data needs. Small groups were formed with representatives from crisis, regular, and climate user categories, who responded to two key questions:
🔹 What water-related information do you have—or not have?
🔹 What are the barriers to accessing or using this information?
🔹 Group 1 raised concerns about the lack of updated peatland drainage data, limited availability of downscaled climate data, and sensitive urban flooding information. Data was often person-dependent and documentation inconsistent—especially when metadata was in Finnish. They also highlighted a need for better data on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) like green roofs.
🔹 Group 2 focused on fragmentation of data systems, the challenges of automating updates, and ongoing privacy and security concerns about making certain data publicly available.
🔹 Group 3 centered their discussion on soil and flood prediction, pointing out the absence of integrated data for water flow modeling in urban areas. They also questioned how new sensing technologies could be scaled.
💬 Cross-cutting issues included difficulties in finding the right experts, disciplinary silos, and the lack of a centralised, real-time urban water database. Participants also reflected on the tension between open data and data sensitivity, especially in urban planning contexts.
🙏 A warm thank you to all participants for their openness, expertise, and reflections. These insights will directly inform the development of the PCP tender and ensure that future climate services respond to real-world complexities and user needs.
📢 Next stop: Bratislava, Slovakia. Stay tuned for our upcoming site visit as PCP WISE continues to connect with local actors across Europe.
