Usability of Forecasts

This programme of interdisciplinary research involved working with physicists and hydrologists to better understand the socio-technical dimensions of production, circulation and use (or non-use) of probabilistic weather and climate forecasts for resource and hazard management. I worked on case studies of drought modelling and management in the UK, and weather/climate forecasting for water management and agriculture in Belize. My study of weather and climate knowledge for water security in Turkana, Kenya is also related to this body of work.

This research has been funded by the Oxford Martin Programme on Resource Stewardship (OMPORS), REACH: Improving water security for the poor (DfID-funded), and the NERC-funded project Improving Predictions of Drought for User Decision-Making (IMPETUS)

• Haines, S. 2022. Encountering the Climate Regime: “Useful” Climate Knowledge and the Work of Forecasts. Hot Spots, Fieldsights (Society for Cultural Anthropology)

• Haines, S. 2019. Reckoning resources: political lives of anticipation in Belize’s water sector. Science & Technology Studies. Online first.

• Haines, S. 2019 Managing expectations: articulating expertise in climate services for agriculture in Belize. Climatic Change. doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2357-1

• Hannaford, J., Collins, K., Haines, S. & Barker, L. 2019 Enhancing drought monitoring and early warning for the UK through stakeholder co-enquiries. Weather, Climate & Society 11(1):49-63

• Lopez, A. & Haines, S. 2017. Exploring the usability of probabilistic weather forecasts for water resources decision-making in the United Kingdom. Weather, Climate, & Society, 9(4):701-715

• Haines, S. & Lopez, A. 2015. Interdisciplinary working means stepping outside your comfort zone. Oxford Martin School website