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Understanding risk perception from floods: a case study from China

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Abstract

Understanding and improving the public risk perception have become an important element in the management of flood risk. In China, the risk government is of so-called nationwide catastrophe response mode which is different from the widely adopted “bottom up” risk governance mode in the Western countries. Such a particular mode may make Chinese people perceive risk in a different way from people in other countries. Hence, a further discussion of risk perception is of great value in China. This paper presents a case study on the public perception of flood hazard and flood risk in a city prone to floods. The relationship between risk perception and exposure was examined by spatial analysis. Meanwhile, inferential testing with chi-squared tests was undertaken regarding experience, social trust, and protective behaviors. Our results suggest that (1) the relationship between exposure and risk perception of people in Nanjing is positive and statistically significant, (2) flood experience was strongly related to risk perception, (3) trust showed a significant relationship to risk perception, and (4) people who have perceived the probability of floods and associated loss of life have a higher willingness to take more protective measures. These findings will help local government to develop effective flood risk communication strategies for improving public awareness creation, emergency response and preparedness.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the reviewers and editors for their critical comments that greatly helped in improving the quality of this paper.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41571488, 41401382, 41571342 and 41701186), the Philosophy and Social Sciences Foundation in Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 17JDB010), and the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Fund (Grant No.17YJCZH029).

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  1. School of the Sociology and Development, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China

    Yi Ge, Guangfei Yang, Xiaotao Wang, Xueer Lu & Jie Mao

  2. School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210018, China

    Wen Dou

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  1. Yi Ge
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Contributions

Data curation, Yi Ge, Xueer Lu, Jie Mao; Formal analysis, Yi Ge and Xiaotao Wang; Methodology, Wen Dou; Resources, Guangfei Yang; Software, Wen Dou; Visualization, Wen Dou; Writing—original draft, Yi Ge.

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Correspondence to Wen Dou.

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Ge, Y., Yang, G., Wang, X. et al. Understanding risk perception from floods: a case study from China. Nat Hazards 105, 3119–3140 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04458-y

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