@mastersthesis {bnh-5323,
	title = {Advancing public health in the context of natural hazards: normalising preparedness within a framework of adapted protection motivation theory},
	volume = {PhD},
	year = {2018},
	month = {03/2018},
	school = {Western Sydney University},
	address = {Sydney},
	abstract = {<p><span>This research sought to discover and recommend proactive strategies to strengthen and improve human safety and well-being in a changing climate of natural hazards. This thesis documents the rationale, process and outcomes of that research. People{\textquoteright}s ability to navigate their daily lives within an environment of worsening natural hazards is an adaptive public health and safety priority - given the predicted global increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events. There is an urgent need to strengthen and normalise people{\textquoteright}s preparedness behaviour, and to connect it with an unequivocal understanding of the benefits of such changes. Enhancing people{\textquoteright}s adaptive responses will help to avoid, or at least minimise, associated human trauma and tragedy. That is the aim of this research. Achieving positive, adaptive change requires proactive medium to longer term public policy planning and implementation of strategies leading to considered, appropriate response choices and desired protective behaviour as social norms. Demands upon individuals, families, communities and workplaces are high in the complexity of 21st century life: adapting to narrow the bushfire (or other natural hazard) awareness-preparedness gap {\textendash} to become fire-fit {\textendash} requires a re-ordering of priorities so that fire-fitness becomes a societal-wide, integrated routine {\textendash} as routine as buying groceries or fuelling a car. This predominantly pragmatic qualitative research used the socio-cognitive Protection Motivation Theory (described by Rogers in 1975) in the context of bushfire natural hazards with the ultimate aim of reducing human morbidity and mortality, and concurrently promoting positive physical and psychological capacity. The study considered data across and within two demographic groups {\textendash} emergency responders and the owners of any kind and any number of animals. It sought to 1. determine and discover how casualties to life, property and the environment, including the physical and psychological health of people, their microclimates and livelihoods, can be reduced and minimised while building a culture of preparedness as an integral part of daily life, and 2. help negate wider perceptions of preparedness as a difficult, time-consuming task which although on nearly everyone{\textquoteright}s {\textquoteleft}to do{\textquoteright} list is frequently not prioritised. The major qualitative phase (phase 1) was followed by a minor quantitative phase (phase 2) in the form of a pilot survey (discussed in Chapter 7) that investigated farmers{\textquoteright} bushfire experiences and management strategies. The pilot survey was conducted with a view to determining topics requiring further research, as well as identifying knowledge and learning translatable to novice landowners. This thesis is presented as a series of six papers {\textendash} four published (P1-P4), two submitted (SP1, SP2). Each paper addresses particular research questions, noted in the box at the beginning of each chapter, and each published paper is followed by a connecting narrative designed to convey the momentum, flow and logic of the research progression. The order of the papers presented in the thesis follows the chronology of the research. Paper 1 critically explores the literature and investigates Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as a framework. Paper 2 provides an overview of the qualitative data and identifies the focus for the next stage of analysis. Paper 3 discusses public policy and leads in to Paper 4 which proposes a number of innovative and practical strategies to help improve fire-fitness for individuals and across communities. The following two papers supplement and complement the four published papers. SP1 contains more detail concerning public policy initiatives. SP2 is essentially P1 in practice and demonstrates how PMT can be usefully applied to achieve the aim of the research - to reduce human morbidity and mortality in natural hazard events. Thus, the reader is encouraged to read SP1 following P3, and SP2 following P4. Readers{\textquoteright} attention is drawn particularly to the Results, Interpretative Analysis and Discussion sections in SP1 and SP2, where additional information on policy and how PMT was expanded and applied may be found. Journal selection for the published papers was actively {\textendash} and flexibly - considered from the beginning of the project with the selection of suitable journals narrowing as the focus of the research itself became more specific. Table 1, Journal selection and chronology of publication, details this process. The research results indicate desired outcomes are indeed achievable by engaging a bold, innovative willingness to move beyond standard conservatism in the sector, and demonstrating a commitment to trial and evaluate recommendations. The wellbeing and safety of people in natural hazards is increasingly a public health issue. This thesis proposes proactive initiatives that affirmatively and assertively respond to meeting the parallel escalation of the inherent danger of natural hazards in a changing climate without alienating public sentiment. It also identifies the need for further research to fill a gaping omission in the literature regarding cropland fires - with respect to crop types and placement, how different crops {\textquoteleft}carry{\textquoteright} a fire, and if firebreaks can be better utilised as a fire management tool. A summary of the strategies developed from the results of this research is presented in Table 4, Strategies to help achieve fire-fitness. These are described in more detail in papers P3, P4, SP1 and SP2. In reconstructing the {\textquoteleft}costs{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}rewards{\textquoteright} described in an expanded Protection Motivation Theory to favour an overall net gain, and by providing ways to establish fire-fitness as a desirable and attainable social norm, this research makes a practical and timely contribution to future public policy decision-making in the global {\textquoteleft}new reality{\textquoteright} of natural hazards.</span></p>},
	url = {https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws\%3A49051},
	author = {Rachel Westcott}
}
