Decision Making, Uncertainty, and Information

Assessment of the use of quantitative streamflow forecast information by Colorado Basin River Forecast Center stakeholders

This project is aimed at developing a comprehensive understanding of the use of information by stakeholders of the NOAA/NWS Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC). Through surveys and interviews, the researchers will assess the climate information needs of CBRFC stakeholders and how they do or do not use quantitative streamflow forecasts. This will provide 1) a better understanding of how water managers and others who use CBRFC forecasts deal with variability and 2) a context through which to view and understand the potential utility of the results of the “Snowmelt Perturbations in the Upper Colorado River Basin” project.

Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate

Each day, in the face of deep uncertainty, millions of decisions are made that respond to and influence the behavior of climate. How does the nation's multi-billion dollar investment in climate research affect those decisions? How can the societal value ofthis scientific investment be enhanced? These are the core organizing questions for the NSF-funded project, Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC). Read more ...

Understanding Demand for Climate Adaptation Information Across Scales

In this project post doc Christine Kirchhoff has examined how climate-related information is used in water management contexts across vertical scales, as well as in different contexts across comparable horizontal scales. She asked questions about how information is selected, what types of information is currently demanded, how information flows across scales, how trust factors into information use, and the like. Read more ...

Toward a Framework for Assessing Stakeholder Needs for Climate Information

Together with the Great Lakes and Carolinas RISAS, this Western Water Assessment-funded project has developed a database of stakeholder needs across the Colorado River Basin from past and current stakeholder reports, meetings, and studies, coding the information for variables of interest and developing a comprehensive framework that can be accessed and tested by other RISAs and assessment groups. Read more ...