services or through specialized (often fee-based) services to the commercial channels of NMHSs and the private sector. WMO et al (2015) describes these in more detail:

- Basic services - those services provided at public expense to discharge a government’s sovereign responsibility for protection of life and property, for the general safety and well-being of the national community and for provision for the essential information needs of future generations;

- Special services - those services beyond the basic services aimed at meeting the needs of specific users and user groups and that may include provision of specialized data and publications, their interpretation, distribution and dissemination.

Some decisions based on weather, climate and water information have larger and more observable outcomes while others have more incremental and less quantifiable consequences (Davison et al 2012). There are typically three types of decisions:

1. Strategic – decisions made more than one year in advance (e.g. large scale investments based on potential for climate change).

2. Tactical – decisions made one day to one year in advance (e.g. ranges from decisions on what to wear tomorrow to which crops to plant in the coming year).

3. Operational – decisions made less than one week in advance (e.g. frequent, continuous, or daily routine decisions made in anticipation of equipment needs to prevent or mitigate certain meteorological events, such as preventing a road closure due to snow by treating the surface).

Decisions or actions lead to outcomes, which depend on whether a decision is taken or not based on the full suite of available information. Many outcomes deliver quantifiable benefits, for example avoided life and asset losses, while others are more difficult to measure and as a result are often less acknowledged or analyzed, for example inconvenience or feelings (e.g. pleasure or sadness) associated with the anticipation of certain weather events (WMO et al 2015).

The outcome is the critical piece that connects weather and climate services with the resulting value. To determine the resulting value of forecasting services, one must attempt to estimate, qualitatively and quantitatively, the effects of any changes in the outcomes that result from improvement, withdrawal, or introduction of services in a certain context (WMO et al 2015). Therefore, the aggregate value of these services can be determined by measuring the costs and benefits of providing them.

# 2.4 Research data collection

Semi-structured interviews were conducted between May and November 2015 to collect information from GPCs about the products they provide to LICs, as well as the associated costs and currently applied financing models. The original sample comprised six GPCs: the United Kingdom Met Office (Met Office), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Météo France, German Meteorological Service (DWD), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and one RSMC, the Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd (MetService). The interviews were conducted in a three stage-approach, whereby not every interviewee was available at every stage:

1. In the first stage, representatives from all GPCs and RSMC were contacted in person and informed about the purpose of the research during the 17<sup>th</sup> WMO Congress (May-June 2015, Geneva). Following this, each received a standard one-page description of the research, including some indicative questions.

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