How do you make extreme weather risks understandable and actionable – without requiring a PhD in climate science?
For the team behind delta-climate™, the answer lies in design.
At its core, this web-based platform translates vast climate data into real-time visualizations and intuitive interactions, allowing users to assess the future of physical risks like floods or heatwaves with confidence. But this clarity didn’t happen by accident - it’s the result of a user-focused design process that simplified complexity and empowered decision-makers.
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Simone Thompson
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One of the first challenges was: how do you make vast amounts of complex climate data – from floods and heatwaves to socioeconomic impact models – accessible for people who need to act on it?
Design played a central role in this. It helped us structure the platform in a way that aligns with how users naturally explore risks and assets. To guide users step-by-step, we developed three interconnected views:
From the very beginning, we used design methods that allowed us to stay close to real user needs – from climate scientists to project financiers. These included:
This helped us understand what was missing in existing tools – and how our platform could stand out by being useful, not just informative.
delta-climate™ is a web-based software as a service, designed for the on-the-fly assessment of physical climate risks in understanding the future impact of extreme weather events on infrastructure, supply chains, humans.
The platform was built leveraging the open-source globally renowned CLIMADA (CLIMate ADAptation) model, the result of over a decade of collaborative work. It allows seamless navigation between high-level and asset-specific views and presents complex outputs in a clear, actionable format – whilst the underlying methodology remains scientifically rigorous and transparent.
By integrating climate impact into investment and planning decisions, delta-climate™ helps businesses work with nature – not against it.
Alex, an operations manager with a large retail company, is mandated to expand their logistics network. His challenge: find two new warehouse locations with minimal physical climate risks.
By using delta-climate™, Alex can analyze potential sites using dynamic visualizations and interactive maps. He explores exposure to floods, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events, and identifies the safest locations to ensure supply chain resilience.
This example shows how good design, combined with robust data, enables better decisions in a world shaped by climate change.
delta-climate™ is characterized by its intuitive dashboard and interactive features that bring clarity to climate complexity:
delta-climate™ was a 0-to-1 product. We followed Lean UX principles for rapid experimentation, collaboration, and reducing waste – key factors for any platform development aiming to move fast and stay user-focused
It worked particularly well in three ways:
Despite the targeted approach, as well as the experience and knowledge of the subject matter experts involved in the delta-climate™ development, there was room to gradually improve usability:
While design is key to interaction, content remains essential to context.
Physical climate risk refers to potential damage and disruption to assets – such as buildings, infrastructure, or production facilities – caused by extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and wildfires. Unlike general climate risk, it’s focused on direct, tangible consequences.
The scale is global – and growing:
Real-time climate risk assessment helps organizations and individuals:
Climate change affects every business, government, and household. By visualizing physical climate risks with progressive design, the delta-climate™ platform renders them tangible, understandable, and calculable.
Good design helps turn data into insight – and insight into action. That’s what enables smarter adaptation strategies and the mitigation of climate risks to protect assets, businesses, economies, and societies.