How Managers Apply Weather and Climate Information for Decision-Making in the United States

Abstract

As the climate continues to warm, precipitation events are projected to become more intense, leaving communities to prepare for potential increases in flooding. There is currently a wealth of weather and climate information available that practitioners can use to make decisions for their jurisdictions; however, this information can be hard to access, understand, and incorporate into standard operating procedures. To document the barriers to transitioning research into operations, the Prediction of Rainfall Extremes at Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Periods (PRES2iP) project team established connections with different groups of natural resource managers from across the United States to understand how they think about and plan for heavy precipitation events. Through a stakeholder engagement workshop and conducting semi-structured interviews, the author of this thesis examines how practitioners use weather and climate information in their positions, additional factors that influence decision-making, and what weather or climate information practitioners wish they had when making decisions. Practitioners are more likely to be familiar with short-term weather forecasts than long-term climate predictions or projections, but they are willing to learn how to interpret and apply information for long-term planning. Additionally, other factors besides weather and climate information, such as budget constraints or the power of county officials, shape how practitioners make decisions. Overall, decision-making across timescales is a complex process where managers rely on multiple types of information.