Influences of mass monitoring and mass prevention systems on peasant households’ disaster risk perception in the landslide-threatened Three Gorges Reservoir area, China

Abstract

Perceptions of risk and attitudes towards natural disasters have been the focus of considerable research. However, only limited academic attention has been given to landslide risk perception. Previous studies mainly focused on the effects of individual- and household-level characteristics on residents' disaster risk perception, and little attention has paid to the influences of community-level mass monitoring and mass prevention systems, especially on the sub-dimensions of risk perception. We selected peasant households from landslide-threatened regions in the Three Gorges Reservoir area and used a multi-dimensional Likert scale to measure peasant households' disaster risk perception. This paper explores influences on risk perception by dividing perception into individual, household, mass monitoring and mass prevention factors. The results indicated that: (1) peasant households' disaster risk perception was composed of 5 dimensions: possibility, dread, unknown, controllability and threat. Among these, dread ranked the highest and possibility ranked the lowest. The total score for peasant households' disaster risk perception was relatively low. (2) When individual and household characteristics were fixed, the presence of mass monitoring and mass prevention systems did not affect peasant households’ overall disaster risk perception, although it did influence its sub-dimensions.