Evaluating the Effectiveness of Three Dimensional Geovisualization Tools in Communicating Climate Change Impacts, A PEI Case Study

Three-dimensional geographic visualization (3D geovisualization) tools have been praised as a solution to the challenge of communicating climate change impacts by capturing public interest, making the issues more personal, and motivating users to take action. However, evaluation methods are not standardized, especially with novice and expert users. Using a combination of workshop surveying and usability testing, I addressed this issue by studying the Coastal Impact Visualization Environment (CLIVE) tool, which allows users to visualize potential sea-level rise and coastal erosion scenarios on PEI (Prince Edward Island). I found that geovisualization tools have the capability to educate and engage users about potential climate change impacts, but generally fade from the users’ memories over time, leading to a lack of overall motivation to take climate change action. This has paved the way for the development of a pilot cybercartographic atlas to keep the discussion about climate change impacts accessible.