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User and Community Interactions

Project Lead: G. McBean

STAR has initiated a process to rethink the way that weather information such as watches and warnings are disseminated in the North. Through focused, semi-structured interviews of long-term residents, elders, hunters, sealift workers and outfitters, STAR has been able to uncover concerns with the current methods of distributing weather information across southern Baffin Island communities. Interviewees were asked to discuss the impacts of hazardous weather and related events, and the ways that residents adapt to, prepare for, and know in advance about these events. The recommendations from this research include providing daily hazard maps along with point forecasts, installing physical markers in waterways for depth and ice hazards, and integrating local and scientific knowledge and language into forecast products.

Iqaluit, Nunavut looking over Frobisher Bay in August 2009.