Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our planet, affecting our environment, economy, communities and wellbeing. Biotext has worked on many national projects focusing on climate change, resilience and adaptation.
Understanding the current and predicted changes associated with an altered climate can help us to plan ahead and minimise the impacts. The scientific expertise and experience of the Biotext team ensures that we present accurate climate change concepts across our environmental content and communications.
Our role:
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ADAPT NSW website, NSW Treasury Office of Energy and Climate Change
Since 2021, Biotext has worked with the NSW Government to update and rewrite the ADAPT NSW website, which is designed to provide information about the likely effects of climate change in New South Wales, and to help state and local governments and communities to take action.
You were all so fantastic to work with – and such a huge part of this incredible collaborative project – so congratulations!
AdaptNSW client on the website’s launch
We assisted with information architecture, wrote new content from existing pages and research, and edited pages to meet audience needs and ensure clarity and consistency. Throughout this project, we worked with subject matter experts to write webpages that clearly explain complex concepts, including the Earth science behind climate change, and the scientific approach to measuring, understanding and modelling future climate changes.
Our collaborative approach and expertise in science communication allowed us to quickly identify and fill gaps in the content. This resulted in a suite of webpages that effectively explain complex information in plain English, to meet the needs of nontechnical audiences and key stakeholders.
In 2023, we expanded on this work to develop a new area of the website to address the needs of land and sea managers. We interviewed stakeholders to understand what types of information land and sea managers need to help them adapt to climate change. We analysed the findings alongside an audit of existing content on the AdaptNSW website and related sites to propose a logical information architecture to help land and sea managers quickly find the information they need. We then created a common page structure for a consistent experience, and drafted content based on published information.
NSW and Australian Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM), NSW Treasury Office of Energy and Climate Change
NARCliM produces trusted fine-scale climate projections for south-eastern Australia. Part of the NSW Government’s response to climate change is to increase the use of climate projections in planning and decision making.
Biotext conducted a series of workshops with internal staff and project stakeholders, and interviews with end users of NARCliM data, to understand the goals, value and user needs associated with NARCliM climate data. After assessing user needs and data capability, we proposed a strategic shift in the project to meet the needs of both the NARCliM technical team and end users. This resulted in the development of 5 defined user groups to help the department be more targeted in its communication and content development. We also developed case studies of end-user applications of NARCliM data; an expanded user guide to capture the full ‘NARCliM story’; and detailed publishing guidance including a new information architecture and content plan to help the department to publish relevant content across its different websites.
Biotext was selected to support the NSW Government’s delivery of a suite of communication products that raise awareness of regional climate projections across the state. They approached the task with professionalism and sophisticated expertise. The team was thorough in their delivery of each of the project milestones, and maintained open and proactive communications to ensure the work stayed on track throughout the project.
NARCliM client
NSW Climate Data Portal, NSW Department of Planning and Environment
The department needed a content strategy for its new NSW Climate Data Portal website, to manage all future content planning and to ensure content met user needs. As the department had a limited budget, we consulted closely with them to ensure our final deliverables would best meet their needs. Biotext reviewed multiple source documents, developed job stories, journey maps and a new information architecture. We then tree-tested the new structure to check that it was logical to users before finalising. The content strategy provided practical guidance to plan and develop content, and included a writing and visual guide to help the department produce effective content.
Coast Adapt, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF)
NCCARF played an important role in educating councils and communities, especially in coastal regions, about adapting to climate change. They wanted to produce a series of infographics that would help to communicate their key messages. We worked with the facility to develop a series of CoastAdapt infographics, including:
- why we need to adapt to climate change
- what we need to think about in adapting to climate change
- processes that shape our coastlines
- the effects of sea level rise
- the options for adapting to sea level rise.
