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Communicating complex forecasts: An analysis of the approach in Nepal's flood early warning system

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

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  • Mirianna Budimir
  • Amy Donovan
  • Sarah Brown
  • Puja Shakya
  • Dilip Gautam
  • Madhab Uprety
  • Michael Cranston
  • Alison Sneddon
  • Paul Smith
  • Sumit Dugar
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>13/03/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Geoscience Communication
Issue number1
Volume3
Number of pages22
Pages (from-to)49-70
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Early warning systems have the potential to save lives and improve resilience. However, barriers and challenges remain in disseminating and communicating early warning information to institutional decision-makers, community members and individuals at risk, including unequal access, insufficient understanding, and inability to act on warning information. Research was undertaken to analyse and understand the current flood early warning system in Nepal, considering available data and forecasts, information flows, early warning dissemination, and decision-making for early action. Data were collected from key informant interviews, community-level questionnaires, and a national stakeholder workshop and qualitatively analysed. The availability and utilisation of simple and complex flood forecasts in Nepal, and their integration into dissemination, and decision support tools were reviewed, considering their impact on improving early action to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities to flooding. Results suggest that as Nepal continues to advance in hydro-meteorological forecasting capabilities, efforts are simultaneously needed to ensure these forecasts are more effectively communicated and disseminated.

Bibliographic note

Funding Information: Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the Z Zurich Foundation for funding provided as part of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, and the enumerators and Practical Action Nepal staff who collected the data at community level and performed the key informant interviews at sub-national level. Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) 2020.