An assessment of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia water managers’ perceptions, needs, and capacity to...
24
An assessment of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia water managers’ perceptions, needs, and capacity to integrate climate information into decision making December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga. Jessica Bolson University of Florida, Southeast Climate Consortium
-
Upload
kelley-davidson -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
Transcript of An assessment of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia water managers’ perceptions, needs, and capacity to...
An assessment of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia water managers’
perceptions, needs, and capacity to integrate climate information into
decision making
December 2, 2011NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Jessica BolsonUniversity of Florida, Southeast Climate
Consortium
Assessment Projects
• 2 SARP Projects– Martinez et al.• Mid to large size water managers throughout Florida,
Alabama, and Georgia
– Srivastava et al.• Small water managers in ACF Basin
• SECC Collaborators:– Norman Breuer, Pam Knox, Tatiana Borisova
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
-Objectives of assessment projects
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Background– Diverse water
systems & audience:• Management
structures and institutions
• Water sources• Geography• Stakeholders• Resources
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
• AND… ClimateDecember 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Research ApproachRegion- and sector-specific assessment of stakeholders is essential to
providing useful and relevant forecasts and decision support
Ongoing iterative feedback using tools/forecasts currently under development
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Survey dissemination statistics
Surveys successfully
emailedSurveys
completed Response rate
838 68 7.88%
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Who responded to the online survey
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Rate the importance of these drivers on your system
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
What decisions are being made? At what time scales?
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Rate your vulnerability to…
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Awareness of sources of information
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Forecast (SCF) Awareness & Use
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Barriers and bridges to using information
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Awareness of climate change sources
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
What products are wanted?
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Assessment objective #4 :
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Test theorized indicators of adaptive capacity: (Eakin and Lemos, 2006)•Networks and social capital•Information and technology•Material resources and infrastructure
Past adaptations and interactions with climate researchers
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Past adaptations and size of
system
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Past adaptations and system
budget
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Past adaptations and use of SCF
Take homes…so far• Most wanted list includes seasonal variability products
specific to watershed • Extreme events, especially drought concerns managers• Decisions differ in nature across time scales• Many reasons for limited forecast use, the most
common was difficulty understanding them• Awareness of climate products is limited,
communication needs improvement• Some theorized indicators of adaptive capacity may not
be proven empirically, however use of SCF may be!!!
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Next steps:• Survey designed • Survey Tested • IRB approval • Survey distribution • Interviews • Coding open ended questions results• Statistical analysis of results• Concurrent tool development
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Drought Response
December 2, 2011 NIDIS Meeting, Buford, Ga.
Most effective drought responses taken:
• implement water restrictions
• held additional water in storage
• drought action plan
• policy change or rule making
• increase water prices
• establish conservation program• advertised to increase conservation
awareness
Least effective drought responses taken:
• reduce water permit quantity
• reduce water supply to ag users
• reduce water to environmental flows
