October 27, 2016

The The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are partnering to study how to improve communications during severe weather events and to encourage people to respond appropriately.

The joint effort will include research from NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate, which conducts research on how people and communities respond during natural disasters, and NOAA’s National Weather Service. Their goal is to adapt three SBE research projects to develop a new set of tools to better inform disaster warnings for commercial weather services.

One research project strives to more accurately communicate risk through social media platforms. Another project will identify ill-advised public responses to weather forecasts. The third project will primarily study the public’s reaction to extreme weather events.

Sources: National Science Foundation