Boosting Value in Early Warnings Chain

The Value Chain Approaches to Describe, Improve, Value and Co-Design Early Warning Systems

The Value Chain Approaches to Describe, Improve, Value and Co-Design Early Warning Systems , recently published by WMO, provides a framework to analyse and optimize early warning systems, promoting a holistic view, driven by users' needs for information to respond to hazards. In addition to including weather and hazard knowledge and technology used in modelling, the publication considers the communication and decision-support aspects of warnings based on partnerships between experts and local communities.

In addition, the publication provides a guiding framework for various agencies and authorities, including emergency managers, forecasting agencies and government inquiry teams. It will aid in structuring evidence impacts of weather-related hazards along the early warning value chain and in identifying areas for targeted investment. Additionally, the value chain analysis approaches provided in the publication supports a wide range of applications and managerial decisions for organizations involved in early warning systems, guiding them on how to co-develop new early warning systems that align with the goals of the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative.

This new publication was produced under the High Impact Weather project of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) and jointly compiled with the Societal and Economic Research Applications (SERA) Working Group . The High Impact Weather project brought together meteorologists and practitioners, such as weather forecasting agencies, to examine Value Chain Approaches to Evaluate the End-to-End Warning Chain to gain an understanding of the shortcomings of weather forecasts and warnings, which derive from sophisticated observational and computational tools, and where they can be improved. The High Impact Weather project is an example of the integrative and interdisciplinary science that is today essential to address the complexity of effective warnings.

Diagram of a value chain and cycle for early warning systems, depicting stages from sensor technology to decision-making, with interconnected disciplines and a flow of information across stages.
Schematic value chain for high impact weather warning showing the capabilities and outputs (green "mountains") and information exchanges (bridges) linking the capabilities and their associated communities
from Golding et al. GAR2019
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.