Sagehen Creek Field Station

01 Jul, 11 AM - 09 Aug, 03 AM

I am studying human perception of risk to wildfire hazard in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). I will be working with stakeholders in Truckee, CA to determine how local residents perceive the risk wildfire poses to their homes and community; what types of mitigation measures they support; and what types of educational and communication methods are most effective to encourage mitigation. I will be using semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping, and focus groups. Although risk researchers have acknowledged that emotion is an important component of individual decision-making and risk perception, hazards work has yet to engage with how people?s emotional and affective relationships with certain places might influence risk communication and mitigation behavior. In the WUI, where many new residents have relocated specifically in order to be "close to nature", it is particularly important to understand how the idea of nature is being experienced in that space and whether it constrains or enables mitigation behaviors, especially since recently-arriving residents tend to implement fewer mitigation measures to wildfire hazard. For risk communication, which researchers agree should be a two-way process between experts and nonexperts, it also becomes important to understand how the emotional attachments of residents might connect or come into conflict with the way that wildfire hazard is characterized by local risk managers. For instance, if members of the public tend to associate their choice of residence with health, wellbeing, freedom and rejuvenation, but local risk managers characterize wildfire hazard primarily through discourses of fear, their message may be discounted or ignored altogether. Zaksek and Arvai noted that the training of many risk managers tends to focus almost exclusively on the technical management of risk and fails to consider human dimensions that would improve risk communication efforts. If residents and risk managers understand and acknowledge the character of their affective relationship with the local environment, both groups should be better equipped to build a collective understanding of risk and options for mitigation.

Visit #21350 @Sagehen Creek Field Station

Approved

Under Project # 21643 | Research

Affecting Risk: Improving Hazard Communication in the Wildland-Urban Interface

graduate_student - Pennsylvania State University

Reservation Members(s)

Destiny Aman Jul 1 - Aug 9, 2010 (40 days)

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