NOAA Funds Research on Use of New Information Technologies

Inside the Mississippi State Emergency Operations Center - Hurricane Isaac

In an effort to improve its exchange of information with the public, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recently announced the award of four research grants related to emergency preparedness and response.  They are:

1. Tornadoes and Twitter: "...how Twitter messages could be tapped as a source of local weather observations and how Twitter could be used to share weather updates."
2. An Inundation of Flood Data: "...research to develop strategies to improve online flood forecasting tools and to better motivate residents to prepare for floods and respond to flood warnings."
3. Deciding to Seek Shelter: "...research to explore factors that explain why some people rush for shelter when they receive a tornado warning and others do not."
4. Managing a Weather Emergency: "...research on how NWS can improve its products and services to feed helpful information into the complex network of people who manage public emergency services."

For the full story on this development, use the link below:

New NOAA Awards to Fund Studies of Weather Warnings, Social Media, Internet Tools and Public Response

Comment: As they have done in the past with the introduction of graphic communication products that support their information exchange with the public, looks like NOAA is again taking a position of national leadership in determining how to best leverage current and emerging technologies to deliver disaster related information. Great to see - keep up the good work!