A Trial of Collaborative Construction of Local Weather Information at Nakajima School District in Ise

Various improvements in severe weather information have been carried out for disaster prevention. Their attention is mainly on the accuracy and contents, and implicit relationship that “weather information is announced by Japan Meteorological Agency and users simply receive the information” is assumed. However, the present study breaks this one-way relationship and focuses on the establishment of bi-directional one through collaborative construction of local weather information among relevant groups. This collaboration takes a form that various relevant members consider the details of information together and share disaster risk through the information (local weather information). This trial of the collaboration was conducted among the local meteorological office, the local government and the residents of the study area: Nakajima school district, Ise City, which is in the central Japan. Through this collaboration, the contents of local weather information were discussed by the participants. Results showed that most participants had bi-directional, active communication and three kinds of significant bi-directional risk communication were found. Moreover, they recognized the significance of the collaboration, which signifies a novel type of communication not previously seen in conventional weather information systems.