Integrated hazard information services (IHIS): improving the warning partnership through enhanced two-way communication

This paper presents findings from a study which seeks to understand the various sources and types of weather information emergency managers and their partner groups use, and the multiple ways in which this information is shared, from the first indication of an approaching weather hazard to the time involvement with the hazardous situation ends.

In the US, weather information is produced and disseminated by public and private agencies that aim to provide services in order to improve decision-making and reduce the publics' risks to weather hazards. During weather-related emergencies, emergency managers and their critical partner groups push and pull weather information in various ways in order to gain situational awareness as well as to enhance their respective preparation, response, and recovery efforts. The use and communication of hazardous weather information during each phase of a weather-related emergency is specific to the type and scale of the hazard.

The results of this study will be used by NOAA's Global Systems Division to develop IHIS, or the Integrated Hazard Information Services; a set of tools intended to improve the reciprocal exchange of weather information among emergency managers and their partner groups during weather-related emergencies.

The ethnographically-informed findings from this study will first, advance understandings of the roles of emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists, and weather forecasters in producing and responding to hazard information, and second, improve the warning partnership by determining where and how the use of the Integrated Hazard Information Services fits into the emergency managers' process of making decisions.