Preparing for the new normal: Students and earthquake hazard adjustments in Oklahoma

Household adjustment to seismicity in Oklahoma

“…Lindell et al (2009) explored drivers of adoption of earthquake adjustment measures in Southern California and Western Washington, finding that adjustments were largely driven by perceptions of hazard-related attributes (such as effectiveness of adjustments) and resource-related attributes (such as cost of adoption) of adjustments. Wu et al (2017) collected college student data from a university in Oklahoma to explore how university students are adjusting to earthquakes. They found that while students’ level of earthquake preparedness is low, CA are significant predictors of the intended adjustments.…”

“…While much of the literature suggests that TA drives intended and actual adjustments (Becker et al, 2012; Grothmann and Reusswig, 2006; Lindell, 2013; Lindell and Hwang, 2008; Weinstein, 1989), other research related to the PMT suggests that CA explains intended adjustment more than TA (Bubeck et al, 2012; Maddux and Rogers, 1983; Milne et al, 2000; Wu et al, 2017). In this article, we explore this nuance via a survey of Shawnee and Sapulpa, Oklahoma, due to their differences in hazard exposure and experience (USGS, 2017b).…”

Disaster Risk Perception of University Students

“…The fact that students from other cities or countries are unaware of the city's institutions, risk and safety awareness, and social structure make them more vulnerable to disasters (Magni, Pescaroli, & Bartolucci, 2019). On the contrary, scientific studies have shown that students' disaster preparedness and mitigation situations are quite low (Lovekamp & Tate 2008;Tanner & Doberstein, 2015;Wu et al, 2017). In addition, university students are less prepared for disasters compared with local people in the city they are going to study and need long-term outside help after disasters (Tanner & Doberstein, 2015).…”

“…Lovekamp and Tate (2008) determined the risk perception of students with four questions, ranging from zero to ten, as regards a tornado and an earthquake that might affect their school and environment. Wu et al (2017) measured the earthquake risk perception of university students in two ways. First, they asked the students about the likelihood of earthquake occurrence across 1, 5, and 10 years.…”

“…Simms, Kusenbach, and Tobin (2013) stated that it is particularly noteworthy to study students, as students are both more vulnerable and more resilient to disasters than local people in the community; that is, they are a special group with advantages and disadvantages in coping with disasters. Similarly, Wu, Greer, Murphy, and Chang (2017) emphasize that it is important to investigate students' thoughts regarding risk, disaster preparedness, and mitigation measures since they are a vulnerable population. It should also be noted that Turkey has more than seven million university students and 207 universities (Council of Higher Education, 2020) and more than 223 million university students in the world (The World Bank, 2020).…”