Using Sound to Represent Uncertainty in Future Climate Predictions for the UK Nick Bearman

My Background Using Sound to Represent Uncertainty in Spatial Data Comparing different visual and sonic methods BSc Geography, MSc GIS – Dept. of Geography PhD – School of Environmental Sciences New to ‘Sonification’ / ICAD conference Not much music background 23 June 2011 BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

GIS – Geographical Information Systems 23 June (18/03/2009) Finnish Town GIS = Maps & Spatial Data Data usually shown visually But there are limits What data would I need to show using sound? BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

+ 2.5°C Future Climate Predictions How do we show all of this info? Jenkins, G. J., Perry, M. C. & Prior, M. J. (2008) Figure 2.63d ± 5.2°C Edinburgh Norwich +0.8°C to +1.2°C -2.7°C to +7.7°C Use another sense + 1°C ± 0.2°C BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

Why Sound? If Vision is full Touch or Sound are other feasible alternatives Touch (haptic) has had work done on it but can need expensive kit Sound hasn’t had much work and can be cheap and easy speakers / headphones & sound card Sound has great potential in terms of what can be represented using sound 23 June 2011 BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

Previous Examples Often used for visual impaired Sound replaces vision I’m looking at using sound and vision in combination Zhao (2006) Zhao (2006) Splits Screen into 9, Reads Aloud Fisher (1994) Fisher (1994) Uncertainty and Land Cover Classification MacVeigh & Jacobson (2007) MacVeigh & Jacobson (2007) Harbour, Sea and Land BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

UKCP09 - UK Climate Projections 2009 Future climate variables for UK up to 2080s Latest in the series of data sets First to include uncertainty Temperature Increase Probability Temperature Increase 50th 90th 10th Uncertainty is useful But users have to change their workflow to make use of it How do we represent this? Advice is to use 3 maps at 10 th, 50 th and 90 th percentile We could use sound… BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

Method – Using Sound with UKCP09 Can sound be used to represent uncertainty in UKCP09? Compare this to normal visual methods Three different methods (showing 50 th and Range): Some visual, some sonic, some both Asked users to highlight specific areas where temperature and uncertainty are over thresholds 23 June 2011 BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

VSVS VS

Evaluation Sessions 71 participants – UEA, OS, UKCIP Small group sessions Questionnaire, Maps, Discussion Session Questionnaire covered lots of things including: Awareness and use of the UKCP09 data Learning Style – Visual or Aural Knowledge of GIS / Climate Change Used Google Maps interface to Show the UKCP09 data And collect responses 23 June 2011 BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results

BackgroundSpatial Data Why Sound? UKCP09 Data Evaluation Sessions Results Compared users results to the correct results Great variation within results Cluster C had a very visual learning style Awareness of data set is important (p < 0.001) Using sound to reinforce vision increases scores (p = 0.005) for most Using sound for different variable helps some but not others Learning Style – Visual learners more effective Not significant trends: Subject knowledge Repeated use

Thanks & Questions