Analysis of the Public Flood Risk Perception in a Flood-Prone City: The Case of Jingdezhen City in China

Abstract

Understanding and improving public flood risk perception is conducive to the implementation of effective flood risk management and disaster reduction policies. In the flood-prone city of Jingdezhen, flood disaster is one of the most destructive natural hazards to impact the society and economy. However, few studies have been attempted to focus on public flood risk perception in the small and medium-size city in China, like Jingdezhen. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the public flood risk perception in four districts of Jingdezhen and examine the related influencing factors. A questionnaire survey of 719 randomly sampled respondents was conducted in 16 subdistricts of Jingdezhen. Analysis of variance was conducted to identify the correlations between the impact factors and public flood risk perception. Then, the flood risk perception differences between different groups under the same impact factor were compared. The results indicated that the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (except occupation), flood experience, flood knowledge education, flood protection responsibility, and trust in government were strongly correlated with flood risk perception. The findings will help decision makers to develop effective flood risk communication strategies and flood risk reduction policies.

Public perception and attitudes to disaster risks in a coastal metropolis of Saudi Arabia

“…In Cologne, self-protective manners by residents of urban areas prone to floods helped in reducing the economic cost of floods by about 80% [24]. In Jingdezhen city in China, only 13.8% of the participants of a study held that the public should also be responsible for flood protection [17]. In the north of Italy, 60% of study participants felt willing to adopt some behaviors for reducing their vulnerability to floods or landslides [13].…”

“…However, the study neither asked the residents their perceived causes of floods nor their preferred methods of disaster risk communication. In Jingdezhen City (China), Wang et al [17] found that previous flood knowledge and experience, and trust in government significantly influenced public perception of flood risks but did not investigate whether the respondents were willing to participate in risk mitigation activities in the event of a disaster. As such, the present research contributes to filling these knowledge gaps and builds on the literature using the following methods.…”

“…Enhancing public awareness of disaster risks is found to effectively enhance disaster risk management by formulating more effective hazard mitigation policies and intervention measures. Citizens are nowadays seen as active partners in risk management, which is an emerging and popular field of disaster science [4,16,17].…”

Analysis of Flood Evacuation Process in Vulnerable Community with Mutual Aid Mechanism: An Agent-Based Simulation Framework

“…The second one is the mutual aid behaviors among residents in the communities during flood emergency evacuation. According to the results of our several field investigations and questionnaire surveys in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, it was found that during flood emergency evacuation, residents generally had the consciousness and behaviors of helping each other and going to shelter together [1]. Moreover, the behaviors of helping each other to evacuate to the shelter together can be motivated, encouraged by the local government.…”

“…Flood disasters are a major threat to human society and economic systems, and they can easily wipe out the wealth accumulated in the past [1]. In recent years, the frequency and scope of flood disasters have increased significantly as well as the economic losses and human casualties caused by floods (https://www.cred.be).…”