Early Warning Early Action: Toward More Behaviorally Informed Early Warning Systems

Early warning systems (EWSs) have traditionally focused on collecting and analyzing hazard data to produce warning messages that help inform stakeholders of impending disasters and when, where, and how to initiate response activities. Social constructivist understandings of risk have led to more people-centered approaches to EWS design and development. The resulting systems, though better informed, have consistently struggled to produce the preparation and early actions of exposed and vulnerable populations. This paper builds on decades of psychology and social and behavioral change theory and practice to propose a social and behaviorally informed approach to EWS design, development, and implementation. The approach focuses on identifying proper early actions and the determinants of those behaviors in order to improve the likelihood that affected populations heed early warnings and take proper action to protect themselves and the resources they may require for recovery.

Are you sure you want to delete this "resource"?
This item will be deleted immediately. You cannot undo this action.

Related Resources

Research
30 Jan 2015
The capacity of actors and institutions to learn and reorganize is central to the resilience of complex systems, particularly in the context of rapidly urbanizing cities. A process of qualitative, reflective research among practitioners within the As...
Tags: Research, Climate Change Adaptation
Report
29 Oct 2018
This presentation was given by Andreas Schaffhauser on 1 November, 2018, at the CAP Implementation Workshop in Hong Kong, China.
Tags: Report, Early Warning Systems
Research
09 Jan 2023
This research is carried out by Bethwel Mutai 1 with funding support from the Global Disaster Preparedness Center. Although heat-related disasters have risen worldwide, lack of reliable and consistent climate datasets and standard detection metrics i...
Tags: Research, Heat Wave
Scroll to Top