Societal and Economic Research Applications

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Mission

 

SERA aims to advance the science of the social and economic applications of weather-related information and services. SERA has the responsibility for the entire range of timescales and societal and economic research and applications associated with the WWRP. SERA brings the knowledge of how to co-design and implement research projects between physical and social scientists to achieve more useful information for society.

SERA will

  • Support definition of the objectives and expected impacts of WWRP projects and activities to ensure the incorporation of appropriate social science methods and approaches;
  • Stimulate a clear and consistent strategy for advancing the societal aspect of the WWRP projects and activities, drawing on expertise and networks from members, their networks and other WMO commissions;
  • Promote the integration of all knowledges including social and economic and particularly Indigenous and local knowledge in WWRP projects as appropriate;
  • Identify gaps, needs, and challenges for reducing the risks to society; 
  • Bring people together from the operational meteorological and hydrological services, research, practitioners, and forecast user communities, while connecting and collaborating with early- and mid-career scientists. 

Working Group Members

 

  • Co-Chair: Carla Mooney, BOM
  • Co-Chair: Isadora Jiménez, Lobelia Earth
  • Machiel Lamers, WUR
  • Gilbert Siame, UNZA
  • Donald R. Nelson, UGA
  • Julio C. Postigo, IU
  • Everisto Madepza, IWMI
  • Nekeisha Spencer, UWI
  • Jelmer Jeuring, NWI

The members introduce themselves

Co-Chair Carla Mooney (PhD environmental law) is the National Manager of Disaster Mitigation Policy at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She has extensive experience in applied social research into environmental and weather-related service development. Carla is especially interested in bringing the needs of users into the design of products and services to maximise their capacity to inform decision making by emergency managers and the public. Her focus currently includes the development of a Future Warning Framework which supports the transition to impact-based services and a multi-agency collaboration investigating heatwave vulnerability in Australia with the potential to extend the methodology to other hazards. She has extensive experience in evidence-based policy development in both the academic and public sectors.

Co-Chair Dr Isadora Jiménez is the Project Lead at Lobelia Earth. Prior to this, she worked as the Knowledge Transfer team leader at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). Dr Jiménez has 10 years of experience in science communication and for the last 6 years, she has been involved in the development of weather and climate services with a special focus on visual communication of climate and air quality information. She leads a multidisciplinary team of 12 experts with multiple profiles from Social Sciences and Humanities that covers all aspects of knowledge transfer of climate and air quality information. The transdisciplinary approach in the team enhances the co-design and implementation of user-tailored services ranging from the creation of online digital tools to capacity building. The aim is to facilitate short term decision making regarding air quality and sand and dust storms management (24-48h), as well as climate change adaptation at shorter time scales (from the coming weeks up to years in advance).


News

 


Meetings