An Equitable and Impact-Based Framework for Climate Services Stakeholder Engagement

Petabytes of weather observation and forecast data are made available to the public for communities across the U.S. to determine impact messaging and the best strategies for individuals to reduce risk to natural hazards. However, sparse coverage of these important observations and forecasts in many states limit the accuracy and effectiveness. Some coverage gaps exist in spite of plentiful data. Uneven observation sensor density directly and negatively affects communities in these areas. Underserved, vulnerable communities are often the hardest hit by the changing environment and severe weather. The typical methods and messages that communicate forecasts and warnings sometimes fail to meet the unique needs of these communities, which can place people at greater risk of harm. To help bridge the information divide, the Department of Commerce’s Equity Action Plan aims to make science and data more findable, accessible, and usable particularly for underserved communities.

This presentation will discuss solutions toward a framework to identify, understand, and fill weather and climate data coverage and messaging gaps, sharing insights from work over the past year with variety of Federal agencies. We will discuss concepts to develop a meaningful community engagement framework that pairs weather forecast and observation network data with socioeconomic, health, and community census data. This framework recognizes that productive engagement with an identified wider variety of stakeholders, including historically underserved and socially vulnerable communities, requires the knowledge and ability to apply techniques that are best suited for each community.

Our discussion will share insights from the current work we perform today with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the public health community, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to understand the individual needs and most effective approaches to reach underserved communities. We will build on the concept of impact messages from the National Weather Service, state DOTs, and public health organizations where weather data are translated and packaged to quickly answer urgent questions (“How does this affect me?”, “What do I need to do to keep my family safe?”). Our goal is to present messages expanding the usefulness and reach of impact messages to vulnerable communities.

Ultimately, such a framework incorporating physical and social science will enable a better understanding of hazard information, knowledge, and impacts to develop more comprehensive, resilient, and adaptable views to better inform where sensing needs can be optimized towards most meaningful climate services stakeholder engagement and delivery.