As weather forecasting and climate science continue to improve, the potential to anticipate and act before extreme events occur increases. However, in order to translate forecast data into actionable information, enabling environments must exist and appropriate steps must be taken. In doing so, the risk of disaster impact on lives, livelihoods, and economic activity can be reduced, and response and recovery improved in order to build back better, faster, and in more resilient ways.

At the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), a hallmark of our mission is to understand and improve the capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. 

Types of Stakeholder Activities

Through partners, collaborators, and educational activities, we engage with stakeholders to:

  • Design a weather and climate forecasting system that closely aligns with their needs.
  • Provide support to co-develop a system of triggers that indicate when critical levels of risk of a disaster are reached.
  • Define and revise standard operating procedures for EWS and AA that are directly linked to triggers.
  • Develop a tailored strategy for organizations to prioritize how they engage with AI-driven technologies, and when to focus on more traditional approaches.
  • Develop and refine methods for climate risk reduction decision-making for various sectors – public health, energy, transportation, water, access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
  • Explore appropriate forms of governance structures for climate services and understand how they impact various demographic groups.
  • Strengthening the role of perception and cognition in the communication of climate and weather risk in the context of early warning systems, vulnerability assessments, and community-driven decision-making.
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Recent Publications

Nguyen, T., Kravitz, B., O’Brien, T., Ficklin, D., Rasmussen, K., Kruckiewicz, A., Huang, J., Li, T., and Lauer, A. (2025, September 12). Future Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves of Extreme Precipitation in the Midwest United States from Convection-Permitting Modeling. AGU Advancing Earth and Space Sciences. 

AI for early warnings: Experts unite with calls to build resilience and project development. World Meteorological Organization. Retrieved May 9, 2025, from https://wmo.int/media/news/ai-early-warnings-experts-unite-calls-build-resilience-and-protect-development-gains     

Kruczkiewicz, A., Cian, F., Monasterolo, I., Di Baldassarre, G., Caldas, A., Royz, M., Glasscoe, M., Ranger, N. and Van Aalst, M., 2022. Multiform flood risk in a rapidly changing world: what we do not do, what we should, and why it matters. Environmental Research Letters, 17(8), p.081001.

Kruczkiewicz, A., McClain, S., Bell, V., Warrick, O., Bazo, J., Mason, J., Vergara, H., and Horna, N., 2021. Earth observations for anticipatory action: Case studies in hydrometeorological hazards. Earth observation for flood applications (pp. 237-253). Elsevier.

Kruczkiewicz, A., Rodriguez Morata, C. and Raju, E., 2023. Climate services for risk-informed anticipatory action. Frontiers in Climate, 5, p.1243391.

Rodriguez-Alvarez, N. and Kruczkiewicz, A., 2022. Towards a flood assessment product for the humanitarian and disaster management sectors based on GNSS bistatic radar measurements. Climate, 10(5), p.77.

Thalheimer, L., Cottier, F., Kruczkiewicz, A., Hultquist, C., Tuholske, C., Benveniste, H., Freihardt, J., Hemmati, M., Kam, P.M., Pricope, N.G. und Van Den Hoek, J., 2025. Prioritizing involuntary immobility in climate policy and disaster planning. Nature Communications, 16(1), p.2581.