Personal factors influencing emergency evacuation decisions under different flash flood characteristics

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Date

2024

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media B.V.

Abstract

Emergency evacuation has received more attention as an effective tool of flash flood disaster prevention that calls for systematic thinking rooted in natural and social sciences. Although personal factors influencing emergency evacuation decisions (EED) after receiving a flood warning have been widely discussed, few studies have referred this issue to the flash flood characteristics. This study explored the personal factors influencing EED under different flash flood characteristics (i.e., the frequency, occurrence time, and severity of flash floods) through field survey data. Three typical flash flood characteristics in three towns were selected as case studies. An ordinary logistical model and path analysis were used to analyze the independent influence and influence process of the personal factors on evacuation intention under the three flash flood characteristics. The results showed that personalized risk perception and warning type consistently influenced evacuation intention regardless of the flash flood characteristics, while the independent influence of flood experience and reliance on hazard information on evacuation intention was varied with the flash flood characteristics. Perceived exposure influenced evacuation intention through the mediations of flood experience when there were high-frequency, recent, and loss-causing flash floods, and of risk perception when there were low-frequency, distant, and few-loss-causing flash floods.

Description

Keywords

Emergency evacuation decisions, Emergency management, Field survey, Flash flood characteristics, Warning type

Citation

Zhang, R., Liu, D., Xu, Y., Xu, C. and Chen, X., 2024. Personal factors influencing emergency evacuation decisions under different flash flood characteristics. Natural Hazards, pp.1-27.