New paper: Digital engagement methods for earthquake and fire preparedness
To achieve that, we have commissioned Enrica Verrucci to help us with the review, and later on other members of the team updated the information – including Patrick Rickles, David Rush, and Gretchen Fagg. We then thought about the development of a paper from the review, and an interesting interdisciplinary discussion ensue, with different potential emphasis and structures were suggested. It took us several iterations until we’ve agreed that the best way to communicate the purpose of the review is by linking the use of digital technologies to behaviour change, with the guidance of Gabriela Perez-Fuentes and Helene Joffe who are the psychological experts on the team.
The resulting paper have just been published in Natural Hazards. It is the first paper from the project that covers all the groups that are involved in the project. Here is the abstract:
“Natural or human-made hazards may occur at any time. Although one might assume that individuals plan in advance for such potentially damaging events, the existing literature indicates that most communities remain inadequately prepared. In the past, research in this area has focused on identifying the most effective ways to communicate risk and elicit preparedness by means of public hazard education campaigns and risk communication programmes. Today, web- and mobile-based technologies are offering new and far-reaching means to inform communities on how to prepare for or cope with extreme events, thus significantly contributing to community preparedness. Nonetheless, their practical efficacy in encouraging proactive hazard preparedness behaviours is not yet proven. Building on behaviour change interventions in the health field and looking in particular at earthquakes and fire hazards, the challenging RISK team has reviewed the currently active websites, Web, and mobile applications that provide information about earthquake and home fire preparedness. The review investigates the type of information provided, the modality of delivery, and the presence of behaviour change techniques in their design. The study proves that most of the digital resources focus on a single hazard and fail to provide context-sensitive information that targets specific groups of users. Furthermore, behaviour change techniques are rarely implemented in the design of these applications and their efficacy is rarely systematically evaluated. Recommendations for improving the design of Web- and mobile-based technologies are made so as to increase their effectiveness and uptake for a multi-hazard approach to earthquake and home fire preparedness.”
You can find the paper (which is Open Access) on the journal’s website: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-016-2378-x?view=classic
You can find the list of websites and apps here.
