Human behaviour during and immediately following earthquake shaking: developing a methodological approach for analysing video footage

Abstract

To reduce earthquake casualties, it is important to understand how human behaviour, during and immediately following earthquake shaking, exposes the individual to increased risk of injury. Research on human behaviour during earthquake shaking has identified three main influences: the environment the individual is located in immediately before and during the earthquake, in terms of where the individual is and who the individual is with at the time of the earthquake; individual characteristics, such as age, gender, previous earthquake experience and earthquake attributes, including intensity and duration of earthquake shaking. However, little research has systematically analysed the immediate human responses to earthquake shaking, mostly due to data constraints and/or ethical considerations. Research on human behaviour during earthquakes has relied on simulations or post-event, reflective interviews and questionnaire studies. Such studies are subject to potential limitations such as the quality of the participant’s memory, recall bias or (perceived) realism of a simulation. Thus, to better understand the relationship between human behaviour and injury, researchers need a robust and repeatable methodology. This paper discusses the development of a systematic process and coding scheme to analyse earthquake video footage of human behaviour during strong earthquake shaking. The coding scheme was developed in a two-part process, combining a deductive and inductive approach. Previous research studies of human behavioural response during earthquake shaking provided the basis for the coding scheme. This was then iteratively refined by applying the coding scheme to a broad range of video footage of people exposed to strong shaking during the Canterbury 2010–2011 earthquake sequence.