Research to improve emergency notification messaging: Participate in a public engagement session to help evaluate emergency messages
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the University of Georgia Institute of Disaster Management are hosting two virtual public engagement sessions on December 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM EST and on December 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM EST to explore ways to improve emergency wildfire notification messages.
The project is designed to improve emergency notification messaging. In past wildfires, some people did not understand what emergency alerts meant or didn’t know what action to take in response to alerts.
The project is designed to ensure that people have access to emergency alerts that are clear, accessible, and actionable. Both sessions will cover the same material and last approximately one hour. To register for one of the public engagement sessions visit the Institute’s site.
The results will help improve emergency notification messaging to increase disaster preparedness, protect life, and minimize property damage. Using the information from the sessions, team members will identify gaps between what emergency managers think they are communicating versus how their messages are interpreted by the public.
“Emergency notifications systems are only effective if authorities use them appropriately and if the public understands and acts on the information provided,” says Cassandra Johnson Gaither, a Forest Service research social scientist and principal investigator of the study. “By addressing the implementation and the effectiveness of mass emergency notification systems, this project aims to improve disaster preparedness and ultimately reduce loss of life and property damage.”
Each year in the Southeast, 45,000 wildfires burn nearly a million acres, and wildfire risk is increasing. Research suggests that wildfire risk is often underestimated, even in wildfire-prone regions. In past wildfires, some people did not understand what emergency alerts meant or didn’t know what action to take in response to alerts.
Register for a virtual public engagement session: https://uga.questionpro.com/emergencyalertpublicengagementsession.