Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
12.3
The Warning Process Through the Lens of Practice:
Too Many Entities to Consider!
This section describes the common characteristics shared by all the AEs of the
actors in the warning process. Indeed, beyond the differences, this analysis highlights
one very common - and somewhat neglected - problem: the constant contemporary
expansion of these action environments (AEs).
12.3.1
What Needs to Be Taken into Account?
Having systematically listed in the material all the entities that make up the AEs
of the actors I met, several relevant fi ndings arise.
12.3.1.1
A Diversifi ed Environment…
There is a wide diversity of entities taken into account by the actors: individuals,
social groups, institutions, technical tools, procedures, natural phenomena, physical
objects (such as maps and dikes), population types, etc. More specifi cally, it
emerges that:
For all the actors, from the weather forecaster to the local resident, the action
environment includes entities that relate to physical phenomena, whether scien-
tifi c (high altitude pressure, rainfall volumes, etc.) or non-scientifi c (colour of the
river and the clouds, wind direction in the valley, etc.).
The role assigned to technical or procedural tools is very important, whatever
their form: models, sensors, fl ood scales, zoning, websites, etc. Everyone, includ-
ing local residents, draws on scientifi c-technical tools (e.g. hydrographs are very
popular with residents).
12.3.1.2
…with Unforeseeable Entities
A good proportion of the entities cited by the actors were not foreseeable in principle
without an in-depth fi eld survey. These unforeseen entities may belong to a number
of registers:
First, the actors on the ground think less about 'the population' (as a homoge-
neous category of people) than about 'population
' (as different kind of people),
each corresponding to different problems: elderly people, transient visitors,
people on isolated farms, new arrivals, etc. There is therefore a 'diffraction'
effect, which multiplies the number of entities that the actors need to take into
account. Another example: forecasters talk of the different types of meteorological
models they can use, each of which is for them entirely distinct: French,
s
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