Approaches in research on flood risk perception and their importance in flood risk management: a review

The study of flood risk perception factors can be considered by using different paradigms. In an attempt to understand risk perception, two basic paradigms can be distinguished: rationalist and constructivist. The rationalist approach tends to focus on modeling, characterizing, and predicting behavioral results regarding various threats. According to the constructivist paradigm, threats are perceived as socially constructed. This review paper aims to assess the importance of the rationalist and constructivist approaches in research on flood risk perception and flood risk management more broadly by answering the questions: (1) Which paradigm dominates the research of flood risk perception?, (2) What is the relationship between rationalistic and constructivistic factors (e.g., stimulation, weakening, strengthening, etc.)?, (3) which factors are more effective in moderating attitudes toward flood risk? The paper concludes by pointing out the desired direction of research on flood risk perception from the perspective of improving flood risk management. In contemporary empirical works managing the perception of flood risk, a rationalistic approach that psychometrically searches for cognitive models dominates. Often, statistically obtained dependencies are mutually exclusive. Studies on perception that apply the constructivist approach are in an early stage of development, nevertheless providing consistent results. They indicate that the social, political, cultural, religious, and historical contexts shape the perception of flood risk. On the basis of the aforementioned information, research on flood risk in a constructivist approach should be expanded, as it provides a clear, often underappreciated catalog of contextual factors shaping risk perception and, importantly, simultaneously moderating the influence of rationalist factors on flood risk perception.

Beyond Flood Preparedness: Effects of Experience, Trust, and Perceived Risk on Preparation Intentions and Financial Risk-Taking in China

Flooding, already the most damaging type of natural disaster in China, is expected to become increasingly costly around the world. However, few studies have examined residents’ flood-preparedness intentions and the effect of flood experience and other variables on general financial risk-taking. This study explored the effects of Chinese residents’ previous flood experiences, trust in public flood protection, and flood-risk perception on flood-preparedness intentions and attitudes towards financial risk-taking in general. Study 1 surveyed residents in a flooded area (n = 241) and a non-flooded area (n = 248); Study 2 surveyed a non-flooded area (n = 1599). The relations between the variables were tested through structural-equation modelling (SEM). Overall, the two studies found that residents’ flood experiences, trust in public protection, and flood-risk perception not only predicted their flood preparedness but also their financial risk aversion. This study highlights the importance of residents’ trust in public flood protection for flood risk management and communication, especially for those who have not yet experienced flooding.

The Role of Sense of Coherence and Social Capital on Perceived Risk: The Salutogenic Model Approach on Flood Survivors in Indonesia

The study of flood risk perception has been received growing attention in multi-disciplinary research and practice. Indonesia’s government approach on managing the impact of flood is highly dependence on structural engineering solutions. Few empirical attempts have systematically established to understand whether positive psychological capacity strategy helps flood survivors to overcome the negative impact of flood. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of salutogenic and social capital models on flood risk perception. A national survey was used to collect the data of flood survivors across Indonesia. A battery comprising socio-demographic information, measures of salutogenic variable (sense of coherence), social capital (sense of community and social trust), and individual risk perception on flood was administered to the Indonesian adult (N = 194). This study findings showed that the overall model successfully predicted the perceived risk dimensions. However, different routes of correlation across variables were identified. Discussion and future recommendation are presented with regard to the study finding.

Assessing Factors Affecting Drought, Earthquake, and Flood Risk Perception: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh

Understanding household disaster risk perception is crucial to formulate and apply disaster risk reduction strategies. Using survey data from 300 households from three highly disaster-prone areas of the lower Teesta River basin in Bangladesh, this study explores households’ risk perception of drought, earthquake, and flood at the local-level. The ordered probit regression model was applied to identify the factors influencing household disaster risk perception. Most of the respondents perceived the likelihood of occurring drought, earthquake, and flood hazards on large-scale in the selected areas which cause negative impacts on their quality of life and financial losses. They lacked knowledge on mitigation actions which makes them unable to control the devastating impacts of disasters. Econometric results show that households’ age, gender, education, and income-generating sources had significantly influenced the respondent's drought, earthquake, and flood risk perception (p < 0.01). Female participants perceived more risks, less knowledge on mitigations actions, and are less capable of controlling the hazards than their counterparts making them vulnerable group to the impacts of hazards. Urgent action is required to improve their socioeconomic conditions, to reduce the knowledge gap between male and female, as well as to improve the household’s understanding of mitigation and preparedness for mitigating disaster risk.

Approaches in Research on Flood Risk Perception and Their Importance in Flood Risk Management

The study of flood risk perception factors can be considered by using different paradigms. In attempting to understand risk perception, two basic paradigms can be distinguished: rationalist and constructivist. The rationalist approach tends to focus on modeling, characterizing, and predicting behavioral results regarding various threats. According to the constructivist paradigm, threats are perceived as socially constructed. This paper aims to assess the importance of the rationalist and constructivist approaches in research on flood risk perception and flood risk management more broadly by answering the questions: (1) which factors are more effective in moderating attitudes towards flood risk?, (2) which research approach provides more useful information in shaping attitudes towards flood risk?, (3) research in which approach provides more useful information to improve flood risk management? The paper concludes by pointing out the desired direction of research on flood risk perception from the perspective of improving flood risk management. In contemporary empirical works managing the perception of flood risk, a rationalistic approach that psychometrically searches for cognitive models dominates. Often, statistically obtained dependencies are mutually exclusive. Thus, studies on perception that apply the constructivist approach are in an early stage of development. They indicate that the social, political, cultural, religious, and historical contexts shape the perception of flood risk. On the basis of the aforementioned information, the focus of research on flood risk should shift to studies conducted by applying the constructivist approach, highlighting the role of contextual factors in shaping risk perception.

Why People (Do Not) Adopt the Private Precautionary and Mitigation Measures: A Review of the Issue from the Perspective of Recent Flood Risk Research

Based on the literature review, this paper synthesizes recent state of knowledge on flood risk perception and related human behaviors. The main attention is paid to private precautionary and mitigation measures, and the reasons why these are (not) adopted by agents such as individual households. Results of a wide range of relevant studies are presented and critically examined. The findings are presented within an interpretive framework established during the review process; six key themes (responsibility, risk perception, people and social environment, geography of risk, emotions, theories and conceptual models) and several sub-themes closely related to them were identified by the content/thematic analysis. These were then utilized to overview and discuss particular factors and issues involved, as well as various relevant theoretical underpinnings and conceptual models. The review identifies, illustrates, and addresses not only the consensual views and contradictory findings of flood risk research, but also several related and essential ambiguities, uncertainties, and knowledge gaps. Based on these findings, suggestions for future research are discussed, including the terminological, semantic, methodological, theoretical, and ethical aspects. The paper thus serves two main tasks: (a) It is a useful reference/departure point for those with research interests in topics and issues such as flood risk perception, flood risk protective and mitigation behaviors and measures, or flood risk management in general; and (b) it provides suggestions and incentives for future flood risk research agenda.

How flood risks shape policies: flood exposure and risk perception in Swiss municipalities

Despite an increasing number of people exposed to flood risks in Europe, flood risk perception remains low and effective flood risk management policies are rarely implemented. It becomes increasingly important to understand how local governments can design effective flood risk management policies to address flood risks. In this article, we study whether high flood exposure and flood risk perception correlate with the demand for a specific design of flood risk management policies. We take the ideal case of Switzerland and analyze flood risk management portfolios in 18 flood-prone municipalities along the Aare River. We introduce a novel combination of risk analysis and public policy data: we analyze correlations between recorded flood exposure data and survey data on flood risk perception and policy preferences for selected flood risk management measures. Our results indicate that local governments with high flood risk perception tend to prefer non-structural measures, such as spatial planning and ecological river restoration, to infrastructure measures. In contrast, flood exposure is neither linked to flood risk perception nor to policy preferences. We conclude that flood risk perception is key: it can decisively affect local governments’ preferences to implement specific diversified policy portfolios including more preventive or integrated flood risk management measures. These findings imply that local governments in flood-prone areas should invest in raising their population’s awareness capacity of flood risks and keep it high during periods without flooding.