Integrating Climate Information into the Gazetteer for Scotland
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Date
14//2/01/1Item status
Restricted AccessAuthor
Karlovich, Ryland
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Abstract
Descriptive gazetteers index geographical features and provide information
about their characteristics. The Gazetteer for Scotland (GfS) describes thousands of places
throughout the country, containing information such as dates, history, locations, photographs
and maps. One characteristic lacking in GfS is climate information, which is commonly
included in other descriptive resources, such as travel guides. This project adds climate
information for the towns in GfS in the form of textual descriptions, tables and graphs that
detail temperature, precipitation, frost and sunshine characteristics for every month of the
year. The climate estimates are derived from 1981-2010 climate averages at Met Office
weather stations in Scotland, but many of the places in GfS for which climate information is
sought have never had climate data linked to them. To estimate climate characteristics for
these places a process of regression is used to model relationships between geography and
climate, and interpolation is used to evaluate patterns in each climate variable between the
stations. This dual process accounts for both geographical effects and natural climatic
variation in order to maintain a high level of accuracy across Scotland. Accuracy assessment
by validating the final climate surfaces against an independent dataset yields positive results,
with mean absolute errors of 0.19ºC for high temperatures, 0.07ºC for low temperatures, and
0.35 days per month for days of precipitation. The appropriate climate values are extracted
for all towns and displayed in a new section of the Gazetteer for Scotland website, enriching
the information available to users. Based on user feedback the resulting new resource is a
valuable addition to the Gazetteer for Scotland’s place descriptions.