Use of Austrian CLimate Services

The survey is part of the project Use.at. The project harvests learnings from users of the first version of the Austrian Climate Scenarios (ÖKS15) to improve climate services in Austria. The survey consisted of 27 structured questions and was distributed online via LimeSurvey, hosted on a dedicated server at Joanneum Research. It included a combination of multiple-choice and Likert-scale questions and required approximately 10–15 minutes to complete. Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained at the beginning of the survey. The questionnaire was structured into several thematic blocks: 1. Professional Background: Questions about age group, gender, and employment sector (e.g., academia, government, NGOs, private sector). 2. Familiarity with ÖKS15: Introduction to the Austrian Climate Scenarios (ÖKS15), followed by questions on prior awareness and channels where users were exposed to ÖKS15 for the first time (e.g., publications, conferences). 3. Use and Perception of ÖKS15 Products: Assessment of how frequently respondents used different formats (datasets, maps, factsheets) and for what purposes (e.g., planning, communication, modelling). This section was informed by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2, see also 4.1) and included self-report statements on usefulness, ease of use, social influence, and performance expectancy. 4. Experience and frequency of use: Respondents were asked when they first learned about or used the climate scenarios and how frequently they had used them so far. 5. Detailed Evaluation: A “deep dive” section gathered more detailed user feedback on technical and usability aspects such as preferred data formats and platforms, perceived challenges in using the data or visualizations, and ratings of data quality dimensions (e.g., spatial/temporal resolution, support availability). This block was intentionally positioned at the end of the survey, to encourage interested users to give detailed feedback while less-interested users could quit the survey and still provided broad information from the preceding blocks. Survey Procedure The survey was conducted from March to July 2024 and was widely disseminated via newsletters and contact lists of the Use.AT project consortium in order to comprehensively reach the circle of potential users in Austria. In total, over 300 individuals participated; following data cleaning and validation, the analytical sample consists of 171 valid respondents, who provided at least partial answers to the relevant question blocks.