Integrating direct messaging with flood alerts and warnings: Insights into effectiveness from a registered public user population

This article considers direct messaging within the Floodline public flood warning service in Scotland, implemented by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Within Floodline, messaging is integrated with alerting and warning information, termed straightforwardly ‘Flood Alerts’ and ‘Flood Warnings’. Collaborating with SEPA, researchers conducted an online questionnaire survey of registered Floodline direct messaging recipients. In this article, the analysis focuses specifically on responses to three open-ended questions included in this survey, with an iterative qualitative coding approach employed to interpret themes of meaning from the question responses.

Based on survey results, the publication provides the following results: 

• Floodline direct messaging is generally valued by public recipients, albeit raising questions over the intersection between messaging and broad-scale Flood Alerts, and about the overall utility of the latter, detracting from positive views on effectiveness;
• The scope for adding content and links to other information should be explored, to address various other issues and suggestions articulated by messaging recipients;
• Recipients want to see and be involved in closer working with SEPA and other partners, as well as scope to learn from and draw on knowledge among recipients to enhance communications and flood responses.