Sally Potter

I conduct applied social science research on understanding people's perceptions and behavioural responses to warnings about natural hazards - and then I work with agencies who issue forecasts and warnings to ensure they are as effective as possible. My Ph.D. was on volcanology and social science, and resulted in a new version of New Zealand's Volcanic Alert Level system.
Subsequent research has investigated impact-based weather warnings with MetService, communication of aftershock forecasts by GeoNet, people's responses to earthquake early warnings, landslide forecasts, and how to most effectively write Emergency Mobile Alerts. I have written or contributed to forecasts for the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (2010+), Kaikoura earthquake sequence (2016), other major earthquakes, Whakaari/White Island eruption in 2019, and Covid-19 Emergency Mobile Alerts to all New Zealanders.