Welcome!Partnerships and Collaborations

ForPreparedness and Response

Photo courtesy of Pam Jenkins and Barbara Davidson

Purpose

• Exploratory• Link to previous efforts• Further encourage

collaborative efforts between social scientists and meteorologists

• Save lives

The Sessions• Session 1 – Partnerships & Collaboration 1:45 today

– How does weather information travel? What occurs when various end-users act on that information? What is the value of incorporating social science knowledge into that process?

– Facilitator – Brenda Phillips from OSU• Session 2a – Technological Hazards 3:15 today

– Technological hazards can be silent, invisible, deadly – and hard to explain to the public. How can we integrate social science research into meteorological products so that we warn, evacuate and assist the public effectively?

• Session 2b Transportation Weather Hazards 4:30 today– How about that rain this week? Interstates closed in Kentucky, flooding in

Georgia, weather affecting the oil spill. How can we communicate with and assist the traveling public?

– Facilitator – Brenda Philips from UMASS

The Sessions• Session 3 – Meteorological User/Provider 8:25 Tuesday

– What research questions need to be asked from the perspective of the meteorological community?

– Facilitator – Denise Stephenson Hawk• Session 4 – 10:15am Tuesday

– Needs Defined– Information Flow– Communication Gaps– Knowledge Transfer– Effective Collaboration Models– Realm of responsibilities – the stakeholder community

• Session 5 – 1:00 pm Tuesday– Towards an action agenda

The Process

• Today– Presentations– Discussions with facilitators

• Tomorrow– Presentations– Discussion with facilitators– Movement toward an action agenda

Social Science Research Needs for the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System

(Gladwin, Lazo, Morrow, Peacock, Willoughby 2009)

• Vulnerable populations require particular consideration

• A linear warning system of information flow is no longer valid, the public communicates in a nonlinear fashion

• Interdisciplinary work is critical

• Critical areas:– Warning process– Decision making– Behavioral response– Social impacts and valuation

– “When organizations fail to reach those marginalized by economic, political, social or cultural circumstances, lives are lost” (Phillips & Morrow).

Complexity: Elderly Response to Warnings

(Based in part on Peek, 2010 p. 167-168)

ComplianceBehavior

PetsPrescriptions

Providers

Isolated living arrangements

Diminished social networks

Lower rates of information seeking

behavior

Challenges(physical, cognitive)

Don’t want to leave familiar surroundings

Previous Experience

Income, Time of the Month

Gender Issues

Navigating to and in unfamiliar

environmentsTrust, Credibility

What would happen if we:• Designed warning systems that

reflect the complexity of people’s lives?

• Designed and tested warning messages with the user audiences?

• Showed people with disabilities navigating an unfamiliar shelter as part of the warning message?

• Tapped into social networks that people trust and believe?

• Use a process that redundant, diverse messaging as a given for communicating risk?

Points of Intervention

ComplianceBehavior

VETSPharmacies

Routine contacts, e.g., health care

providers

N’hood groups

Diversify message outlets

Diversify message content

Show others like them in the

shelters

Previous Experience

Support early release of

entitlements

Barbershops, men’s prayer

breakfast

Link warnings to shelter locations;

show themSenior centers,

family members

What would it take to integrate further the social sciences with meteorology?

• Vision WAS*IS (NCAR)– To change the weather enterprise by

comprehensively and sustainably integrating social science into meteorological research and practice

• Mission WAS*IS– To establish a framework for (a) building an

interdisciplinary community of practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders--from the grassroots up--who are dedicated to the integration of meteorology and social science, and (b) providing this community with a means to learn about and further examine ideas, methods, and examples related to integrated weather-society work.

– As of August 2009, the WAS*IS mission has empowered 198 practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders around the world to build new relationships and to use new tools and concepts for more effective socio-economic applications and evaluations of weather information and products.

– Verbatim: http://www.sip.ucar.edu/wasis/boulder/participants_1.jsp

Tom Behler, Eve Gruntfest, Jeff Lazo, Julie Demuth, Emily Laidlaw, Sheldon Drobet)

Effective Emergency ManagementNational Council on Disability, August 2009

“Design warning messages so that they incorporate instructions for people with disabilities on how to take protective action for the impending hazard”

“People with disabilities must be invited to the emergency planning table”

“Build strong relationships with area disability organizations, advocates…”

www.ncd.gov, select Publications and 2009

Session 1Partnerships and Collaborations

• How is preparedness for severe weather communicated throughout stakeholders?

• What examples can you offer of the integration of social sciences into your operations?

• What steps have you taken to make the social sciences a priority?

• What more is needed to save lives?• As an end-user how can we communicate more

effectively across and within federal agencies?