Communicating Climate Tools to Coastal Stakeholders

Communicating Climate Tools to Coastal Stakeholders

Louisiana experiences extreme weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flood, drought, and even freezes. With rising temperatures, extreme events may occur more frequently and with greater intensity in the future. It is essential that valuable information about these events is communicated to decision-makers and the public to protect life and property.

The stakeholders at the center of this communication are broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers. They are tasked with sharing information from the National Weather Service and other providers. While meteorologists provide information daily, emergency managers take an active role during extreme weather. Together, they are the “trusted sources” of weather and climate information.

“Communicating Climate Tools to Coastal Stakeholders” is a project funded by Louisiana Sea Grant that investigated the use and communication of information about extreme weather events by broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers in parishes along the coast of Louisiana. The research team conducted surveys and interviews to generate the information presented here. Our target audience is coastal stakeholders (emergency managers and broadcast meteorologists) but we hope it will be useful to additional audiences.

We encourage you to read the brochures and consider the recommendations, listen to the podcasts, and read the papers describing the research. Please direct questions and comments to the Principal Investigator, Dr. Renee Edwards, edwards@lsu.edu