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Cities at Risk pp 109–130Cite as

North American Cities at Risk: Household Responses to Environmental Hazards

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Part of the book series: Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research ((NTHR,volume 33))

Abstract

This chapter updates Lindell and Perry’s (Environ Behav 32(4):590–630, 2000) review by summarizing the results of ten more recent North American studies on earthquake hazard adjustment and adding 16 studies on flood, hurricane, tornado, and volcano hazard adjustment. This research indicates that risk perceptions are consistently related to the adoption of hazard adjustments, but people’s perceptions of stakeholders and hazard adjustments are also relevant and deserve greater attention. There is considerable evidence that hazard experience increases hazard adjustment adoption, but hazard proximity and hazard intrusiveness also appear to play significant roles and should be a topic of additional research. Finally, demographic variables continue to be unreliable predictors of hazard adjustment adoption but should receive continuing attention to assess their effects on risk perceptions, stakeholder perceptions and hazard adjustment perceptions, as well as hazard experience, hazard proximity, and hazard intrusiveness.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants SES 0527699, SES 0838654, CMM-0826401, and Grant CMM-1138612. None of the conclusions expressed here necessarily reflect views other than those of the author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3137, USA

    Michael Lindell

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  1. Michael Lindell
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Correspondence to Michael Lindell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division Psychology & Language Science, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1H 6BT, United Kingdom

    Helene Joffe

  2. Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

    Tiziana Rossetto

  3. Dept. Geography, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

    John Adams

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Lindell, M. (2013). North American Cities at Risk: Household Responses to Environmental Hazards. In: Joffe, H., Rossetto, T., Adams, J. (eds) Cities at Risk. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6184-1_7

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