Abstract
Current community preparedness campaigns and interventions for natural hazards are not as effective as they aim to be. Research consistently shows that levels of preparedness for natural hazards are low across cultures, despite increased efforts in public hazard education and outreach. Individuals living in areas at risk of natural disasters are not prepared, despite reporting being aware of such risks. This lack of preparedness increases their probabilities of suffering the cascade of ill consequences that follow a disaster. Most of the natural disaster preparedness campaigns rely mainly on the delivery of information, despite studies consistently showing that simply providing the public with information about risk and safety skills is not sufficient to affect preparedness behaviors. Moreover, many of these campaigns lack evaluation and so their success cannot be proven. Research in the fields of social representations, emergency preparedness, and risk communication indicates that a combination of cognitive, emotional, and cultural factors, as well as messaging style, shapes preparedness behaviors. This paper presents the findings of an online search conducted to identify major earthquake and fire preparedness campaigns. The content, design, and theoretical background of these campaigns are analyzed and the results of this evaluation are discussed. This review serves as a guideline for future interventions and campaigns. It aims to contribute to the field of natural hazard preparedness by extracting the components of existing campaigns that have successfully increased preparedness.
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Perez-Fuentes, G., Verrucci, E., Joffe, H. (2016). A Review of Current Earthquake and Fire Preparedness Campaigns: What Works?. In: Kotsireas, I., Nagurney, A., Pardalos, P. (eds) Dynamics of Disasters—Key Concepts, Models, Algorithms, and Insights. DOD 2015 2016. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 185. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43709-5_13
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