Assessing climate and water information systems affordances for the agricultural sector in western United States

There has been a dearth of studies on the use patterns and uptake of climate and water information systems (CWIS) to aid agricultural sector adaptations to climate change and uncertain water availability. In this study we identify patterns of use of CWIS and precision agricultural technologies and the utility--or affordances--these tools provide to users. We conducted a web-based survey (May – Sept. 2022) delivered by email via convenience sampling. Respondents were 46% growers, 33% ecosystem or water managers, and 21% other occupations and were primarily from California (66% respondents), New Mexico (15%) and Utah (19%). We analyze geographic and stakeholder-specific patterns of CWIS use, including types of decisions faced daily and information sources used by these user types. Next, using a 2-parameter Rasch analysis, we analyze the technical and climate adaptation affordances of the webtools. Our results reveal that information systems related to weather and irrigation information are preferred by growers. Water and ecosystem managers are more likely to use long-range climate information systems. Finally, growers show more reliance on socially oriented information sources such as reliance on consultants, Extension sources, and on-farm observations for decision-making suggesting pathways for integrating climate and water information systems within the universe of integrated farmer management information systems. CWIS developers and investors will need to consider the affordances users access when building and training, and adaptation to climate change among growers and resource managers may be hampered by the limited information afforded and low adoption of tools.