Perception of natural hazards and disasters

Abstract

There are numerous factors influencing the perception of natural hazards and disasters, and these factors can be broken down into situational (physical and socioeconomic environment) and cognitive factors (psychological and attitudinal variables) (Tobin and Burrel, 1997). Perception studies should deal with the characteristics of the phenomena and communities as proposed by G.F. White (1974): the magnitude and frequency of an event, recency and frequency of personal experience, significance of the hazard to income interest, and personality traits. The range of variables that needs to be taken into account is large and, unfortunately, “their modeling has proved somewhat elusive in that particular variables can sometimes have different effects under different situations” (Tobin and Burrel, 1997, p. 164). Researchers are still looking for increasingly detailed explanatory models for the human perception of natural threats within existing theoretical frameworks.