AgClimate: a case study in participatory decision support system development N. E. Breuer & V. E. Cabrera & K. T. Ingram & K. Broad & P. E. Hildebrand Received: 14 June 2006 / Accepted: 27 July 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract Potential economic benefit exists from the use of seasonal climate forecasts in agriculture. To assess potential end user attitudes toward and interests in climate data, and to provide inputs from users to the development of decision support tools, we conducted a series of surveys. Survey results affected the design, development, and enhancement of AgClimate, a web-based decision support system for minimizing climate risks to agriculture. The overall process is an example of how decision makers can participate in the research process, thereby improving the value and relevance of research products such as decision support systems. 1 Introduction 1.1 Climate variability and risk Climate is defined as the synthesis of weather conditions in an area over a period of 2 weeks or more (e.g. Zaitseva 2005) and is characterized by statistics of meteorological Climatic Change DOI 10.1007/s10584-007-9323-7 DO9323; No of Pages N. E. Breuer (*) : K. Broad Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Gainesville, FL 32611-0570, USA e-mail: n.breuer@miami.edu V. E. Cabrera New Mexico State University, Clovis, NM, USA e-mail: vcabrera@nmsu.edu K. T. Ingram Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0570, USA P. E. Hildebrand Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Present address: N. E. Breuer PO Box 110570, Gainesville, FL 32611-0570, USA