Risk behaviour and people's attitude towards public authorities – A survey of 2007 UK and 2013 German floods

Abstract

This paper reports on people's preparedness, perception and behaviour of flood risk as well as their trust and attitude towards public authorities in the flood context. Two areas were studied: Catcliffe, situated near Sheffield in the United Kingdom, which was severely flooded in 2007, and Passau in Bavaria, Germany, which was hit by an extreme flood in 2013. We conducted a survey in both study areas and collected data on risk perception, people's perceptions of their own preparedness, their use of information, trust in the authorities and evacuation behaviour. We found that although there were few significant differences between the two case studies, risk perception and risk preparedness was significantly higher in Catcliffe than in Passau and during the flood emergency people in Catcliffe see themselves acting more self-protectively (78%) than in Passau (42%). In both places, people who had direct experience of floods had a higher level of risk perception and preparedness compared to those with no previous experience. In both Catcliffe and Passau, trust in government was fairly low. Nevertheless, when people were asked the hypothetical question how they would react to a public evacuation order, almost 70% in Catcliffe and 80% of respondents in Passau would take immediate action to evacuate. Interestingly, the answer was similar when we asked the conflicting question whether the respondents would follow a public evacuation order although their family recommended not doing so.