The Role of Experience and Different Sources of Knowledge in Shaping Flood Risk Awareness
1
Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
2
Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science (CNDS), 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
3
Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Institute, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
4
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padua, 351 22 Padua, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2020, 12(8), 2130; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082130
Received: 9 June 2020
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Revised: 10 July 2020
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Accepted: 22 July 2020
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Published: 27 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flood Risk in the Anthropocene)
Understanding what makes people vulnerable to flooding is key in informing the risk management process. Non-structural measures, such as risk communication, can reduce vulnerability by improving flood risk awareness, but they require a deep understanding of which factors influence risk awareness, and how. We analysed and untangled the role of experience with, and knowledge of, floods by conducting a survey in a municipality in North-eastern Italy that was hit by a flash flood in 2018. The results show that previous experience with floods influences risk awareness not only directly, but also indirectly through the knowledge that was gained from that experience. In addition, specific (as opposed to generic) definitions of experience have been found to be better suited for exploring their effects on risk awareness. Based on the literature and on our results, we propose an experience-knowledge typology to help unravel the complex role that these two variables play in shaping flood risk awareness.
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Keywords:
flooding; natural hazards; risk awareness; sociohydrology
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mondino, E.; Scolobig, A.; Borga, M.; Di Baldassarre, G. The Role of Experience and Different Sources of Knowledge in Shaping Flood Risk Awareness. Water 2020, 12, 2130. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082130
AMA Style
Mondino E, Scolobig A, Borga M, Di Baldassarre G. The Role of Experience and Different Sources of Knowledge in Shaping Flood Risk Awareness. Water. 2020; 12(8):2130. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082130
Chicago/Turabian StyleMondino, Elena, Anna Scolobig, Marco Borga, and Giuliano Di Baldassarre. 2020. "The Role of Experience and Different Sources of Knowledge in Shaping Flood Risk Awareness" Water 12, no. 8: 2130. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082130
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