HR: 08:45h
AN: GC31A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Science, Stakeholders, and Flood Decision-Making: Three Cases in Weather and Climate
AU: * Morss, R E
EM: morss@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 United States
AB: Flood-related decision-making is complicated by a number of factors, including incomplete scientific knowledge, uncertainty in predictions, weather and climate variability and change, multiple interacting space and time scales, and multiple interacting stakeholders with different values and perspectives. This work explores the how these and other factors influenced the interplay between science and decision-making in three cases of severe local flooding that occurred within one year, but in different climatic regions of the U.S.: 1) the Red River Flood of April-May 1997 in Grand Forks, ND and East Grand Forks, MN; 2) the Fort Collins, CO flood in July 1997; and 3) the Pescadero Creek, CA flood in February 1998. Because all three communities had previously experienced significant flooding, decisions immediately prior to and during each flood were embedded within a longer-term flood and water management decision context. Each of the floods was also embedded within a larger regional climatic context that affected scientific information, flood risk perceptions, decision-making, and outcomes. By comparing and contrasting the interactions among science, decisions, and outcomes in these three cases, it is hoped that broader lessons can be learned that can be applied to and investigated in other water decision-making contexts.
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005