Weather and Society Integrated Studies

Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) is an international movement that is changing the weather enterprise by integrating social science into meteorological research and practice. WAS*IS was formed to build an interdisciplinary community of practitioners, researchers and decision makers collaborating to effectively understand how to improve weather warnings, incorporate societal impacts into weather forecasts, and use social science tools and methods. WAS*IS is changing the culture from what WAS to what IS the future of integrated studies. WAS*IS has 145 representatives from the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Finland and the Netherlands. WAS*ISers come from many parts of the weather enterprise including meteorology, emergency management, hydrology, geography, climatology, psychology, economics, ecology, education and anthropology.

History

WAS*IS was established in 2005 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) located in Boulder, Colorado. WAS*IS was started by Dr. Eve Gruntfest, a geographer at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Julie Demuth, an atmospheric scientist at NCAR, as part of NCAR's [http://www.sip.ucar.edu/ Societal Impacts Program] . Dr. Gruntfest was inspired by the comments of physical scientists she met during her career who were interested in integrating meteorology and social science but were unsure how to do the work, and did not know anyone else involved in societal impacts research or practice.

WAS*IS has received support from the US Weather Research Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, NCAR's [http://www.sip.ucar.edu/ Societal Impacts Program] , the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and NCAR's [http://www.isse.ucar.edu/ Institute for the Study of Society and Environment] . Additional workshop support has come from the University of Oklahoma, [http://www.mei.monash.edu.au/ Monash University Sustainability Institute] , [http://www.arcness.mq.edu.au/ ARC Network for Earth System Science,] Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and [http://www.ema.gov.au Emergency Management Australia] .

References

*University Corporation for Atmospheric Research [http://www.ucar.edu/communications/quarterly/winter0607/wasis.jsp Quarterly Report]
* [http://ams.confex.com/ams/87ANNUAL/techprogram/session_19948.htm American Meteorological Society’s 87th Annual Conference]
* [http://ams.confex.com/ams/88Annual/techprogram/paper_134432.htm American Meteorological Society’s 88th Annual Conference]
* [http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_waq.html/ NOAA Research]
* [http://www.essl.org/ECSS/2007/economy.htm European Severe Storms Laboratory]

Articles Published by WAS*ISers

* [http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2FWAF1031.1 Barnes, L. R., E. C. Gruntfest, M, H. Hayden, D. M. Schultz, and C. Benight, 2007: False alarms and close calls: A conceptual model of warning accuracy. "Wea. Forecasting", 22, 1140-1147.]
* [http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/88/11/pdf/i1520-0477-88-11-1729.pdf Demuth, J.L., E.C. Gruntfest, R.E. Morss, S. Drobot and J.K. Lazo, 2007: WAS*IS: Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science. "Bull. Amer. Met.Soc"., 88(11), 1729–1737.]
* [http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=NHREFO000008000003000087000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=Yes Gladwin, H., J.K. Lazo, B.H. Morrow, W.G. Peacock, and H.E. Willoughby. 2007: Social Science Research Needs for the Hurricane Forecast and Warning System. Natural Hazards Rev., 8(3), 87-95.]

External links

* [http://www.sip.ucar.edu/wasis/ WAS*IS website]