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Enhancing weather services and warnings in Australia: Evidence for continuous improvement
Extreme weather events such as floods, tropical cyclones, and heatwaves pose significant risks to life and property in Australia. Effective communication of forecasts and warnings is critical for public safety, yet gaps remain in understanding how communities interpret and act on this information. Social and behavioural data can help organisations understand communities' diverse information needs and communication preferences. However, the systematic collection of robust data on the effectiveness of services provided by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services is challenging.
As part of the Bureau of Meteorology's Enhancing Bureau Future Warning Service project, funded through the National Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Risk Reduction Package, the Bureau developed four tailored weather and society surveys. The surveys were adapted from the peer-reviewed USA Extreme Weather and Society survey series of the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Oklahoma, which have been running annually since 2017 (https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/wxsurvey).
The Australian surveys included core questions common across all 4000 participants as well as questions focusing on a specific hazard: tropical cyclone, heatwave, flood, and thunderstorm. These surveys collected empirical evidence to understand how people in the Australian community access, receive, understand, use and respond to weather information and warning messages. The surveys also assessed how forecasts, warnings, products and services may be improved to support better risk awareness and informed decision-making, thus increasing protective action intentions and public safety.
The insights from this research will be of value to the broader emergency management community. The results highlight several potential areas for improvement across the Bureau's weather and warning services. The survey provides a critical baseline against which improvements to services can be measured into the future.
References:
Extreme Weather and Society Survey, Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, University of Oklahoma, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/wxsurvey
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