Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

Anushka Sandanam,Amy Diedrich,Tristam Richardson,Georgina Gurney

doi:10.3390/su10041165

Abstract

Given projections of future climate-related disasters, understanding the conditions that facilitate disaster preparedness is critical to achieving sustainable development. Here, we studied communities within the Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia to explore whether people’s perceived preparedness for a future cyclone relates to their: (1) perceived individual adaptive capacity (in terms of flexibility and capacity to plan and learn); and (2) structural and cognitive social capital. We found that people’s perceived cyclone preparedness was only related to their perceived individual flexibility in the face of change. Given that people’s perceived cyclone preparedness was related to individualistic factors, it is plausible that individualism-collectivism orientations influence people’s perceptions at an individual level. These results suggest that in the Wet Tropics region, enhancing people’s psychological flexibility may be an important step when preparing for future cyclones. Our study highlights the need to tailor disaster preparedness initiatives to the region in question, and thus our results may inform disaster risk management and sustainable development policies.

Highlights

Climate change is expected to bring about changes to the magnitude and frequency of extreme events and natural disasters [1]
The majority of Mission Beach residents felt prepared for a future cyclone, with 89% of respondents reporting that they had the necessary material resources to survive a future cyclone and 70% reporting that they felt psychologically prepared for a future cyclone
Results obtained here indicate that Mission Beach residents have a high level of self-reported cyclone preparedness; one caveat is that some people who had experienced both cyclones (i.e., Cyclone Larry and Yasi) could have moved out before the administration of this survey

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is expected to bring about changes to the magnitude and frequency of extreme events and natural disasters [1]. Climate-related disasters can negatively impact people’s livelihoods and physical and mental health [2,3] and significantly impede progress towards sustainable development [4]. Building people’s disaster preparedness is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular goal 11, which explicitly calls for holistic disaster risk management [6,7]. People need to be both physically and psychologically prepared for natural disasters [9]. Physical preparedness activities could include the storage of food and water or the preparation of a household emergency plan; these activities often reduce damage and enable people to temporarily cope with the impacts of a disaster [10,11]. Psychological preparedness refers to an intra-individual and psychological state of awareness, anticipation, and readiness: an internal capacity to anticipate and manage one’s psychological response [12]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion