HackMDThe LICCI tree classification system
At the heart of classifying the content of OpenTEK stands the LICCI (Local indicators of climate change impacts) classification tree. It originates from and exhaustive review of over 200 scientific articles that document these types of observations. The original classification can be found here in this publication: A collaborative approach to bring insights from local observations of climate change impacts into global climate change research. And the original papers reviewed can also be found on OpenTEK. They are the entries of the type Article review that you see as green points all over the map. This tree is used to create the tag group General LICCI tree.
Even though this classification tree is in use for researchers conducting field work and analyzing scientific articles, we adapted the classification tree in order to reduce its complexity. The language has been simplified and the scientific jargon has been replaced by a clearer vocabulary. This less complex tree is used to create the tag group LICCI tree
The LICCI tree classification is used to group observations that are similar into indicators. Since there are so many different types of indicators, they are also grouped together using in four layers:
System (top layer) > Subsystem > Impact > Direction of change (bottom layer)
Our classification distinguishes 4 main systems on the top layer:
| Climatic system | Physical system | Biological system | Social/economic/cultural system |
|---|---|---|---|
The climatic system includes changes related to temperature, rain, droughts, clouds, humidity storms and the seasons.
The physical system includes changes related to the oceans and seas, coasts, lakes, land, earthquakes, snow and ice.
The biological system includes changes related to wild living beings (except humans) and their environment.
The Social/economic/cultural system includes changes related to livelihood activities and human societies/culture.
On the 3.rd level is the Impact (the LICCI)
On the last level is the direction. For example for the LICCI
Climatic (System) > Rainfall, snowfall and sleet > rainfall there are directions like: decrease in amount, increase in amount; decrease in duration, increase in duration and so on.
Learn More →
