Evaluation of socioeconomic benefits of meteorological services is a rising topic in Europe and elsewhere, both in NHMS’s and in international organisations to justify public funding. The WMO has already been supporting the uptake of such evaluations for over ten years, which was reaffirmed in the Madrid Action Plan in 2007. Uptake is nonetheless still hesitant, even though the needs and pressures to do so are increasing in many parts of the World.
Evaluation of socioeconomic benefits of meteorological services is a challenge not only because it necessitates the meteorological community to reach out to other disciplines, but also because there is not one generally applicable evaluation model for all types of services and NHMS’s, and to some extent also because of lack of data and tailored toolboxes.
Evaluation of socioeconomic benefits can be done by means of different methods and may cover either a wide spectrum of services or sectors or be very specific. Also assessment of multi-purpose and multi-owner infrastructure is often a challenging element in this kind of evaluations. We invite contribution to this topic area dealing with evaluation methodologies, applied appraisal studies, comparative studies, and decision support for priority setting regarding infrastructure investments and operations. Contributions with a broad coverage of services and/or economic sectors (or user groups) as well as very specific appraisals are welcome.
Please be advised that the contribution should include a substantial economic valuation aspect. In this light co-authored contributions, e.g. involving both meteorologists and economists are encouraged (but not a conditio sine qua non).
The session organizers are keeping the option open to stage a round-table or similar kind of discussion intermezzo during this session. The selection of the discussion theme will among others depend on the topics discussed in the approved contributions.