Arias Juan Pablo, Bronfman Nicolás C, Cisternas Pamela C, Repetto Paula B
Engineering Sciences Department, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile.
National Research Center for Integrated Natural Disaster Management CONICYT/FONDAP/15110017, Santiago, Chile.
PLoS One. 2017 Oct 31;12(10):e0186455. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186455. eCollection 2017.
Researchers have previously reported that hazard proximity can influence risk perception among individuals exposed to potential hazards. Understanding this relationship among coastline communities at risk of flood events caused by storms and/or tsunamis, is important because hazard proximity, should be recognized when planning and implementing preparation and mitigation actions against these events. Yet, we are not aware of studies that have examined this relationship among coastline inhabitants facing the risk of a tsunami. Consequently, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between hazard proximity and perceived risk from tsunamis among coastline inhabitants. Participants were 487 residents of the coastal city of Iquique, Chile. They completed a survey during the spring of 2013 that assessed their perceived risk from several natural and non-natural hazards. We found that hazard proximity maintains a negative relationship with the perception of tsunami risk among coastline inhabitants. While this result confirms the general trend obtained in previous studies, this one is conclusive and significant. In contradiction with previous findings, we found that participants from the highest socioeconomic status reported the highest levels of risk perception. This finding can be explained by the fact that most participants from the highest socioeconomic status live closer to the coastline areas, so their risk perception reflects the place where they live, that is in a tsunami inundation zone. Once again, hazard proximity proved to be a determinant factor of risk perception. Our findings have important implications for the development of plans and programs for tsunami preparedness and mitigation. These indicate that individuals do use environmental cues to evaluate their own risk and can potentially make correct choices when having or not to evacuate. Also suggest that preparedness should incorporate how hazard proximity is recognized by individuals and communities at risk.
研究人员此前曾报告称，危险的接近程度会影响接触潜在危险的个体的风险认知。了解面临风暴和/或海啸引发的洪水事件风险的沿海社区之间的这种关系很重要，因为在规划和实施针对这些事件的准备和缓解行动时，应认识到危险的接近程度。然而，我们并不知晓有研究考察过面临海啸风险的沿海居民之间的这种关系。因此，本研究的目的是考察沿海居民中危险接近程度与海啸感知风险之间的关系。参与者是智利伊基克沿海城市的487名居民。他们在2013年春季完成了一项调查，该调查评估了他们对几种自然和非自然危险的感知风险。我们发现，危险接近程度与沿海居民对海啸风险的认知呈负相关。虽然这一结果证实了先前研究中得出的总体趋势，但本研究的结果具有决定性且意义重大。与先前的研究结果相反，我们发现社会经济地位最高的参与者报告的风险认知水平最高。这一发现可以解释为，社会经济地位最高的大多数参与者居住在离海岸线区域更近的地方，所以他们的风险认知反映了他们居住的地方，即处于海啸淹没区。危险接近程度再次被证明是风险认知的一个决定性因素。我们的研究结果对海啸防备和缓解计划及项目的制定具有重要意义。这些结果表明，个体确实会利用环境线索来评估自身风险，并且在决定是否撤离时可能会做出正确选择。还表明，防备工作应纳入面临风险的个人和社区如何认识危险接近程度的内容。
