Perception and communication of flood risks: a systematic review of empirical research.

TLDR: This review comprises 57 empirically based peer-reviewed articles on flood risk perception and communication from the Web of Science and Scopus databases and concludes with a summary on methodological issues in the fields of flood-risk perception and flood- risk communication.

Abstract: 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 article 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.

Figures

Figure 1 Number of publications by journal

Table I Overview of peer-reviewed empirical studies in flood risk perception research

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What have the authors contributed in "Perception and communication of flood risks: a systematic review of empirical research" ?

A comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in risk perception and risk communication in flood-risk research can be found in this paper. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Perception and communication of flood risks: a systematic review of empirical research" ?

First of all, future research should strive for more theoretical support and more methodological “ openness. ” There exists a wide range of theories that may fulfill the needs of a similarly wide range of objectives. With regard to theoretical extensions and variations, future research could work toward a framework that puts more emphasis on the effects of physical exposure and hazard experience. ( 34,61,93 ) Future studies in risk perception could further attempt to employ experimental and longitudinal designs more often, in order to enable causality inference. Future research should address the relation between flood-risk perception and floodrisk communication more thoroughly. 

Q3. What method is commonly used to obtain a representative sample?

In order to obtain a representative sample, most studies have utilized a probability method, such as simple random, (29,53) stratified sampling, (44) or cluster sampling. 

Q4. What can be used to identify the presence of noise in measurement instruments?

In particular, structural-equation modeling (SEM) can be used to explicitly identify the presence of noise (unreliability) in measurement instruments. 

Q5. What are the main determinants of the WTP?

Zhai and Ikeda (80) found that both flood-risk acceptability and homeownership were two major statistically significantly determinants of the WTP. 

Q6. What was the main determinant of public opposition to new technologies?

(13,14) In the 1960s, risk perception appeared on the stage of political agendas since it was considered a main determinant of public opposition to new technologies, in particular nuclear technology. 

Q7. What was the evolution of risk perception research?

(17) In subsequent decades, risk-perception research evolved to psychological experiments and public surveys, in which people’s perception could be assessed with expressed preferences. 

Q8. What are the main reasons why people may suffer more loss than tenants?

Grothmann and Reusswig (75) explain that home owners may suffer much more loss than tenants since significant flood damage occurs to the building itself. 

Q9. What is the popular method of self-administered questionnaires?

Despite the increasing interest in online questionnaires, (e.g., 5,6,58,59) mail-distributed questionnaires remain the most popular self-administered method.(e.g., 3,41,48,50,60) 

Q10. What is the importance of assessing what the intended audience already knows or believes about a particular?

(82) Assessing what the intended audience already knows or believes about a particular issue is important in designing effective risk-communication messages. 

Q11. How does the study quantify hazard knowledge?

(70) While hazard knowledge is inextricably bound up with approaches such as the RISP model(74) and the mental-modelsapproach(32,83) (cf. paragraph 6.2), it has been found a difficult construct to quantify.(cf.78) Most studies therefore operationalize hazard knowledge as perceived knowledge, by asking respondents to what extent they think or believe their knowledge reaches about risk-related topics. 

Q12. How many studies fail to report their sampling method?

Despite the importance of the sampling method regarding representativeness of the sample, more than 40 percent of the studies fail to report it. 

Q13. What did they find about the evacuation intentions of people in rural China?

Regarding evacuation intentions, Horney et al. (53) found that residents with a medium or high floodrisk perception more often evacuated if they lived in an apartment or mobile home rather than a stickbuilt home. 

Q14. How many studies have good power to produce significant results?

As Lindell and Perry (38) indicate, studies with N > 400 have excellent power to produce significant results that are also representative for the total population. 

Q15. What are the main aspects of the approach to flood risk assessment?

(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.