{"title":"Toward Coequality of the Social Sciences in the National Climate Assessment.","authors":"Keely Maxwell, Emily Eisenhauer, Allyza Lustig","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0157.1","DOIUrl":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0157.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Integration of the social sciences into climate assessments enhances report content and actionable science. The literature has identified the benefits and challenges in achieving coequal intellectual partnerships between the social and biogeophysical sciences in climate research. Less has been written on how to rectify the issue in the particular institutional context of a climate assessment. This article uses qualitative research methods to analyze social science integration in the United States' Fourth National Climate Assessment. It presents findings from focus groups held with social science-and nonsocial science-trained report authors. It finds that knowledge governance, or the formal and informal mechanisms shaping how information is produced and used, and cultural worldviews about the role of social sciences in assessments and assessments in society, affected social science integration. Report authors' principal orientation toward the social sciences was as a means of achieving what they saw as the assessment's public function, namely, to support education, decision-making, and action. Author expertise, report framing, and knowledge systems were other key themes that emerged. Based on this analysis, we propose potential pathways toward coequal intellectual partnerships in assessments by expanding the diversity of chapter teams' expertise, enhancing connections between authors and society, reconsidering report framing, and broadening inclusion of knowledge systems. We also discuss the potential role of applying social science theories and methods throughout the report life cycle from framing and engagement to evaluation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9762488/pdf/nihms-1853975.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10426003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communicating Uncertainty Information in a Dynamic Decision Environment","authors":"Gala Gulacsik, S. Joslyn, J. Robinson, Chao Qin","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0186.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-21-0186.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The likelihood of threatening events is often simplified for members of the public and presented as risk categories such as the “watches” and “warnings” currently issued by National Weather Service in the United States. However, research (e.g., Joslyn and LeClerc) suggests that explicit numeric uncertainty information—for example, 30%—improves people’s understanding as well as their decisions. Whether this benefit extends to dynamic situations in which users must process multiple forecast updates is as yet unknown. It may be that other likelihood expressions, such as color coding, are required under those circumstances. The experimental study reported here compared the effect of the categorical expressions “watches” and “warnings” with both color-coded and numeric percent chance expressions of the likelihood of a tornado in a situation with multiple updates. Participants decided whether and when to take shelter to protect themselves from a tornado on each of 40 trials, each with seven updated tornado forecasts. Understanding, decision quality, and trust were highest in conditions that provided percent chance information. Color-coded likelihood information inspired the least trust and led to the greatest overestimation of likelihood and confusion with severity information of all expressions.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43794846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do you see what I see? How media choice and visual tornado cues influence individual storm preparation","authors":"Cory L. Armstrong, Anna Grace Usery","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0017.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0017.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000When a tornado hits, there is little time to think through mental checklists for needed items. This study attempted to understand what information sources those in the path of tornados utilized for preparation and how those sources influence people to act. Results from the study indicate TV and radio are the top two information sources and some visual graphics—gauged via heat maps to understand higher levels of severe weather preparation—were reported as useful. Contrary to meteorological intentions, results showed participants were less likely to prepare for impending weather when radar displayed tornado locations and intensity. Additionally, those who identified as having more interest in weather-related information in the study were significantly more likely to prepare, along with those who fear future tornadoes. Each variable explored is underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behavior and the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model to better understand behavioral intentions and actions. This study offers two new concepts of general weather not previously explored: interest and general versus specific storm preparation.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41253283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kathleen Sherman-Morris, Cole Vaughn, J. Senkbeil, Stephen Wooten
{"title":"The Influence of Demographic and Place Variables on Personalized Tornado Risk Area","authors":"Kathleen Sherman-Morris, Cole Vaughn, J. Senkbeil, Stephen Wooten","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0073.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0073.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000While there is clear evidence that proximity to a tornado or forecasted tornado increases an individual’s risk perception, the specific relationships between risk personalization and spatial variables are unclear. It has also been established that one’s own evaluation of distance does not always match objective measurement. This study sought to explain the differences in the distance at which an individual would personalize the risk from a tornado across personally relevant geospatial factors such as the distance between places frequented (e.g., home and work), urban/rural classification of the area, and the length of residence in the county. \u0000A survey of 1023 respondents across eight states (AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, MO, and TN) was used to obtain risk personalization distances, which were distinguished as “worry distances” (the distances at which one would worry about their house or loved ones, or take protective action) and “confirmation distances” (the distances at which one would expect to see, hear or feel the effects of a tornado). We found that individuals who traveled greater distances traveled more frequently to the grocery and another location, those who self-defined their area as urban, and those with advanced degrees had increased risk personalization distances. Lengthier residency in the county influenced these distances as well. Future research is required to better comprehend the relationship of place, risk perception, and geographic mobility on protective action when a tornado occurs.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43324885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lauren Vorhees, Jane L. Harrison, M. O’Driscoll, Charles P. Humphrey, J. Bowden
{"title":"Climate Change and Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems in the Coastal Carolinas: Perspectives from Wastewater Managers","authors":"Lauren Vorhees, Jane L. Harrison, M. O’Driscoll, Charles P. Humphrey, J. Bowden","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0192.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-21-0192.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Nearly half of the residents of North and South Carolina use decentralized or onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS). As the climate changes, coastal communities relying on OWTS are particularly vulnerable, as soil-based wastewater treatment may be reduced by water inundation from storm surge, sea level rise and associated groundwater rise, and heavy rainfall. Despite the vulnerabilities of OWTS to increased precipitation and sea level rise, there is little known about how onsite wastewater managers are responding to current and future climate risks. We conducted interviews with wastewater operators and installers and health regulators to understand the functioning, management, and regulation of OWTS in the current climate, challenges with rising sea levels and increases in extreme weather events, and what adaptation strategies could be implemented to mitigate negative impacts. Our results indicate that heavy precipitation and storm surges cause malfunctions for conventional septic systems where traditional site variables (e.g. soil type, groundwater level) are undesirable. Weather and climate are not required regulatory factors to consider in system selection and site approval, but many OWTS managers are aware of their impacts on the functioning of systems, and some are preemptively taking action to mitigate those impacts. Our findings suggest that filling gaps in the current communication structure between regulators and homeowners relying on OWTS is critical for coastal communities in the Carolinas to build climate resilience into decentralized wastewater infrastructure.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45930398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Climate Disaster on The Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from China","authors":"Xiaojun Chu, Jing Xu","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0002.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0002.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Climate change intensifies the probability and intensity of disaster and brings adverse impact on social and economic activities. This paper presents the impact of climate risk on the cost of equity capital (COE) and sheds light on the influence mechanisms and moderating factors between climate disasters shocks and the COE in the developing country. We first explain how climate risk represented by drought impact on the COE theoretically. Using the sample data of listed in A-share market from 2004 to 2019, we find that drought leads to the rise of the COE due to the deterioration of information environment and the rise of business risk. Specifically, the influence mechanism is tested and the results show that (1) drought increases firms’ real earnings management, (2) and drought has a negative impact on the firms’ ROA. Namely, the influence mechanism of drought on the COE is drought changes the firms’ information environment and business activities. Further analysis shows that the impact of drought on the COE is different in heterogeneous firm. The drought has a significant impact on the COE in firms with low-ability managers, state-owned enterprises, and politically connected firms, but not significant in firms with high-ability managers, non-state-owned enterprises, and non-politically connected firms. Our research helps people understand the consequences of climate change from the micro firm’s perspective.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48260501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sensitivity of Traffic Speed to Rainfall","authors":"K. Salvi, Mukesh Kumar, A. Hainen","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0024.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0024.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Hazardous weather conditions can pose threat to functioning of transportation systems. While the impacts of extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes/tornadoes and flooding) on transportation disruptions have received significant attention, minor transient disturbances in traffic and transport systems due to rainfall events have remained understudied. Given that a road network experiences rainfall events on a regular basis, which in turn likely reduces its efficiency through short-term disruptions, it is imperative to assess the influence of variations in rainfall intensity on the traffic speed. By synergistically using crowdsourced probe vehicle speed data and spatially-explicit meteorological data, this study quantifies the sensitivity of traffic speed to rainfall events of different intensities over 1,151 road sections within Alabama. It is observed that instead of variations in the rainfall intensity, traffic speed sensitivity is primarily influenced by road section’s free-flow speed (uninterrupted speed during dry-pavement conditions) and antecedent traffic volume. Relative sensitivity of road sections exhibits high consistency over different rainfall intensities across all road sections, thus underscoring the possibility of assessing sensitivities based only on speed data collected during rainfall intensities that are much more frequent. These results may be used to identify road sections and time periods with high sensitivity to rainfall, thus helping in prioritization of mitigation measures.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44064226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Collins, A. Polen, E. Dunn, I. Jernigan, K. McSweeney, M. Welford, M. Lackovic, Delián Colón-Burgos, Yi‐Jie Zhu
{"title":"Hurricanes Laura and Sally: A Case Study of Evacuation Decision-Making in the Age of COVID-19","authors":"J. Collins, A. Polen, E. Dunn, I. Jernigan, K. McSweeney, M. Welford, M. Lackovic, Delián Colón-Burgos, Yi‐Jie Zhu","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0160.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-21-0160.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study examines risk perceptions and evacuation planning for those residents affected by Hurricane Laura–the first major hurricane evacuation during the COVID-19 pandemic–and Hurricane Sally, prior to the widespread availability of vaccines. Research on hurricane evacuation behavior and risk perceptions during a pandemic is critical for quantifying the intersect of these compounding threats. Analyses captured how people perceive public shelters and whether evacuation choices changed in light of the pandemic. Many study participants considered themselves vulnerable to COVID-19 (39.4%) and two-thirds believed it would be “very serious” if they or their loved ones contracted COVID-19, but this had no impact on their actual evacuation decision-making. Approximately 75% of the sample stayed at home during Hurricanes Laura or Sally, and of these, just over 80% indicated that COVID-19 was a somewhat important deciding factor. This reflects the partial role that COVID-19 played in balancing individual and household protective action decision-making during complex disasters. Whereas 15.5% wanted to evacuate but waited until it was too late. For those who evacuated to a hotel, many found that staff and guests wore masks and socially distanced in common spaces. Of particular interest is that individuals have a continued negative perception of public shelters’ ability to safeguard against COVID-19 which was coupled with a significant decrease in the number of respondents that would potentially use shelters in 2020 compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. These results have and will inform future hazard mitigation planning during the current or future pandemic, or infectious disease outbreaks.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44521433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"IS CLIMATE CHANGE MIGRATION AN ADJUSTMENT TO EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS? A STUDY ON THE COASTAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH1","authors":"Mozharul Islam","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-21-0124.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-21-0124.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper explores the internal migration of fishers from coastal communities of Bangladesh in response to extreme weather events. It also assesses the vulnerabilities to extreme weather events of these coastal areas, in general, and of targeted fishing communities, in particular. This qualitative study employs a combination of methods, semi-structured interviews and observations, in two villages located in the eastern part of Kalapara Upazila, Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. The results indicate that the participants of the study are susceptible to the vulnerability of extreme weather events due to their households’ socio-economic and geographical location. This study shows that most people from the fishing communities do not migrate to other places to escape from the vulnerabilities as they have high dependency on fish-related activities. Also, there are various socio-economic and cultural factors that hinder their migration, including the Mohajon-Dadon system, migration costs, lack of skills and resources, and fear of income security. Instead of migrating, they develop their own traditional adaptation mechanisms to ensure their survival. These people remain underrepresented and are not adequately recorded in national or regional migration data.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44137301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative Analysis of Extreme Drought Events and Social Impacts in Henan Province During the Middle Ming Dynasty","authors":"Fangyu Tian, Xudong Chen, Yun Su","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0015.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0015.1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The analysis of historical climate change events can deepen the understanding of climate impacts and provide historical examples of coping with extreme events like drought. The data from historical records on droughts and famines were collected during the Chenghua drought (1483-1485 AD), Jiajing drought (1527-1529 AD) and Wanli drought (1584-1589 AD) in Henan Province in the Mid Ming Dynasty. Based on this, the average drought index (ADI), average famine index (AFI) and the average social regulation index (ASRI) were defined to quantitatively explore the differences in the social impacts of extreme droughts. The results were as follows: (1) As for ADI, the Wanli drought was the most severe (1.59), followed by the Jiajing drought (1.21) and the Chenghua drought (1.02). In terms of AFI, the famine conditions were the most severe during the Jiajing drought (0.43), followed by Chenghua drought (0.30) and the Wanli drought (0.15). (2) The ASRI values in the Chenghua drought, Jiajing drought and Wanli drought were 3.90, 3.90 and 4.54, respectively. It could be concluded society showed the highest social regulation ability during the Wanli drought and showed the same level of the two other droughts. However, for the key years, the social regulation ability of the Jiajing drought was higher than that of Chenghua drought, especially in the alleviation of low-grade drought. (3) From historical documents, the progress of agricultural technology, the progress of famine relief policy and the change in relief supplies greatly improved the social ability to cope with the extreme drought events.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43446640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}