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Public participation in community-organized disaster mitigation activities is important for improving disaster mitigation capacity. With data from 260 questionnaires, this study compared the current status of public participation in model disaster mitigation communities and nonmodel communities in a geological-disaster-prone area. Three community-organized disaster mitigation education activities were compared cross-sectionally. A binary logistic regression was used to analyze the effects of attitude, perceived behavioral control, disaster experience, and other key factors on the public’s choice to participate in community disaster mitigation activities. The analysis results indicated that model communities had higher public participation in two efforts, evacuation drills and self-help skills training, and lower participation in activities that invited them to express their feedback than nonmodel communities. The influence of attitudinal factors on the decision to participate in disaster mitigation activities had a high similarity across community types. The public participation in model disaster mitigation communities is influenced by factors such as subjective norms and participation cognition; the behavior of people in nonmodel communities is influenced by factors such as previous experience with disasters, perceived behavioral control, risk perception, and participation cognition and has a greater potential for disaster mitigation community construction. This study provides practical evidence and theoretical support for strengthening the sustainable development of disaster mitigation community building.

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Healthcare facilities in geological hazard-prone areas not only are responsible for local basic medical services but also are the main provider of hazard emergency rescue work. The selection of their sites is further complicated by the need to consider both the equalization of regional medical services and resource allocation and the impact of geological hazards on site safety. Shimian County in Sichuan Province, a geological disaster-prone area, was chosen as the study area. First, suitability analysis of the construction land was used to determine the site alternatives for new healthcare facilities, and an evaluation index system of construction land suitability consisting of geological hazard susceptibility, slope and aspect was established. Then, the suitability was evaluated by the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operator, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the quantitative method of Regular Increasing Monotone (RIM) were used to calculate the criterion weights and order weights in the Ordered Weighted Averaging operator respectively. The suitability results were classified into five levels: high, moderate, average, barely suitable, and unsuitable. Twelve site alternatives were identified in the highly and moderately suitable areas. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation index system consisting of indices such as construction land suitability and medical service accessibility was established, the PROMETHEE II method was conducted to comprehensively evaluate the site alternatives, and ranked results for the 12 site alternatives were obtained. These ranked results were analyzed by subindexes and Graphical Analysis for Interactive Aid (GAIA) to obtain a score for each alternative index and its similarity to the alternative, which could significantly help decision-making. This study achieves reasonable and scientific site selection for healthcare facilities in geological hazard-prone areas, and the results can provide references for relevant decision-makers.

Abstract. Giving full play to the public's initiative for geohazard reduction is critical for sustainable disaster reduction under a government-led top-down disaster governance approach. According to the public's intention to participate in geohazard mitigation activities, this study introduces the analytical framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), with attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control as the primary explanatory variables, with three added explanatory variables: risk perception, disaster experience, and participation perception. Survey data obtained from 260 respondents in Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province, China, are analyzed using structural equation modeling and combined with multivariate hierarchical regression to test the explanatory power of the model. The results indicate that attitude, subjective normative, perceived behavioral control, and participatory cognition are significant predictors of public intention to participate. Disaster experience is negatively associated with public intention to participate. In addition, the extended TPB model contributes 50.7 % to the explanation of the behavioral intention of public participation. Practical suggestions and theoretical guidance are provided for strengthening geohazard risk management and achieving sustainable disaster reduction. In particular, it is concluded that, while correctly guiding public awareness of disaster reduction activities, policymakers should continue developing participatory mechanisms, paying attention to two-way communication bridges between the public and the government, uniting social forces, and optimizing access to resources.