A SIGIR 2024 workshop
July 18, 2024 – Washington D.C., USA
The MANILA24 workshop was part of the SIGIR 2024 workshop program, which took place on July 18, 2024 in Washington D.C., USA. The primary theme of the MANILA24 workshop was information retrieval for climate impact. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a venue for discussing and compiling a research agenda for information retrieval for climate impact. The IPCC Working Group II (WGII) assesses the impacts of climate change, from a world-wide to a regional view of ecosystems and biodiversity, and of humans and their diverse societies, cultures and settlements. MANILA24 brought together researchers, applied researchers, and practitioners in climate impact, information retrieval, and systematic reviews to gain a broader understanding of the information retrieval challenges faced in climate impact in general and by the IPCC Working Group II in particular. The event was aimed at fostering collaboration, discussion, and creating broader awareness in the IR community of the unique challenges posed by the climate impact domain.
The MANILA24 workshop was a half-day workshop. The emphasis was on discussion, not simply a mini-conference but the development of a research agenda for IR for climate impact. The workshop was organized along four themes of interest directly related to IR for climate impact:
What is the problem – IPCC WGII’s information need (Needs)
Problem identification: IPCC WGII needs comprehensive and reliable information on climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerabilities to inform policy and decision-making.
Information gaps: Identifying the gaps in current climate impact assessments and the need for updated, accurate data to support adaptive strategies.
Where are we with systematic reviews (Methodologies)
Current status: Evaluating the current methodologies used for systematic reviews in climate science, including strengths and weaknesses.
Best practices: Highlighting effective methodological approaches and frameworks that ensure thorough and unbiased reviews of existing literature and data.
What are the resources (including technology) (Resources)
Available resources: Listing current resources, such as databases, repositories, and technological tools available for climate impact research.
Technology utilization: Exploring how advanced technologies (e.g., AI, machine learning, and big data analytics) can be leveraged to enhance information retrieval and analysis, especially of scientific literature.
How to make it work for IPCC assessments (Usage)
Integration: Ensuring seamless integration of systematic reviews and technological resources into the IPCC assessment workflow.
Collaboration: Encouraging collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and technologists to align goals and methodologies.
Adaptation: Adapting the information retrieval processes to address emerging climate impact issues and new scientific findings.
Continuous improvement: Establishing a feedback loop for continuous refinement of methodologies and resources to enhance the accuracy and utility of climate impact information.
Room: Continental
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1byu0h9CJIwdZfRYORY-OTNeRmGMLws4jj8K7h7htmJk/edit?usp=sharing
08:45-09:00 – Welcome and introduction (Contintal room)
Bart van den Hurk (IPCC), Maarten de Rijke (U. Amsterdam), Flora Salim (UNSW)
09:00-10:00 – Setting the scene: four keynotes on the problem of IR for Climate Impact (Contintal room)
Bart van den Hurk, Ramamurthy Valavanda & Edmon Totin (IPCC) – Realizing IPCC’s Mission to Make a Rigorous Assessment of Relevant Climate Literature: Methods and Procedures
Harry Scells (Leipzig U.) – Systematic Review Automation with Information Retrieval
Tanwi Mallick (Argonne National Laboratory) – Analyzing the Regional Impacts of Climate Change Using NLP Techniques
Alaa Al Khourdajie & David Huard (IPCC) – Artificial Intelligence in the IPCC Process
10:00-10:30 – Lightning talks (Contintal room)
Annabelle Blangero (Ekimetrics) – Climate.Q&A: AI Tools for Climate Data Analysis
Declan Curran, Hira Saleem & Flora Salim (UNSW) – Identifying High Resolution Benchmark Data Needs and Novel Data-driven Methodologies for Climate Downscaling
Jakub Zavrel (Zeta Alpha) – Using LLMs for Visualizing, Summarizing and Mining Literature
Jenberia Getnet Demil & Mourad Oussalah (U. Oulu) – Leveraging Social Media for Real-time Monitoring of Local Climate Impact
Lesley Frew, Michael L. Nelson & Michele C. Weigle (Old Dominion U.) – Information Retrieval Needs in Climate Impact from Federal Environmental Webpages
Robertas Damasevicius & Rytis Maskeliunas (Vytautas Magnus U. & Kaunas U. Technology) – Leveraging Internet of Forest Things and AI for Enhanced Information Retrieval in Forest Microclimate Impact Assessment
Yangxinyu Xie, Tanwi Mallick, Joshua David Bergerson, John K. Hutchison, Duane R. Verner, Jordan Branham, M. Ross Alexander, Robert B. Ross, Yan Feng, Leslie-Anne Levy & Weijie J. Su (UPenn & Argonne National Laboratory) – WildfireGPT: Tailored Large Language Model for Wildfire Analysis
Yuanyuan Tian, Wenwen Li, Lei Hu, Xiao Chen, Michael Brook, Michael Brubaker, Fan Zhang & Anna K. Liljedahl (Arizona State U., Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Bentley U., Woodwell Climate Research Center) – Large Language Models Enhanced Data Search for Similar Events in Local Environmental Observer Network
10:30-10:45 – Coffee break
10:45-12:30 – Writing session (on location participants, please go to the Executive lounge)
Writing group 1 – The Need – Chaired by Flora Salim (online)
Writing group 2 – Methodologies – Chaired by Harry Scells (on location)
Writing group 3 – Resources – Chaired by Tanwi Mallick (on location)
Writing group 4 – Usage – Chaired by Ramamurthy Valavanda (on location)
12:30-12:45 – Reporting back, wrap-up, next steps (Continental room)
Bart van den Hurk, Maarten de Rijke, Flora Salim
Chairs
Bart van den Hurk (IPCC Working Group II; Deltares Water Knowledge Institute)
Maarten de Rijke (ICAI; University of Amsterdam)
Flora Salim (UNSW Sydney)
Program committee
Max Callaghan (Mercator Research Institute)
Renato Calzone (Ilustre Lab on Sustainable AI)
Winston Chow (Singapore Management University)
Ian T. Foster (University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory)
Maria Heuss (University of Amsterdam)
Sanaa Hobeichi (UNSW Sydney)
Evangelos Kanoulas (University of Amsterdam)
Ana Lucic (Microsoft Research)
Tanwi Mallick (Argonne National Laboratory)
Veruska Muccione (University Zürich)
Shruti Nath (University of Oxford)
Anne Sietsma (Wageningen University and Research Centre)
Damiano Spina (RMIT)
Georgios Tsatsaronis (Elsevier)
May 9, 2024 (AOE): Extended abstracts due
May 23, 2024 (AOE): Notifications
July 18, 2024: Workshop at SIGIR 2024
September 30, 2024: First complete draft of report/agenda available
October 31, 2024: Final version of report/agenda available
December 1, 2024: Submission of the Information Retrieval for Climate Impact Agenda for publication in SIGIR Forum (delayed due to personal circumstances)
A position paper with a research agenda, based on the MANILA24 workshop
A description of the MANILA24 workshop