Forecasting with fishers: co-producing knowledge for early warning of extreme weather events on the coast of South India

拟议的多学科项目旨在通过改善海上安全，使南印度个体渔民的生计更加安全和可持续。将这些小规模渔民与天气预报员和政府机构聚集在一起，将设计、测试和促进共同制作和传播准确天气预报的有效方法，从而提高渔民在气候变化的极端和危险天气条件下的应变能力。此外，该项目还将制定实用方法的“行动模板”和路线图，以便共同制作和向印度其他地区和其他地区的个体渔民传播可获得和有效的天气预报。它还将促进关于以下问题的学术辩论：对环境风险的理解和应对；信息和通信技术(信通技术)在向各种弱势群体传播信息和警告方面的作用；以及亚洲渔业社区的知识、做法和生计。拟议项目的主要目标是缩小海洋天气预报员制作和传播的内容与手工渔民认为可用于决策的相关和可操作的投入之间的差距。获得可靠和可行的预报有助于渔民在危险天气条件下作出出海或不出海的明智决定，从而减少海上潜在危及生命的事故的风险，减少渔具和船只的损失，更广泛地说，增强对危险天气条件的复原力。这种适应天气变化的路径将有助于促进印度和全球南方其他地区个体渔民更安全和可持续的生计。该项目将是名为苏塞克斯可持续发展研究方案(SSRP)的更大努力的一部分，以提供与在17个中低收入国家实施可持续发展目标相关的科学。拟议的项目借鉴了一个由人类学家、地理学家、大气和海洋科学家以及信息和通信技术和媒体专家组成的多学科研究小组的专门知识，结合了互补的方法方法。它利用人种学方法研究作为手工捕鱼基础的更广泛的社会、经济和文化做法，并衡量渔民的预测使用和摄入量。它使用卫星和现场天气观测，以深入了解不断变化的危险模式和预报挑战，并获得必要的数据，以便与渔民、预报员和其他利益攸关方共同制作特定地区的天气预报。它将采用在人机交互和ICT4D领域开发的参与式方法和技术，共同制作和测试有效的、适合文化的通信平台，以传播天气预报并提供反馈。为了考虑到捕捞技术和技术的差异、渔业的社会经济组织以及不同形式的社会组织和文化取向，实地调查将在三个不同的渔业社区进行。这些渔场将分别设在印度南部的Kanyakumari、Thiruvananthapuram和Kollam区，这是一片海岸，拥有亚洲最密集的个体渔民之一，在不同的地理环境中使用不同的工艺、渔具和捕鱼方法。

The proposed multi-disciplinary project aims to making South Indian artisanal fishers' livelihoods more secure and sustainable by improving safety at sea. Bringing together these small-scale fishers with weather forecasters and government agencies, it will devise, test and promote effective means for the co-production and communication of accurate weather forecasts, thus increasing resilience of the fishers amidst a trend of extreme and hazardous weather conditions in a changing climate. Moreover, the project will devise an "action template" of practical methods and a road-map for co-producing and communicating accessible and effective weather forecasts to artisanal fishers elsewhere in India and beyond. It will also contribute to academic debates concerning: the understanding and response to environmental risks; the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in disseminating information and warnings to diverse and vulnerable populations; and the knowledge, practices and livelihoods of fishing communities in Asia. The main objective of the proposed project is to close the gap between what marine weather forecasters produce and disseminate, and what artisanal fishers recognize as relevant and actionable inputs for decision-making. Access to trusted and actionable forecasts helps fishers make informed decisions to go to sea or not under hazardous weather conditions, thus reducing risk of potentially life-threatening accidents at sea, diminishing the loss of gear and boats, and, more generally, building resilience against hazardous weather conditions. Such weather-resilient pathways will contribute to promoting more secure and sustainable livelihoods for artisanal fishers in India and elsewhere in the Global South. This project will be part of a larger effort called the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) to provide science relevant for implementing the SDGs in seventeen low and medium income countries. Drawing on the expertise of a multi-disciplinary research team--comprising anthropologists, geographers, atmospheric and marine scientists, and ICT and media experts - the proposed project combines complementary methodological approaches. It utilizes ethnographic methods to study the wider social, economic and cultural practices underpinning artisanal fishing, as well as to gauge fishers' forecast usage and uptake. It uses satellite and in-situ weather observations to gain insights into changing hazard patterns and forecast challenges, as well as to acquire the necessary data to co-produce area-specific weather forecasts with fishers, forecasters and other stakeholders. It will employ participatory approaches and technologies developed in the fields of human-computer interaction and ICT4D to co-produce and test effective, culturally appropriate communication platforms to disseminate weather forecast and provide feedback on the same. To account for variations in fishing techniques and technologies, and in the socio-economic organization of fishing, as well as different forms of social organization and cultural orientations the field-research will take place in three different fishing communities. These will be located, respectively, in Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts in South India, a stretch of coast with one of the densest concentrations of artisanal fishers in Asia, using diverse craft, gear and fishing methods in a geographically diverse setting.