Meteorological services are increasingly able to predict weather hazards with greater precision and longer lead times. Demand for information is increasing, driven by the impacts of climate change on the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and changes in community expectations.  The value of weather services for public safety is contingent on communities being able to receive, understand and respond to information provided through forecasts and warnings. 

Delivering harmonised, inclusive, and actionable warning information is foundational to the delivery of the Early Warnings for All initiative which aims to ensure that all people on earth are protected with early warning systems by 2027.

The session will explore perspectives outlining the communication of nowcasting predictions and sub/seasonal forecasts. These, and other general aspects of warning dissemination and disaster risk reduction can be considered through the following topics:

• Visual Communication of Risk
  • Techniques for enhancing visual clarity and intuitive understanding of impact areas and event characteristics.
  • User-oriented graphical representation of hazards.
• Language and Accessibility
  • Strategies for simplifying language while maintaining scientific integrity.
  • Approaches to multilingual communication in diverse societies.
  • Ensuring semantic and semiotic clarity across age groups and literacy levels.
• Communication of uncertainty
  • Best practice for conveying probabilistic information and uncertainty in warnings.
  • Cultural and cognitive factors influencing public interpretation of risk.
  • Broad public response to probabilistic warnings.
• Channels and Styles of Communication
  • Challenges and potentials of traditional media, digital channels and formal and informal mechanisms for message distribution.
  • Role of trusted messengers and intermediaries: national meteorological services, community leaders, media, and hobbyist networks.
  • Emotional resonance and experiential storytelling in risk communication.

The production and use of weather data bridge an array of knowledge production systems, scientific disciplines, practitioner expertise, and user experiences. Over the last decade, interdisciplinary science has continued to advance research and practice within the weather enterprise. More recently, and linked with shifts in other scientific fields, researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders have begun working together in more integrated ways. These transdisciplinary approaches bring together academics and non-academics to improve scientific understanding and catalyze change. Ideally, they can inform all aspects of weather service provision by incorporating scientific, practitioner, and end-user perspectives across various stages of weather knowledge production and communication. At its most robust, transdisciplinary science pursues the co-production of research and the equitable inclusion of collaborators throughout the research process.

This session invites presentations on the many dimensions of transdisciplinary science and weather service research and practice. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Examples of effective knowledge coproduction frameworks. 
• Advances in weather and hazard modeling, forecasting, and verification.
• Advances in Impact-based forecasting.
• Improvements in risk mitigation and preparation.
• Approaches to anticipatory governance for risk reduction.
• Identification of geographic or analytical gaps in weather services.
• Methods to communicate complex weather data, risks, and probabilities to the public, or
• Improvements in access, reliability, and actionability of weather information

Surveys are essential tools for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) for collecting insights into user needs, service performance, and long-term trends. Effective survey design and implementation is crucial for ensuring results are valid, trustworthy and actionable in service design, performance analysis and strategic planning. At the same time, surveys also come with limitations with regards to the depth and the context dependency of the results, and the challenge of survey fatigue. This session examines the methodological, ethical, and operational considerations of using quantitative surveys, and discusses its strengths and weaknesses compared to other social science methods such as interview approaches, serious gaming, and other innovative methods, and the implications of survey-based insights.  We invite presentations addressing topics such as:

• Reasons for choosing surveys as a methodology. How to consider different opportunities and challenges across survey formats, including scalability and cost-effectiveness?
• The influence of  sampling methods on the generalisability of findings. Strategies to ensure creation of robust surveys for diverse user groups.  Approaches to deal with response bias, or limited generalisability due to smaller, non-representative samples.
• Ethical considerations in (digital) survey implementation such as informed consent, privacy, data security, and potential issues like digital exclusion;
• The strengths and weaknesses of surveys compared to other social science methods, such as interviewing, focus groups, serious games, and other innovative methods;
• Concrete research findings from innovative survey applications, such as using longitudinal surveys to provide a foundation for understanding trends in public perception of services or evolving user requirements. The role and use of ad-hoc surveys, including post-event evaluations, as responsive tools to collect immediate, targeted feedback to assess public awareness about or responses to high-impact events. 

Ultimately, the session aims to draw lessons about how to translate survey results into operational service improvements. Through case studies and real-world examples, the session provides an opportunity to share insights on how to apply survey insights to improve communication and better meet user needs, and strengthen NMHS role as responsive and relevant authorities within weather-ready societies.

This session explores the intersection of gender, youth and social inclusion as a central pillar in ensuring that the weather information services produced are well targeted and better understand the differential contexts and requirements for the different end users. This session will broadly understand gender as being roles and responsibilities that society ascribes to people based on a number of criteria which include sex, caste, ethnicity, race and educational levels. Youth will focus on the United Nations Youth definition, which is people who are below the age of 35. Social Inclusion takes into account the different aspects of people's individual circumstances, which may disadvantage them in terms of their access to and use of weather information, enabling them to be better informed in making the decisions they need to make. Social inclusion examples include people with disabilities, HIV/AIDs orphans, and child-headed households. It is important that gender, youth and social inclusion have significant implications on the agency that the respective individuals can respond to, beyond just accessing the information. Such a grounded understanding will ensure that the Early Warning for All translates into a reality for the lived experiences of people who experience differential circumstances.

Topics covering the following thematic areas are invited:

• How to co-design and communicate weather information for gender, youth, and social inclusion?
• How can modern technology be harnessed not to leave gender, youth and social inclusion behind?
• What are the conceptual frameworks that ensure that no one is left behind?
• What are the innovations that look at citizen science as a solution for communicating inclusive weather information?
• Sex disaggregated data or better and inclusive solutions for transformative societies.
• What are the youth-driven innovations for transforming EW4All?

The rapid advancement of AI technology in weather prediction (AI-WP) is transforming operational forecasting as well as how we understand and respond to weather information. This session will explore the intersection of AI-WP and social science research, focusing on how emerging AI-based technologies are rapidly changing high-impact weather prediction capabilities; how AI forecasts are perceived and used; and how AI-WP and AI tools can address societal needs, improve decision-making, and mitigate risks. 

The session invites researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share their insights and contribute to shaping inter- and transdisciplinary and social science research on the opportunities and impacts of AI applications across forecast service value chains.

Presentations that address (but not limited to) the following topics are invited:

• AI-WP and disaster preparedness: How AI-driven weather prediction can enhance early warning systems and community resilience to extreme weather events.  
• Ethical Implications of AI-WP: Addressing biases, transparency, and accountability in AI models used for weather forecasting. 
• Perceptions of and trust in AI-generated information: Understanding how both providers and users of forecast information perceive and trust AI-generated forecasts, as well as implications for public communication strategies.
• AI for studying human responses: Examining how AI tools can be applied to diverse datasets to study human perceptions, responses, and impacts associated with high-impact weather predictions.
• Inter- and transdisciplinary research: Case studies or frameworks for integrating AI-WP implementation efforts with social science research.  

Through a keynote presentation, research talks, and a forward-looking panel discussion, the session aims to foster dialogue on the societal implications of the emergence of AI-WP and explore opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaborations.