The influence of three basic attributes toward evacuation route knowledge among poor people community

Abstract

Flood, as one of the natural disasters, has caused fatalities and significant economic losses in Indonesia. Flood disaster occurs every year in some flood-prone areas. Compared to other disasters, the occurrence of the flood can be simulated and predicted to help minimizing losses. However, in the current situation, the number of fatalities and economic losses is still in a considerable number. In order to implement the disaster mitigation measure effectively, we have to know the factors that influence the knowledge of people regarding the evacuation route. Because, when a flood occurs, people need to decide immediately where they supposed to evacuate. Even though some people have an idea about the shelter location; they cannot determine the effective evacuation route to reach the shelter once the disaster occurs. In addition, poor people are more vulnerable to disasters than rich people due to their inadequate resources. This research aims to investigate which factors most effectively affect people's knowledge of the evacuation route in the poor village community. In this research, we apply the educational background, age, and gender as the basic attributes that affect evacuation knowledge. We hypothesize that those three basic attributes have a significant role in understanding the effective evacuation route as disaster preparedness knowledge. In order to gain the purpose, we conducted a home-based survey by selecting 308 respondents in Kademangan village, East Java Indonesia, randomly. We asked the respondents about their basic attributes and gave them one direct question about their knowledge of the evacuation route. We applied logistic regression to analyze the correlation between the basic attribute factors and the evacuation route knowledge. The results showed that people who are older and have a higher level of education know more about the evacuation route better than those who are younger and have a lower level of education. Furthermore, female respondents have less understanding of the effective evacuation route than male respondents. In other words, the educational background, age, and gender give a significant impact on knowledge of flood evacuation in the poor community.