WAS*IS Seminars

Sponsored by the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
and NCAR Societal Impacts Program

A series of seminars facilitated by the NCAR Societal Impacts Program (SIP) examining the social impacts of weather. Weather and Society Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) is an effort to comprehensively integrate social science into meteorological research and practice in a sustained manner.

Unless otherwise noted seminars are held at the NOAA David Skaggs Research Center (DSRC), 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado, Room GC-402. Visitors attending the talks should review the Visitor Information for directions and security information, and mention the WAS*IS Seminar when checking in through DSRC security. Please contact Annie Reiser 303-497-6634,Ann.M.Reiser@noaa.gov if you have any questions.

Upcoming WAS*IS Seminars

  • January 26, 2009

    Olga Wilhelmi - GIS, Weather, and Societal Impacts
    GIS methods and analysis tools have been widely used in many societal sectors and academic disciplines for data integration, analysis and decision-making over the past two decades. In recent years, collaborations among GIS developers, research and operational users have contributed to integrated data modeling and evolving GIS functionality for use in meteorology and climatology. Emerging operational and research applications range from severe weather warnings to assessments of societal impacts and vulnerabilities to hazardous weather events. In this talk I will describe advances in integration of GIS with atmospheric data and models across scales, discuss GIS applications in weather and societal impacts research, and present key findings from 2008 NCAR workshop on GIS in weather, climate and impacts.

  • February 23, 2009

    Jenifer Martin - Practices of Questioning In Public Meetings With Science Experts
    This talk will examine from a language and social interaction (LSI) perspective how questions shape (and constrain) the discourse of both a scientist giving a talk, and public participants in a city council meeting about restoring Puget Sound. Examining the questions that participants use in a public forum reveals communicative strategies indicative of tacit, complex notions that underpin the tension in a expert-public dialogue. What other actions are performed in the work of questioning in a public interaction between citizens and science experts?

  • March 16, 2009

    TBD

  • April 20, 2009 (tentative)

    Eve Gruntfest - Weaving Social Science Into The National Weather Center

Past WAS*IS Seminars

  • April 21, 2008

    Rebecca Morss - Communicating Forecast Uncertainty
    Using empirical data from a nationwide survey of the public, we explore the public's perspectives on everyday weather forecast uncertainty and uncertainty information using results from a nationwide survey including peoples: inference of uncertainty into deterministic forecasts; preferences for deterministic versus non-deterministic forecasts; confidence in different types of forecasts; interpretations of probability of precipitation forecasts; and preferences for how forecast uncertainty is conveyed.

  • May 19, 2008

    Hal Cochrane - The Economic Impact of Disaster
    A sudden shock to a region's economy can produce losses several times larger than the combined amount of damage to housing, business capital and public infrastructure. The current subprime loan debacle serves to indicate just how large indirect economic losses can be. The seminar focuses on a new way of predicting such a loss. It begins with a brief review of the literature. It goes on to formulate the fundamentals of regional economic damage and proposes a new technique for assessing the dislocations caused by hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. A rapid loss assessment tool will be explained and its application to a variety of weather and climate events discussed. Lastly, Hurricane Katrina will be used to demonstrate the tool's use.

  • June 16, 2008

    Isabelle Ruin - Motorists' Vulnerability to Flash Floods in France
    To better understand motorists vulnerability to Flash floods a comprehensive integration of social and natural sciences is needed. Using qualitative and quantitative methods I will show how "at risk" travel patterns result in a mix of three factors: spatio-temporal exposure, cognitive understanding of risks on the road, but also daily family and professional constraints.

  • July 28, 2008

    Sheldon Drobot - Diagnosing the Recent Decline in Arctic Sea Ice and Prospects for 2008
    We begin by giving an overview of the modern sea ice record (1953-2008) and then discuss why we think it is declining. We then highlight comments on why the loss of sea ice matters to humans and the environment, and finish with a forecast for 2008.

  • October 20, 2008

    Julie Demuth - A Geo-Spatial Analysis of People's Attitudes and Behaviors for Weather Forecast Information
    We conducted a nationwide, controlled-access Internet survey of the general public with 1465 completed responses. The survey included questions to assess people's sources, perceptions, uses, and values for weather forecast information and their perceptions and interpretations for forecast uncertainty information. We matched respondents with climatological data and forecast verification measures based on their reported locations to assess how their experiences with weather compare with their attitudes and behaviors regarding weather forecast information. This presentation will discuss the findings from these survey questions with an emphasis on geographic variations across the U.S.

  • November 10, 2008

    Mary H. Hayden - Weather, Climate and Dengue Fever
    Weather fluctuations and climate variability influence infectious disease transmission, particularly the field survivability of Aedes aegypti, the vector for dengue fever and yellow fever. We will report an outbreak of classic dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever in south Texas in 2005 and discuss innovative strategies to reduce transmission that are currently being tested.