Needs, Uses, Perceptions, and Attitudes towards Weather and Climate Forecast Information by Water Resource Managers in the Southeastern United States

Contact Person: Martinez, Christopher J.

Collaborators: T. Borisova, N. E. Breuer, J.W. Jones, C. J. Martinez, D. E. Stooksbury

Institutions: UF, University of Miami, University of Georgia

Funding Agency: NOAA

Start: July 2010 End: June 2012

Status: Funded

Filed Under: Human Dimensions, Extension, Water

Abstract: The overall goal of this project is to provide an assessment of the current uses of, needs for, perceptions of, and attitudes towards weather and climate information, forecasts, and derived products by water resource managers in the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, as well as to identify gaps in diagnostic and forecast information currently available. Water resource management systems in these three states vary in terms of size, complexity, institutional and regulatory constraints, infrastructure, and water source. This project will target large and midsized water resource managers in the three states and will increase our understanding of the issues and constraints to integrating forecasts into decision making, and the potential opportunities for providing custom-tailored, user-centric tools. Regional- and sector-specific assessment of users of such information is essential for providing custom-tailored information,tools, and decision support in the future. Based on preliminary survey results collected from water resource managers in the region, evaporation forecasts have been cited as one of the most desired products. In this project we will develop 1-14 day and monthly evaporation forecasts (with a forecast horizon of 9 months) using forecast analogs from the reforecast archives currently available for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecasting System (GFS) and the Climate Forecast System (CFS). The analog forecasts will be downscaled to a resolution of 32-km using the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) dataset. The concurrent assessment of water resource managers and the development of forecast tools in this and other projects will provide an opportunity for feedback between scientists of the Southeast Climate Consortium (SECC) and end-users.

The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.