An ad hoc committee will plan a workshop to bring together experts to explore challenges and learning opportunities around actionable and understandable risk communication with decision-makers for extreme weather events. In particular, the workshop may consider the information needs, capabilities, and motivations of different decision-making audiences for risk communication (government, industrial, public) in the service of protecting lives, property and livelihoods. Discussions will include issues of justice, equity and inclusion in risk communication and community engagement both with and for vulnerable and underserved communities.
Workshop discussion will consider the following topics:
• Explore the current understanding of effective communication practices and features to convey to decision-makers uncertainty/probabilistic information about risks associated with discrete, extant extreme weather events. Discussions may include barriers faced by decision-makers in implementing uncertainty/probabilistic information, benefits and challenges with existing Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS), and lessons learned in the light of recent events.
• Examine risk communication and decision-making challenges posed by extreme weather events that are unprecedented in nature or scale for the affected locations. Discuss what communication practices and features are most effective for addressing these challenges, which may include accounting for historical precedence, diverse populations, and the impacts of climate change on the nature, behavior and frequency of extreme weather events as well as the potential for compounding or cascading events.
• Explore opportunities for learning from synergies, successes and challenges across multiple hazards and decision-making contexts and applying them to the hurricane context. Discussions may include hazard or event types with different lead times, different motivations (or success criteria) among decision-makers, vulnerable communities or livelihood sectors with different characteristics, outcomes of communication that are considered both “successful” and “unsuccessful”, and factors and strategies that contribute to successful community engagement and co-production of risk-reduction strategies.