@article {bnh-8278, title = {Encouraging evacuation: the role of behavioural message inputs in bushfire warnings}, journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction}, year = {2021}, month = {11/2021}, abstract = {

In catastrophic bushfires or wildfires, warnings are issued by emergency service organisations to inform communities about the hazard and provide guidance about protective actions. Long-form warnings are complemented by shorter social media warnings that preference content about hazard severity. Warnings that do not include clear behavioural guidance can challenge clarity and community uptake. However, there has been little research that examines and compares existing warnings with those constructed to encourage behavioural intentions. In this study, we follow the Protective Action Decision Model and first identify cues that predict evacuation intentions. Next, we compare existing long-form and social media warnings with those modified to include behavioural advice and instruction to examine their effect on clarity and ease of action and protective action intentions. Findings show how the inclusion of behavioural inputs into social media warnings enhances protective action intentions, offering evidence to specifically support changes to existing practice.

}, keywords = {Behavioural inputs, bushfires, Evacuation, warning}, issn = {2212-4209}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102673}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420921006348}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Scott Murray and Ryan McAndrew and Michaela Jackson and Vivienne Tippett} } @article {bnh-8285, title = {Mind the gap: Contrasting operational and behavior-oriented flood warnings}, journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction}, year = {2021}, month = {11/2021}, abstract = {

During flood events, warnings issued by emergency service agencies serve to communicate risk and guide community behavior. Yet research shows that while warnings convey operational details, they may not always be understood and appropriately actioned in a timely manner by the public. Such maladaptive behavior can place multiple parties at risk of injury and fatality. Few studies empirically consider and compare the effectiveness of traditional agency-designed operational warnings with other designs such as behavior-oriented warnings. The former typically contain technical and operational detail while the latter provide immediate priority and greater emphasis on translating the situation into specific behavioral actions to be undertaken by the public. Using operational versus newly developed behavior-oriented warnings from New South Wales State Emergency Service in Australia, a total of 774 community members rated each type of scaled warning and their likelihood to engage in adaptive and maladaptive behaviors following exposure to warnings designed to convey one of five levels of an unfolding flooding scenario from its beginning to conclusion ({\textquoteleft}Prepare for flooding{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Be ready to evacuate{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Evacuate{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Too late to evacuate{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}Safe to return{\textquoteright}). Findings showed positive response to both types of warnings, with behavior-oriented warnings offering greater benefit for perception factors (e.g., risk and comprehension) and adaptive behavioral intentions.

}, keywords = {Behavior-oriented, community, Flood, risk communication, Warnings}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102685}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420921006464}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Dominique Greer and Clinton Weeks and Lisa Schuster and Scott Murray and Paula Dootson and Andrew Richards} } @article {bnh-8131, title = {Towards protective action: effective risk and warning communication during natural hazards {\textendash} final project report}, number = {692}, year = {2021}, month = {07/2021}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {MELBOURNE}, abstract = {

The release of the National Review of Warnings and Information (Emergency Management Victoria, 2014) triggered the need for a range of evidence-based practice about constructing better natural hazard emergency warning messages. This report showcases a three-year program of end-user driven interdisciplinary research that derived evidence-based insights into risk and warning communication during the response phase of natural hazard emergencies. The research examines existing and modified communication to community members who may be affected by natural hazards. The work outlined in this report builds on our previous CRC project on effective communication in natural hazards.

The first CRC project (2014-2017) focused on the pre-decisional processes of community members and business owners, particularly their exposure to, attention to, and comprehension of warning messages in the response and early recovery phase of multiple hazards. The current project (2017-2020) builds on that knowledge and focuses on how the inputs into the pre-decisional process{\textemdash}environmental cues, social cues, information sources, channel access and preference, warning messages and receiver characteristics{\textemdash}inform protective action during the response phases of natural hazards.

There are two core research aims:

These aims have been achieved through three tailored research packages:

This project employs a multi-method, multi-hazard research design to:

Our research findings have been shared with end-users through the AFAC Warnings Group, invited presentations and consultancies, private meetings, conferences, and workshops, and translated into practice via audits, public information, visual content (e.g., infographics), emergency alert templates, national doctrine, and to support the Australian Warnings System.

}, keywords = {action, communication, Natural hazards, protective, risk, warning}, issn = {692}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Paula Dootson and Lisa Bradley and Sophie Miller and Scott Murray} } @article {bnh-7784, title = {Checks and balances: A business-oriented lens on disaster management and warnings}, journal = {Disasters}, year = {2020}, month = {12/2020}, abstract = {

Following disasters, small businesses are critical to community recovery. Yet, factors that affect outcomes (e.g., planning, information needs, and response to warnings) are understudied. To overcome the research record{\textquoteright}s focus on policy favoured towards disaster mitigation rather than response, this article presents a two-phased, mixed method approach. The first study comprised interviews with businesses to elucidate disaster planning approaches, knowledge and information needs, and current warning system adequacy. It revealed opportunities to build knowledge and add business-specific content to agency-issued warnings. Through an online survey, study two examined how disaster knowledge, planning and experience related to existing bushfire warnings and those modified with business-relevant content. Findings showed that planning related to experience and knowledge but not to business-related protective action intentions. Modified messages were perceived as more effective and resulted in greater action intentions for those with bushfire experience. The article provides implications for small business-oriented disaster risk communication.

}, keywords = {business, communication, community, disaster, recovery}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12473}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/disa.12473}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Scott Murray and Cindy Hammill and Paula Dootson and Rebecca Langdon} } @article {bnh-7845, title = {Checks and balances: A business-oriented lens on disaster management and warnings}, journal = {Disasters}, year = {2020}, month = {12/2020}, abstract = {

Following disasters, small businesses are critical to community recovery. Yet, factors that affect outcomes (e.g., planning, information needs, and response to warnings) are understudied. To overcome the research record{\textquoteright}s focus on policy favoured towards disaster mitigation rather than response, this article presents a two-phased, mixed method approach. The first study comprised interviews with businesses to elucidate disaster planning approaches, knowledge and information needs, and current warning system adequacy. It revealed opportunities to build knowledge and add business-specific content to agency-issued warnings. Through an online survey, study two examined how disaster knowledge, planning and experience related to existing bushfire warnings and those modified with business-relevant content. Findings showed that planning related to experience and knowledge but not to business-related protective action intentions. Modified messages were perceived as more effective and resulted in greater action intentions for those with bushfire experience. The article provides implications for small business-oriented disaster risk communication.

}, keywords = {business, communications, disaster, Warnings}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12473}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/disa.12473?af=R}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Scott Murray and Cindy Hammill and Paula Dootson and Rebecca Langdon} } @article {bnh-5438, title = {Towards Protective Action: Effective Risk and Warning Communication during Natural Hazards Annual Report 2017-2018}, number = {467}, year = {2019}, month = {03/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {
This project plan draws on three years of interdisciplinary research and end-userengagement that derived evidence-based insights into risk and warning\ communication during the response and early recovery phases of natural\ hazards. The research (both completed and in-progress) examines existing and\ modified communication to community members and business owners\ that maybe affected by natural hazards. Our research findings have been shared with\ end-users through AFAC Committees, invited presentations, private meetings,\ conferences,\ workshops\ and translated into practice via audits of agency\ messages.\ The original BNHCRC project (2013-2017) focused on\ the pre-decisional\ processes of community members and business owners, particularly their\ exposure to, attention to, and comprehension of emergency warning messages\ in the response and early recovery phase of multiple hazards. This project (2017-2020) builds on that knowledge and focuses on how the inputs into the pre-decisional process\ {\textemdash}\ environmental cues, social cues, information sources,\ channel access and preference, warning messages and receiver\ characteristics\ {\textemdash}\ inform protective action during the response and early recovery\ phases of natural hazards.
}, keywords = {communications, Multi-hazard, Natural hazards, Warnings}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Lisa Bradley and Paula Dootson and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Sophie Miller} } @article {bnh-4245, title = {Building resilient communities - effective multi-channel communication during disasters: annual project report 2016-17}, number = {344}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Australia is exposed to a range of natural disasters including severe storm, fire, cyclone, flood, and to a lesser extent, earthquake and tsunami. These disasters have an estimated cost of $9 billion a year [4], alongside the more difficult to measure social impact on society and individuals{\textquoteright} wellbeing. Governments, authorities, and organisations dedicate significant resources to encourage communities to prepare for and respond to natural hazards. However, recent events, media attention, and ongoing academic research continue to highlight cases of non-compliance. Non-compliance can include an individual{\textquoteright}s refusal to evacuate when a voluntary or mandatory evacuation message is issued, evacuating when advised not to, and travelling through hazardous areas when advised not to, to name a few. The consequences of non-compliance during a natural hazard can include personal injury or loss of life, and damage to, or loss of property. Individuals who fail to comply with instructions issued during natural hazards significantly impede the emergency response because they divert resources to compliance-enforcement, and risk the lives of emergency service workers who may be required to assist them. The consequences of non-compliance drive the need to understand how to influence individual-level compliance in a natural hazard, through more effective communication.

This project adopts a multi-hazards approach to examine the effectiveness of response and recovery communication in communities (comprising individuals, groups, and businesses) affected by natural hazards. The core project objectives are two-fold:

  1. Develop methods to maximise the effectiveness of response and recovery messaging to the community during a range of natural hazard events.
  2. Promote both community and disaster agency understanding of the legal motivators for maximising engagement with emergency messages and instructions.

Achieving these objectives will enable the project to deliver evidence-based message content to guide operational and communication strategy, and improve community understanding, decision-making, and compliance during the emergency response and recovery phase of natural disasters.\ 

}, issn = {344}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Sharon Christensen and Bill Duncan and Amanda Stickley and Paula Dootson} } @conference {bnh-3900, title = {Evidence-based risk communication: an industry-academic research collaboration that enhanced dam release message effectiveness}, booktitle = {AFAC17}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Sydney}, abstract = {

In the past, intuition, experience, and anecdotal information have shaped the design of public risk communication and education campaigns, potentially limiting their effectiveness (Wood et al., 2012). However, collaborations between industry and academia better use and combine theory with practice and can generate evidence to support or counter intuitive thinking. This extended abstract outlines the research collaboration between Seqwater and QUT, which supported Seqwater{\textquoteright}s response to the Inspector-General for Emergency Management{\textquoteright}s (IGEM) review of dam release messaging.

In their 2015 Review of Seqwater and SunWater Warnings Communications, the Office of the Inspector General for Emergency Management (IGEM) identified the need for more effective communication from Seqwater and SunWater during natural hazards. Specifically, under Recommendation one {\textendash} Messaging, IGEM recommended that Seqwater and SunWater focus immediate attention and action on issues of collaboration with local disaster management groups, addressing information sharing, messaging responsibilities, terminology and timing (IGEM, 2015).

}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Sophie Walker and Aimee Tutticci and Dominique Greer and Paula Dootson and Cindy Hammill and Vivienne Tippett} } @article {bnh-3083, title = {Building resilient communities - effective multi-channel communication in disasters: Annual project report 2015-2016}, number = {219}, year = {2016}, month = {09/2016}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Recent natural hazard events in Australia and around the world provide constant reminders of why people should prepare and how people should behave. Yet, industry experiences and research shows that community members still fail to comply with instructions issued by government agencies [1]. Particularly in the response and recovery phases of a natural disaster, individuals ignore official emergency instructions in favour of community-generated warnings. While non-compliant behaviour is often not in the best interest of the individual or community, non-compliance is not necessarily malicious or even intentional. However, individuals who fail to comply with instructions issued during natural hazards significantly impede the emergency response because they (a) divert resources to compliance enforcement, (b) risk the lives of emergency service workers who may later be required to assist them, and (c) confuse the core safety message or instruction. Moreover, there is a limited understanding of the legal ramifications of non-compliance from perspectives of individuals, agencies, or corporations.

This year the team have undertaken two work packages: (1) assessing message comprehension of emergency warnings (completed) and (2) experiments on message compliance (ongoing). Community message comprehension of emergency warnings was examined through ten focus groups across Australia. This qualitative work built on research conducted by end-user organisations and addresses issues raised by the National Review of Warnings and Information. Key findings included: time between message updates is used as a proxy for event severity, visuals aid in personalising the risk and overcoming limitations of geographic knowledge, location triggers attention and the personalisation of risk, hazard knowledge and past experience can influence message comprehension in ways that lead to negative unintended consequences, and over-warning is preferred to under-warning. Recommendations are made for how to amend existing emergency messages to improve community member message comprehension. Findings were reported to the BNHCRC 30 June 2016.

The experiments on message compliance are seeking to produce an evidence base for the effectiveness of existing message strategies, and work towards optimising those messages using theoretical insights from psychology, marketing, and behavioural economics. The findings from the community focus groups informed the different manipulations used in the experiments. For example, one experiment manipulated the time between updates with varying degrees of specificity and tested its effect on risk perceptions, information-seeking, and intentions to take protective action. Data collection is still underway and will be reported to the BNHCRC later this year.

Other activities completed during this reporting period included a workshop run by the Queensland University of Technology{\textquoteright}s Centre for Emergency and Disaster Management titled {\textquotedblleft}2036 Flood Hypothetical{\textquotedblright}. The event was attended by emergency services agencies, government agencies, and other key stakeholders, including representatives from the BNHCRC. The team has also engaged in on-going expert discussions with end-users and other key emergency management personnel around research results and utilisation.

In May 2016 the team attended the BNHCRC Research Advisory Forum in Hobart, Tasmania, where they presented an update on the project and ran a workshop with the end-users in attendance. The forum was valuable in gaining end-user input into the utilisation of the research. End-user engagement has been on-going throughout the year through one-on-one contact, teleconferences, bulletins, cluster bulletins, and face-to-face meetings where possible.

Some team members also attended and presented at the Australia New Zealand Emergency Management and Disaster Conference on the Gold Coast, Queensland in May 2016. The team also submitted a poster to the AFAC/BNHCRC 2015 Conference in Adelaide, South Australia.\ As the project moves forward, the next year will see completion of the required deliverables and utilisation of the research. As major natural disasters have a significant economic impact on society, even small changes\ in protective behaviours can be valuable [2]. Informed emergency messaging can subsequently reduce the costs associated with disasters, which are largely attributed to the public response to the disaster [3], and could potentially save lives.

}, issn = {219}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Sharon Christensen and Bill Duncan and Amanda Stickley and Paula Dootson} } @article {bnh-2313, title = {Connecting communities and resilience: A multi{\textendash}hazard study of preparedness, response and recovery communications: Annual project report 2014-2015}, number = {128}, year = {2015}, month = {10/2015}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Recent natural hazard events in Australia and around the world provide constant reminders of why people should prepare and how people should behave. Yet, industry experiences and research shows that community members still fail to comply with instructions issued by government agencies [1]. Particularly in the response and recovery phases of a natural disaster, individuals ignore official emergency instructions in favour of community-generated warnings. While non-compliant behaviour is often not in the best interest of the individual or community, non-compliance is not necessarily malicious or even intentional. However, individuals who fail to comply with instructions issued during natural hazards significantly impede the emergency response because they (a) divert resources to compliance enforcement, (b) risk the lives of emergency service workers who may later be required to assist them, and (c) confuse the core safety message or instruction. Moreover, there is a limited understanding of the legal ramifications of non-compliance from perspectives of individuals, agencies, or corporations.

This year the Project team have undertaken two work packages; (1) social media pilot and (2) community focus groups on message comprehension. The social media pilot sought to examine decision-making, risk communication, and in particular the existing approach for official messages during response and recovery of natural disaster, via Twitter. The work package involved analysing around 50,000 Tweets exchanged about Tropical Cyclone Marcia, from 18 to 21 February inclusive. Results show that emergency messages include instructions and updates that may lack precision and assume community knowledge. In addition, community members demonstrate affect, overconfidence, and familiarity biases, and demonstrate limited appetite for irresponsibility displayed by journalists or other community members.\  The findings of this study suggest the following opportunities exist for emergency services organisations; (1) add precision to updates and instructions, (2) filter out noise and introduce $\#$official as a hashtag to signal and draw attention to important messages, (3) integrate stories that personalise risk and enhance self-efficacy to reflect trends in community tweets, (4) take advantages of affect and engage in preparation messages during the recovery phase, and (5) ground-truth to share knowledge about event and impact to add accuracy and overcome familiarity bias for the next disaster. The community focus groups, while still ongoing, were conducted to examine community comprehension of emergency warning messages. This qualitative work builds on research conducted by end-user organisations and addresses issues raised by the National Review of Warnings And Information, which was endorsed in May 2015. As at June 30, 2015, five focus groups had been conducted in Brisbane and Hervey Bay in Queensland, and the Dandenongs in Victoria. In July 2015, three focus groups will be conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, and Kempsey, New South Wales. Findings will be reported in the next quarterly reporting period.

}, issn = {128}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Sharon Christensen and Bill Duncan and Amanda Stickley and Paula Dootson} }