Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception

Publikation: KonferenzbeitragPaperForschungPeer-Review

Autoren

Externe Organisationen

  • The University of Liverpool
Forschungs-netzwerk anzeigen

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seitenumfang8
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2015
Extern publiziertJa
Veranstaltung12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012 - Vancouver, Kanada
Dauer: 12 Juli 201515 Juli 2015

Konferenz

Konferenz12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012
Land/GebietKanada
OrtVancouver
Zeitraum12 Juli 201515 Juli 2015

Abstract

There are many examples of unpredicted natural and man-made disasters occurring over the past few decades, for example Hillsborough (1989) and the 7/7 Bombings (2005). Most of these incidents led to legislative reform to either improve infrastructure or the operational response, in an attempt to minimise future risks. However, suggested changes have not taken into consideration how to manage and communicate risk to the public. This is despite the impact that ineffective risk communication could have on both potential casualties and the environment. For example, during the Fukushima accident (2011) people were evacuated from light radioactive areas and ended up in more heavily contaminated areas, partly due to poor risk communication (Robertson et al., 2012). In order to investigate the current status of acceptance from the public when receiving risk information in an emergency, a large-scale live multi-agency training event was developed. This event was based on a ferry collision, which resulted in the release of a potential contaminant, requiring members of the public to undergo mass decontamination. Data was collected using questionnaires and conducting post incident debriefs with a total of 53 members of the public who played the role of 'passengers' on-board the ferry. Data was analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicate that the operational element was accepted, and often praised, but participants had problems with the non-technical side of the response, particularly the communication; this had a significant impact on the perception of the services involved. It is recommended that there is more frequent, clear and direct communication given to the public throughout a disaster as it will potentially increase the level of compliance and reassurance, and will reduce anxiety. This will benefit the agencies involved as effective communication has been found to increase trust and promote future confidence in agencies (Carter et al., 2013). This research has future implications for policy making, disaster management, and improving risk communication to members of the public.

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Zitieren

Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception. / Swan, Lauren; Waring, Sara; Alison, Laurence et al.
2015. Beitrag in 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012, Vancouver, Kanada.

Publikation: KonferenzbeitragPaperForschungPeer-Review

Swan, L, Waring, S, Alison, L & Beer, M 2015, 'Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception', Beitrag in 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012, Vancouver, Kanada, 12 Juli 2015 - 15 Juli 2015. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0076023
Swan, L., Waring, S., Alison, L., & Beer, M. (2015). Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception. Beitrag in 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012, Vancouver, Kanada. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0076023
Swan L, Waring S, Alison L, Beer M. Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception. 2015. Beitrag in 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012, Vancouver, Kanada. doi: 10.14288/1.0076023
Swan, Lauren ; Waring, Sara ; Alison, Laurence et al. / Communicating risk in major incidents : The public's perception. Beitrag in 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012, Vancouver, Kanada.8 S.
Download
@conference{5dfe8773325f49efbe08e5039827b918,
title = "Communicating risk in major incidents: The public's perception",
abstract = "There are many examples of unpredicted natural and man-made disasters occurring over the past few decades, for example Hillsborough (1989) and the 7/7 Bombings (2005). Most of these incidents led to legislative reform to either improve infrastructure or the operational response, in an attempt to minimise future risks. However, suggested changes have not taken into consideration how to manage and communicate risk to the public. This is despite the impact that ineffective risk communication could have on both potential casualties and the environment. For example, during the Fukushima accident (2011) people were evacuated from light radioactive areas and ended up in more heavily contaminated areas, partly due to poor risk communication (Robertson et al., 2012). In order to investigate the current status of acceptance from the public when receiving risk information in an emergency, a large-scale live multi-agency training event was developed. This event was based on a ferry collision, which resulted in the release of a potential contaminant, requiring members of the public to undergo mass decontamination. Data was collected using questionnaires and conducting post incident debriefs with a total of 53 members of the public who played the role of 'passengers' on-board the ferry. Data was analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicate that the operational element was accepted, and often praised, but participants had problems with the non-technical side of the response, particularly the communication; this had a significant impact on the perception of the services involved. It is recommended that there is more frequent, clear and direct communication given to the public throughout a disaster as it will potentially increase the level of compliance and reassurance, and will reduce anxiety. This will benefit the agencies involved as effective communication has been found to increase trust and promote future confidence in agencies (Carter et al., 2013). This research has future implications for policy making, disaster management, and improving risk communication to members of the public.",
author = "Lauren Swan and Sara Waring and Laurence Alison and Michael Beer",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.14288/1.0076023",
language = "English",
note = "12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012 ; Conference date: 12-07-2015 Through 15-07-2015",

}

Download

TY - CONF

T1 - Communicating risk in major incidents

T2 - 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2012

AU - Swan, Lauren

AU - Waring, Sara

AU - Alison, Laurence

AU - Beer, Michael

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - There are many examples of unpredicted natural and man-made disasters occurring over the past few decades, for example Hillsborough (1989) and the 7/7 Bombings (2005). Most of these incidents led to legislative reform to either improve infrastructure or the operational response, in an attempt to minimise future risks. However, suggested changes have not taken into consideration how to manage and communicate risk to the public. This is despite the impact that ineffective risk communication could have on both potential casualties and the environment. For example, during the Fukushima accident (2011) people were evacuated from light radioactive areas and ended up in more heavily contaminated areas, partly due to poor risk communication (Robertson et al., 2012). In order to investigate the current status of acceptance from the public when receiving risk information in an emergency, a large-scale live multi-agency training event was developed. This event was based on a ferry collision, which resulted in the release of a potential contaminant, requiring members of the public to undergo mass decontamination. Data was collected using questionnaires and conducting post incident debriefs with a total of 53 members of the public who played the role of 'passengers' on-board the ferry. Data was analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicate that the operational element was accepted, and often praised, but participants had problems with the non-technical side of the response, particularly the communication; this had a significant impact on the perception of the services involved. It is recommended that there is more frequent, clear and direct communication given to the public throughout a disaster as it will potentially increase the level of compliance and reassurance, and will reduce anxiety. This will benefit the agencies involved as effective communication has been found to increase trust and promote future confidence in agencies (Carter et al., 2013). This research has future implications for policy making, disaster management, and improving risk communication to members of the public.

AB - There are many examples of unpredicted natural and man-made disasters occurring over the past few decades, for example Hillsborough (1989) and the 7/7 Bombings (2005). Most of these incidents led to legislative reform to either improve infrastructure or the operational response, in an attempt to minimise future risks. However, suggested changes have not taken into consideration how to manage and communicate risk to the public. This is despite the impact that ineffective risk communication could have on both potential casualties and the environment. For example, during the Fukushima accident (2011) people were evacuated from light radioactive areas and ended up in more heavily contaminated areas, partly due to poor risk communication (Robertson et al., 2012). In order to investigate the current status of acceptance from the public when receiving risk information in an emergency, a large-scale live multi-agency training event was developed. This event was based on a ferry collision, which resulted in the release of a potential contaminant, requiring members of the public to undergo mass decontamination. Data was collected using questionnaires and conducting post incident debriefs with a total of 53 members of the public who played the role of 'passengers' on-board the ferry. Data was analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicate that the operational element was accepted, and often praised, but participants had problems with the non-technical side of the response, particularly the communication; this had a significant impact on the perception of the services involved. It is recommended that there is more frequent, clear and direct communication given to the public throughout a disaster as it will potentially increase the level of compliance and reassurance, and will reduce anxiety. This will benefit the agencies involved as effective communication has been found to increase trust and promote future confidence in agencies (Carter et al., 2013). This research has future implications for policy making, disaster management, and improving risk communication to members of the public.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978719049&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.14288/1.0076023

DO - 10.14288/1.0076023

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 12 July 2015 through 15 July 2015

ER -

Von denselben Autoren