Does disaster knowledge affect residents' choice of disaster avoidance behavior in different time periods? Evidence from China's earthquake-hit areas

Abstract

Based on the survey data of 327 peasant households in Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes in China, this study analyzed the characteristics of residents' disaster knowledge and their disaster avoidance behavior before, during and after the earthquake, and constructed the binary Logit model and the disordered multi-classification logistic regression model to explore the impact of disaster knowledge on residents' disaster avoidance behavior in different periods. The results show that:(1) Generally speaking, the residents have strong disaster knowledge. Among them, 55% of the residents have good basic knowledge of disasters, 66% and 68% of the residents have sufficient knowledge of emergency response skills and resistance skills, respectively. (2) Before the earthquake, residents' awareness of disaster preparedness was poor; When an earthquake occurs, the number of residents who choose to leave their houses immediately (60%) is the largest, while the number of residents who choose to continue to do things (5%) is the least. After the earthquake, the highest percentage of residents (40%) chose to evacuate again to a safer place, while the lowest percentage (7%) chose to continue with their work. (3) The regression results show that the stronger the disaster knowledge is, the better the disaster preparedness will be. When a disaster occurs, compared with the residents who evacuate their houses immediately, the residents who do not have sufficient knowledge of the disaster are more willing to continue to do things. Residents without adequate disaster knowledge are more likely to stop doing things and stay put than to evacuate their homes immediately. After a disaster occurs, residents with less knowledge of the disaster are more likely to stay put and wait for the latest information and confirmation that their families are safe than those who evacuate again to a safer place. Residents with stronger disaster knowledge were more likely to continue their work than those who had to evacuate again to a safer place.