Communication and dissemination of probabilistic flood forecasts
This study explored the best of communicating flood risk forecasts involving a probability calculation for various types of audience.
Documents
Details
This research aimed to establish the best way of communicating flood risk for different groups, including:
- professional partners
- internal staff
- small businesses
- the general public
It included a literature review into methods used internationally to communicate hazards and weather warnings. It also looked at how the public and professionals make sense of communications that involve messages around risk.
Researchers also held focus groups before making a series of recommendations to inform the Environment Agency’s policy on communicating risk probabilities.
Findings
This study showed that there’s a general appetite amongst internal staff, professional partners, small businesses and the general public to receive flood risk information using probabilities. Particularly from those that have experienced flooding in the past. It made 21 recommendations for how to approach rolling out these forecasts.
The project was started in 2007 and completed in 2009.