Transforming Sensemaking and Perceptions on Meteorological Data to Inform Emergency Decision-Making

After the catastrophe that occurred in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, especially in the city of Nova Friburgo in January of 2011, caused by heavy rains, the population's perception of the risks associated with heavy rains was greatly affected. In the other hand, the civil defense agencies have great difficulties to predict the impacts of rainfall due to the limitations of the existing monitoring systems and due to the existing vulnerable communities. This paper describes how sharing sensemaking between the involved parties can transform the population's perceptions about rainfall impact to meteorological data for civil defense by filling gaps in the existing monitoring system and enable civil defense teams to inform and to guide the expectations of population for a more efficient response in emergency situations. Based on the Design Science Research methodology that seeks to develop and design solutions to solve a specific class of problem, a mobile phone application to share information between members of communities and the civil defense team was developed and tested. The test to verify the sensemaking transformation was done through a case study involving volunteers from the community and the civil defense team of Nova Friburgo during a real rainfall situation. The results showed that the continuous and iterative flow of information enables the sharing of sensemaking, indicating the importance of this process for decision-making during emergency response actions.