‘connecting the Dots’—climate Information Has No Value Unless It Changes a Management Decision: Some Illustrative Cases

With increased understanding and realisation that climate variability exists at a number of timescales and that climate variability and climate change can impact greatly on any community (i.e., impose major drought periods as well as provide opportunities associated with more beneficial periods), it is not surprising that climate information and climate forecasts have proliferated over past decades—generally in the hope that this type of forecast information will aid decision-making or policy processes. Almost parallel to the development of climate information and forecasting systems has been the development of decision-support systems, mostly computer based, that have also largely been developed with an aim of providing a translation of climate forecasts into practical decision assistance for users.