National weather service (NWS) faces a broad set of challenges in communicating risk information to diverse communities during high-impact weather events like flooding

This $1,442,344 Cooperative Agreement award, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Cooperative Institute (Inter-Agency Funded Activities) program (CFDA 11.405), aims to improve the National Weather Service's (NWS) flood risk communication to diverse communities. The project, led by the University of Oklahoma, will collect longitudinal data and conduct analysis to better align weather services with user needs, with a focus on compound flooding events. Key objectives include providing data to guide ongoing flood risk communication improvements and enabling holistic evaluation of changes in later years. The award term runs from August 1, 2024, to July 31, 2029.

Effective risk communication requires understanding the needs of different user groups, which necessitates systematic data collection on these communities. Flooding poses a particular challenge due to its compound nature, often CO-occurring with other hazards. The NWS is investing in new models and tools while reorganizing forecast responsibilities to focused centers, like the national water prediction service, to improve flood risk communication. However, longitudinal data and analysis are needed to inform this development and evaluate its impact on different users including emergency managers and the public. The university of oklahomas projects (extreme weather and society, extreme weather and emergency management) aim to provide this crucial data by collecting information from communities to better align weather services with user needs. This project proposes to further integrate these initiatives into NWS operations through additional data collection, survey design, and analysis, with a focus on compound flooding events. The core objective is to provide invaluable data to guide ongoing flood risk communication improvements in the initial years and enable holistic evaluation of changes in later years.