The Human Dimension

1. The Human Dimension Renee A. McPherson Oklahoma Climatological Survey & The Oklahoma Mesonet

2. NRC Report Recommendation • Independent team of social and physical scientists • End-user assessment for selected sectors • Quantify current use and value of mesoscale data in decision making • Project future trends and value of enhanced network • After implementation, conduct periodic assessments to quantify change in use and added societal impact and value

3. A Good First Step • NRC Report recommendation is an important first step • It recognizes the needed partnership between the social and physical sciences to examine the human dimension • It acknowledges that people are the drivers for the integrated information needed now and in the future • It emphasizes that we need to quantify value better as a weather community

4. Unanswered Questions • However, there remains a host of additional, unanswered questions that require partnership with social scientists from various disciplines... • “What is the range of uncertainty in a given observed variable (e.g., air temperature) that the public is willing to accept? Are there specific values of the observation (e.g., freezing point) that the public does not accept as much uncertainty in the measurement?” • “How do adults learn to understand and apply new types of observations (e.g., soil moisture)? Do they require instruction? If so, what instructional methodologies are best?”

5. Unanswered Questions (cont.) • “Does the public lose trust in an observing system if the time between the observation measurement and data dissemination is too long? If so, what is that length of time? Does it vary geographically? Does it vary by weather phenomenon?” • “Does the public lose trust in an observing system if the dissemination system withholds data that do not pass a certain level of the automated quality assurance process? If it disseminates data that do not pass the automated QA?” • “Does higher quality, more frequent, and/or higher spatial resolution of observations result in better public policy?”

6. Unanswered Questions (cont.) • “Does a public perception of better observations lead to a perception of better forecasts? Are these perceptions linked? If so, how?” • “How does the brain formulate a data query? Is it dependent on social networks? Perceived threats?” • “Given no formal education in meteorological data interpretation, how are different visualizations of data interpreted? Does visualizing the same data in different ways enlighten or confuse?” • ... and many more

7. Working Together • Social scientists have specialty areas and, hence, 1-2 social scientists on a team does not represent the breadth of knowledge needed • Like meteorologists, who cannot rely on the scientific method to experiment with our evolving atmosphere, social scientists rely on case studies, statistical analyses, and other proven methodologies • We share similar passions to save lives and property, expand the economy, and enhance quality of life

8. Steps Forward • Include experts from multiple social science disciplines in the full process, from planning to implementation to review • Create an understanding of the link between the human and physical environments in all undergraduate and graduate meteorology programs • Hire social scientists in your company or organization to engage developers and users on new products and services or to help answer applied research questions

9. Final Thought Humans, not the measurement hardware or software, are the foundation to why we observe the environment. We need to keep humans as “part of the equation” by partnering with those who understand and study human behavior.