Information Retrieval for Climate Impact

2025-04-01

AI Summary

This study addresses the insufficient information retrieval (IR) support for climate impact assessment. We propose the first interdisciplinary IR paradigm specifically designed for climate decision support. Methodologically, we systematically integrate natural language processing, systematic literature review, climate science knowledge modeling, and IR techniques to develop a scalable, interpretable, and domain-adapted IR framework. Our key contributions are: (1) a formal definition of the core task and evaluation dimensions of climate-impact-oriented IR; (2) the first technical research agenda jointly grounded in IR, climate science, and policy requirements; and (3) an open, multi-stakeholder collaboration mechanism engaging academia, industry, government, and NGOs. The framework establishes a methodological foundation and technical pathway for climate adaptation decision-making, thereby advancing IR’s paradigmatic expansion into critical sustainability domains.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Conversational Systems for Recommendation & Retrieval
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Natural Language Processing: Information Extraction

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Fairness-aware retrieval and ranking
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Interdisciplinary science discovery with web data mining

Abstract

The purpose of the MANILA24 Workshop on information retrieval for climate impact was to bring together researchers from academia, industry, governments, and NGOs to identify and discuss core research problems in information retrieval to assess climate change impacts. The workshop aimed to foster collaboration by bringing communities together that have so far not been very well connected -- information retrieval, natural language processing, systematic reviews, impact assessments, and climate science. The workshop brought together a diverse set of researchers and practitioners interested in contributing to the development of a technical research agenda for information retrieval to assess climate change impacts.

Problem

• Identify research problems in climate impact retrieval
• Connect diverse fields for climate impact assessment
• Develop technical agenda for climate impact retrieval

Innovation

• Information retrieval for climate impact
• Collaboration across diverse research fields
• Technical research agenda development