Perception of flood hazard in countries of the North Sea region of Europe

Krasovskaia, Irina; Gottschalk, Lars; Ibrekk, Anja Skiple; Berg, Hallvard

doi:10.2166/nh.2007.019

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…the consciousness of living in a changing environment. This contrasts with denial observed in several countries of Europe with populations living in areas prone to inundations (Krasovskaia 2006;Burningham et al 2008).…”

Section: Awareness Risk Estimation and Worrycontrasting

confidence: 82%

“…Defined as ''the combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences'' (UNIDSR 2009), risk is tributary of uncertainties of different types and of different nature (Refsgaard et al 2007; Van der Keur et al 2008); with laymen, it is foremost a subjective assessment, a ''perception'', which has been extensively described as a construction reflecting psychometric factors such worry or fear (Slovic et al 1984;Slovic 1987), social values (Wildavsky and Dake 1990;Dake 1991), and affects (Slovic and Peters 2006;Slovic et al 2007). In the field of natural hazards, public perception has been analysed and subsumed over the years under the notions of knowledge and experience (Dominey-Howes and Minos-Minopoulos 2004;Bird et al 2009) or awareness (Gregg et al 2004;Krasovskaia 2006;Burningham et al 2008;Raaijmakers et al 2008) which have been found to depend on criteria such as gender, age and education (Smith 2003), location of residence (Gaillard et al 2001;Brilly and Polic 2005) or tenure (Burningham et al 2008). Identified as a power engine fuelling demand for risk reduction (Slovic et al 1984;Slovic 1987), worry is often admitted to be correlated with levels of awareness and preparedness (Raaijmakers et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in Iceland: a case study in a watershed prone to ice-jam floods

2010

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Understanding and improving the public perception has become an important element in the management of flood risk worldwide. In Iceland, studying perception of flood hazard and flood risk is, however, in its early stages. This paper presents a case study on the public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in an Icelandic town prone to icejam floods. Awareness of the population regarding historical inundations, self estimation of flood risk and worry is considered. The factual knowledge of the residents is deconstructed in flood hazard parameters accessible to the lay population: number of events, dates, genesis and boundaries. The performance of the respondents is rated for each parameter and the influence of several predictors evaluated. The research shows three significant patterns: there is poor awareness and little worry about historical inundations in the area; experience of the past flooding events in town is the most effective source of knowledge; awareness, risk estimation and worry are not correlated.

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Section: Awareness Risk Estimation and Worrycontrasting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in Iceland: a case study in a watershed prone to ice-jam floods

2010

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“…Our search revealed only two studies that were conducted in Africa (Nigeria and South Africa); there were none in South America and Oceania. The only study with an international study area is Krasovskaia et al ., ( 47 ) with a focus on the countries surrounding the North Sea (Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and United Kingdom).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous hazard experiences were generally found to increase risk perceptions (e.g., Refs. [3,47,40,44,50,43,45,32,58]) and the likelihood that people adopt hazard adjustments (e.g., Refs. [42,64,37,69]).…”

Section: Physical Exposure and Previous Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and Communication of Flood Risks: A Systematic Review of Empirical Research

2012

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Flood hazards are the most common and destructive of all natural disasters. For decades, experts have been examining how flood losses can be mitigated. Just as in other risk domains, the study of risk perception and risk communication has gained increasing interest in flood risk management. Because of this research growth, a review of the state of the art in this domain is believed necessary. The review comprises 57 empirically based peer-reviewed articles on flood risk perception and communication from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The characteristics of these articles are listed in a comprehensive table, presenting research design, research variables, and key findings. From this review, it follows that the majority of studies are of exploratory nature and have not applied any of the theoretical frameworks that are available in social science research. Consequently, a methodological standardization in measuring and analyzing people's flood risk perceptions and their adaptive behaviors is hardly present. This heterogeneity leads to difficulties in comparing results among studies. It is also shown that theoretical and empirical studies on flood risk communication are nearly nonexistent. The paper concludes with a summary on methodological issues in the fields of flood-risk perception and flood-risk communication and proposes an agenda for future research. Key words flood risk, risk perception, risk communication, literature review 3 1 I NT R O D UC T I O N Flood hazards are a serious threat to the economic and social structures of our society. Each year, floods claim approximately 20,000 lives and adversely affect at least 20 million people worldwide, mostly because of the homelessness resulting from flood events. (cf. 1) Recent studies have indicated that losses from flood hazards are expected to increase in coming years. This prognosis is mainly based on the predicted impacts of climate change. (2) In many countries, however, flood vulnerability is also expected to increase as a consequence of population growth and spatial expansion. (3) Around the world, flood-risk experts and decision makers face the challenge of finding techniques and measures to effectively cope with these hazards. In order to assess the negative impact of flood hazards, experts have gradually adopted a risk-based approach that focuses on the probability of events and the magnitude of negative consequences. (4) While this technical approach deals with "objective" risk assessment, a substantial group of researchers have concentrated on the "subjective" aspects of flood risk, which determine people's risk perception. Several researchers recognize that flood-risk management is shifting from a primarily objective approach to an integrated approach with attention to social aspects such as improving flood preparedness and response. (5,6) As such, the need to integrate lay knowledge into measures to prevent, mitigate, and deal with risk is a relatively new field of research. (7) Risk communication is becoming increasingly promulgated as...

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“…Therefore, individuals have a responsibility to increase their own resilience and they can do so through the decisions they make about being aware of the risks, accepting these risks and engaging with the issue of flooding. Unfortunately, many people are unaware or are in denial about the risks they live with each day and research has been shown people shift the responsibility of preparing for flooding from themselves to the government (Werrity et al, 2007;Krasovskaia, 2005). This indicates that community groups are currently failing to be socially responsible for the risk of flooding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic differences in perceptions of social responsibility

Mullins

Soetanto

2013

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal

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Purpose -The purpose of this research is to investigate ethnic differences in perceptions of social responsibility, in relation to flooding, for householders, local businesses and policy makers. Design/methodology/approach -The data were obtained via a questionnaire survey of three communities in Birmingham and one community in South East London, UK. A total of 481 responses were received and used in the statistical analysis. The interpretation of the findings was aided by cognitive mapping to synthesise the data transcripts from 174 responses to the open-ended questions. Comparisons were made between communities in different locations and with different experience of flooding. Findings -Ethnic differences consistently exist within the perceptions of householder and business groups within communities (in different locations) which have recent experience of flooding, but not in the policy maker group or in a community without recent flood experience. The finding also suggests three different levels of resilience and their association with different ethnic groups. Research limitations/implications -Future research should conduct further analysis with equal ethnic representation throughout each community group so that more ethnic groups can be investigated and compared. For a more comprehensive understanding, further investigation should be conducted across different communities in different countries with different environmental hazards. Practical implications -The findings contribute to the understanding of the influence of demographic factors in disaster management field, and can provide useful knowledge for targeted and tailored strategies of communication of flood information. Originality/value -The research represents the first attempt to investigate ethnic differences in perceptions of social responsibility of householders, small businesses and policy makers for the community resilience to flooding.

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Perception of flood hazard in countries of the North Sea region of Europe

Cited by 20 publications

References 8 publications

Public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in Iceland: a case study in a watershed prone to ice-jam floods

Public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in Iceland: a case study in a watershed prone to ice-jam floods

Perception and Communication of Flood Risks: A Systematic Review of Empirical Research

Ethnic differences in perceptions of social responsibility

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