Behavioral responses to earthquake shaking: Video footage analysis of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Initiatives such as the ShakeOut earthquake drill (run nationally in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2012) are effective at teaching the protective actions “drop, cover, and hold” which can reduce the likelihood of injury during earthquakes. However, our understanding of human behavior during actual shaking is limited. Previous work has used retrospective self-reports to explore what actions people take during and immediately after an earthquake. While informative, such data is exposed to biases common in these types of methods. It is therefore important to complement the previous research with more objective data. This research builds on previously-developed methods of analyzing Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage to examine actions taken during the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake at Wellington International Airport, Aotearoa New Zealand. Only one of the 68 codable individuals was observed to undertake “drop, cover, and hold” as recommended in New Zealand, although a quarter took some kind of protective action (e.g. dropping or covering). The majority responded by standing, walking, looking around, or helping those near them. Because this earthquake had distinct P-wave and S-waves, we were able to examine changes in behavior caused by increases in shaking intensity. Among the 36 individuals who could be observed during the strong S-wave jolt, 27 changed their behavior; 11 changed from not protecting themselves to taking at least one protective action, and another 8 who were already undertaking at least one protective action took a further one or more steps to protect themselves. Among the 10 people observed to have an uncontrolled response to the sudden increase in shaking intensity, nine were taking no actions to protect themselves demonstrating the importance of taking protective actions before the arrival of strong shaking. This article presents key considerations for CCTV analysis and useful observations of behavior during earthquake shaking which can help to reduce injuries and fatalities.

Modeling protective action decision-making in earthquakes by using explainable machine learning and video data

“…The results have shown great potential for such audio-visual data to enhance understanding of human behavior under emergency scenarios. Also, the results and insights can be further used for improving the design of earthquake early-warning systems 18 , 59 . In short, this study can provide a foundation for emergency managers, policymakers, and safety professionals to develop more effective protective-action recommendations.…”

“…We believe that these discrepancies could be mainly attributed to the differences in culture and earthquake features 12 , 16 . Despite the significance, these psychological and demographic features are usually collected by surveys or interviews and are not easily accessible from the footage or videos 18 .…”

“…It requires rigorous annotations and data recoding to transform the unstructured data into structured data. To our knowledge, studies using empirical data generated from CCTV footage and social media videos are still very scarce 17 , 18 .…”

Geocoding Applications for Social Science to Improve Earthquake Early Warning

“…The videos also capture the duration of earthquake shaking and what people experienced during an earthquake, which may affect how a person or group chooses how to respond to an earthquake, early warnings, and in the aftermath of an event (e.g., Jon et al, 2016;Vinnell et al, 2022). Conversely, these social science data may also be relevant to physical science in helping to constrain a duration magnitude (e.g., Lee et al, 1972;Eaton, 1992;Hirshorn et al, 1987), with the realization that one would have to correct for 'building response' (instead of instrument response) which is affected by the amplitude, duration, and frequency of earthquake shaking.…”

Knowledge, perceptions, and behavioral responses to earthquake early warning in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Many of the injuries seen in NZ could be prevented by people undertaking appropriate protective actions (Horspool et al, 2020) such as "Drop, cover, and hold" (DCH), which is taught in the annual ShakeOut earthquake drill. Although people who participate in this drill are more likely to know and use DCH (Vinnell et al, 2020), use of these actions is still relatively low (e.g., Johnston et al, 2014;Lambie et al, 2017;Vinnell et al, 2022b), an issue not just in NZ (Bernardini et al, 2019). Many people in NZ report that they wait to see if an earthquake will continue or get stronger before deciding to take protective action (Vinnell et al, 2022b).…”