User studies in the Interior West: investigating current uses of climate information and user needs

This poster describes three user studies in the Interior West. These activities contribute immediately useful results for the design and provision of climate products, and thus to the implementation of a national climate service, by developing an understanding the current uses of climate information, limits on use, and preferences of some potential users. One aspect of these efforts is to provide services in a pilot mode, evaluate their usefulness, and provide feed back to climate scientists on needs and preferences.

Two studies are part of the NOAA-funded Western Water Assessment (WWA). A collaborative, interactive effort with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is determining how climate information might be used in their reservoir operations. Building on CDC's interactions with USBR begun 4 years ago during the 1997-98 El Niño, it involves direct participation in planning for reservoir operations. A second WWA project is conducting repeated interviews with public and private sector individuals to determine sensitivities and vulnerabilities to hydroclimatic variation, the decisions these water users make, and how climate information is or could be used.

The third project, funded separately by NOAA, focuses on the Colorado River drainage in Utah, the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico, and the lower Arkansas in Colorado, and interaction with the Pueblo, Navajo, Zuni, Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Tribes. Interviews and field inquiries follow the hierarchy of water management from State Engineers, USBR, and the Army Corps of Engineers through the distribution management chain to local water users such as the ditch and canal companies that hold irrigation rights. Native American water interests are of increasing importance to their own and others' economic development. This project was designed to encompass cultural variation in the different peoples and places compared, but results indicate that this has less of an effect than it might have in the past.

Three elements are common among the studies. The studies consider current as well as potential uses of information. Second, they learn from the users about what is wanted and when, as well as how this relates to specific decisions. A focus on decision processes has been adopted from policy sciences, and the concept of annual cycle of decision-making has been adopted from traditional ethnography. Third, these studies are iterative and interactive processes, e.g., the "three states" study includes the reporting initial findings to NOAA collaborators, redesigning experimental climate information products, and revisiting the informants for their critique of these.

Three major results are: mutual education between the researchers and users has suggested ways to improve how forecasts and information are provided. Second, the concept of the decision calendar has led to useful insights about climate information desired by farmers and ranchers, for instance, who are not often contacted for their views. Third, there have been some valuable surprises: e.g., some rural areas have poor connection to the Internet, and even weather radio. Also, agricultural users are interested in climate forecasts for competitors areas. The response to NOAA's interest in learning from information users has been very positive.