Rethinking flood risk communication

Rollason, E.; Bracken, L.J.; Hardy, R.J.; Large, A.R.G.

doi:10.1007/s11069-018-3273-4

Rethinking flood risk communication

Rollason, E.; Bracken, L.J.; Hardy, R.J.; Large, A.R.G.

Authors

E. Rollason

L.J. Bracken

Professor Richard Hardy r.j.hardy@durham.ac.uk
Professor

A.R.G. Large

Abstract

Flooding is a serious hazard across Europe, with over 200 major floods documented in the last two decades. Over this period, flood management has evolved, with a greater responsibility now placed on at-risk communities to understand their risk and take protective action to develop flood resilience. Consequently, communicating flood risk has become an increasingly central part of developing flood resilience. However, research suggests that current risk communications have not resulted in the intended increase in awareness, or behavioural change. This paper explores how current risk communications are used by those at risk, what information users desire and how best this should be presented. We explore these questions through a multi-method participatory experiment, working together with a competency group of local participants in the town of Corbridge, Northumberland, the UK. Our research demonstrates that current risk communications fail to meet user needs for information in the period before a flood event, leaving users unsure of what will happen, or how best to respond. We show that participants want information on when and how a flooding may occur (flood dynamics), so that they can understand their risk and feel in control of their decisions on how to respond. We also present four prototypes which translate these information needs into new approaches to communicating flood risk. Developed by the research participants, these proposals meet their information needs, increase their flood literacy and develop their response capacity. The findings of the research have implications for how we design and develop future flood communications, but also for how we envisage the role of flood communications in developing resilience at a community level.

Citation

Rollason, E., Bracken, L., Hardy, R., & Large, A. (2018). Rethinking flood risk communication. Natural Hazards, 92(3), 1665-1686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3273-4

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 11, 2018
Online Publication Date	Mar 19, 2018
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2018
Deposit Date	Jun 29, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Mar 23, 2018
Journal	Natural Hazards
Print ISSN	0921-030X
Electronic ISSN	1573-0840
Publisher	Springer
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	92
Issue	3
Pages	1665-1686
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3273-4

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