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Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 25240

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yuxiang Hong

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Guest Editor

School of Management, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Interests: crisis management; emergency preparedness; security behavior; environmental psychology; risk communication

Prof. Dr. Ziqiang Han

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Guest Editor

School of Political Science and Public Administration, Shandong University, Qingdao 266200, China
Interests: disaster recovery; sustainable development; disaster preparedness; comprehensive school safety; multi-organizational cooperation
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Prof. Dr. Jong-Suk Kim

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Guest Editor

State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Interests: hydroclimatology; hydrosystem modeling; flood/drought frequency analysis; climate variability and change; tropical meteorology; environmental assessment; risk management
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Prof. Dr. Joo-Heon Lee

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Joongbu University, Goyang 10279, Korea
Interests: remote sensing of hydro-meteorology; drought monitoring and forecasting; climate change adaptation; eco hydrology; statistical hydrology
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental disasters are becoming more frequent. These disasters not only include the most common natural disasters, but also include man-made disasters, such as public health, accident disasters, etc., which have caused greater damage to human society and cities. Because of the limitations of a single government-led model in emergency response, the emergency preparedness of communities, families and individuals is more important. In particular, the emergency preparedness psychology and behavior of individuals directly determine whether or not they can effectively protect themselves and their families in the first time of disaster.

This Special Issue focuses on environmental disasters and individuals’ emergency preparedness in the perspective of psychology and behavior. Particularly, we welcome the topics of empirical and model-based studies that could provide useful information for decision-making, and policies to achieve our goals of enhancing the resilience of human–environment systems to environmental disasters.

Dr. Yuxiang Hong
Prof. Dr. Ziqiang Han
Prof. Dr. Jong-Suk Kim
Prof. Dr. Joo-Heon Lee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

Environmental disasters
Natural disasters
Man-made disasters
COVID-19
Emergency preparedness
Psychology and behavior
Resilience
Empirical study

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 660 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Will Anti-Epidemic Campus Signals Affect College Students’ Preparedness in the Post-COVID-19 Era?

by Teng Zhao, Yuchen Zhang, Chao Wu and Qiang Su

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(17), 9276; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179276 - 2 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2808

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a tremendous global threat and challenge for human beings, and individuals need to be prepared for the next wave of the outbreak, especially in the educational setting. Limited research has focused on individual knowledge, awareness, and preparedness of COVID-19 in postsecondary institutions in the post-COVID-19 era so far. This study aimed to explore whether students’ perceived anti-epidemic campus signals had effects on their awareness of and preparedness for COVID-19. Leveraging the data collected from full-time college students in a province located in East China and building a structural regression model, we found that students’ perceived anti-epidemic campus signals were significantly associated with their awareness of and preparedness for COVID-19. With one perceived signal decrease, there were 0.099 unit and 0.051 unit decreases in students’ awareness and preparedness, respectively. In addition, we indeed found that female students had a higher awareness and better preparedness than their male peers. These findings provided important implications for postsecondary administrators and policymakers, as well as future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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15 pages, 1154 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Formation Mechanism of Medical and Health Organization Staff’s Emergency Preparedness Behavioral Intention: From the Perspective of Psychological Capital

by Huihui Wang, Jiaqing Zhao, Ying Wang and Yuxiang Hong

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(16), 8246; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168246 - 4 Aug 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2564

Abstract

Medical and Health Organization (MHO) staff’s emergency preparedness awareness and behaviors are essential variables that affect public health emergency response effectiveness. Based on the theory of psychological capital and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study discusses the mechanism of the psychological characteristics of MHO staff on their emergency preparedness behavioral intention (EPBI). To verify the research model, we conducted a web-based questionnaire survey among 243 MHO staff from China and analyzed the data using the structural equation modeling software, AMOS 24.0 (IBM, New York, United States). The empirical results reveal that psychological capital significantly affected cognitive processes theorized by TPB. This study suggests that the positive psychological capital of MHO staff should be developed and managed to improve their EPBI. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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20 pages, 2187 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Water Resources Carrying Risk and the Coping Behaviors of the Government and the Public

by Ning Zhang, Zichen Wang, Lan Zhang and Xiao Yang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(14), 7693; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147693 - 20 Jul 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2329

Abstract

The carrying capacity of water resources is of great significance to economic and social development, eco-environmental protection, and public health. The per capita water resources in Zhejiang Province is only 2280.8 m³, which is more likely to cause the risk of water resources carrying capacity in the case of water shortage. Therefore, this paper applies Analytic Hierarchy Process-Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation and Entropy-Principal Component Analysis to evaluate the vulnerability of disaster-bearers and the risk of disaster-causing factors; it comprehensively evaluates the risk of water resources carrying capacity in Zhejiang Province by constructing risk matrix and ranking scores. The specific results are as follows: According to the comprehensive evaluation of the vulnerability of disaster-bearers in Zhejiang Province from the three aspects of supporting force, regulating force, and pressure, the overall performance was good. In particular, the role of supporting force is the most obvious. In the risk of disaster factors, it was found that industrial structure, climate change, water use efficiency, and population structure have great influence, showing that southern Zhejiang is at a greater risk than northern Zhejiang, and western Zhejiang is at a greater risk than eastern Zhejiang, but the overall score gap is not large. Combining the two results, the order of water resources carrying risk in Zhejiang Province from low to high was Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Jinhua, Quzhou, Wenzhou, Lishui, Taizhou, and Zhoushan. Finally, according to the development planning of different cities, the coping behaviors of the government and the public regarding water resources carrying risk are put forward. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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13 pages, 936 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Place Attachment and Household Disaster Preparedness: Examining the Mediation Role of Self-Efficacy

by Ziyi Wang, Ziqiang Han, Lin Liu and Shaobin Yu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(11), 5565; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115565 - 23 May 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 4728

Abstract

Household preparedness is essential for resilience-building and disaster risk reduction. Limited studies have explored the correlations between place attachment, self-efficacy, and disaster preparedness, especially in the east Asian cultural context. This study investigates the mediating role of self-efficacy between place attachment and disaster preparedness based on data from the 2018 Shandong General Social Survey (N = 2181) in China. We categorized the preparedness behaviors into three specific clusters: material, behavioral and awareness preparedness. Multiple linear regressions and the Sobel Goodman tests were employed to estimate the correlations with the control of necessary confounding variables such as disaster experience, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The results demonstrate that both the place attachment and self-efficacy are correlated with higher degrees of overall preparedness and all three types of preparedness, and self-efficacy plays a mediating role between place attachment and disaster preparedness. These findings highlight the importance of promoting place attachment and self-efficacy in the advocacies and outreach activities of disaster preparedness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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25 pages, 4720 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Individual Behaviors and Governmental Guidance Measures on Pandemic-Triggered Public Sentiment Based on System Dynamics and Cross-Validation

by Hainan Huang, Weifan Chen, Tian Xie, Yaoyao Wei, Ziqing Feng and Weijiong Wu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(8), 4245; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18084245 - 16 Apr 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3375

Abstract

Negative online public sentiment generated by government mishandling of pandemics and other disasters can easily trigger widespread panic and distrust, causing great harm. It is important to understand the law of public sentiment dissemination and use it in a timely and appropriate way. Using the big data of online public sentiment during the COVID-19 period, this paper analyzes and establishes a cross-validation based public sentiment system dynamics model which can simulate the evolution processes of public sentiment under the effects of individual behaviors and governmental guidance measures. A concrete case of a violation of relevant regulations during COVID-19 epidemic that sparked public sentiment in China is introduced as a study sample to test the effectiveness of the proposed method. By running the model, the results show that an increase in government responsiveness contributes to the spread of positive social sentiment but also promotes negative sentiment. Positive individual behavior suppresses negative emotions while promoting the spread of positive emotions. Changes in the disaster context (epidemic) have an impact on the spread of sentiment, but the effect is mediocre. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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10 pages, 424 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Factors Affecting Volunteers’ Willingness to Participate in Disaster Preparedness

by Yingnan Ma, Wei Zhu, Huan Zhang, Pengxia Zhao, Yafei Wang and Qiujie Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(8), 4141; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18084141 - 14 Apr 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3256

Abstract

Disaster preparedness is crucial for providing an effective response to, and reducing the possible impacts of, disasters. Although volunteers’ participation plays an important role in disaster preparedness, their actual participation in disaster preparedness activities is still low. To find ways to encourage more volunteers to participate, this study analyzed the social background and organizational and attitudinal factors affecting the volunteers’ willingness to participate. Questionnaires were distributed to 990 registered disaster volunteers across Beijing and the data were analyzed using linear regression models. Results revealed a weak willingness to participate in disaster preparedness. Only 28.08% of the respondents indicated that they were “very ready” to participate in voluntary disaster preparedness, and 14.65% showed “a little bit” of interest. The following was concluded: (1) Disaster volunteers’ social background variables were related to their willingness to participate in disaster preparedness. Compared to male volunteers, female volunteers were more willing to participate. Chinese Communist Party members were more willing to participate than non-members. (2) Providing accidental life insurance for the volunteers had a positive effect on their willingness to participate in disaster preparedness. Provision of more training had a negative effect on the volunteers’ willingness to participate, indicating a low quality of training. (3) Organizational identification was positively related to the volunteers’ willingness to participate. According to these results, we suggest that volunteer organizations should improve their standards and procedures for disaster volunteer recruitment and selection, and gain a deeper understanding of the needs of the disaster volunteers in order to better motivate them to participate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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25 pages, 917 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Networks, Trust, and Disaster-Risk Perceptions of Rural Residents in a Multi-Disaster Environment: Evidence from Sichuan, China

by Kaijing Xue, Shili Guo, Yi Liu, Shaoquan Liu and Dingde Xu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(4), 2106; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042106 - 22 Feb 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4018

Abstract

Individual perception of disaster risk is not only the product of individual factors, but also the product of social interactions. However, few studies have empirically explored the correlations between rural residents’ flat social networks, trust in pyramidal channels, and disaster-risk perceptions. Taking Sichuan Province—a typical disaster-prone province in China—as an example and using data from 327 rural households in mountainous areas threatened by multiple disasters, this paper measured the level of participants’ disaster-risk perception in the four dimensions of possibility, threat, self-efficacy, and response efficacy. Then, the ordinary least squares method was applied to probe the correlations between social networks, trust, and residents’ disaster-risk perception. The results revealed four main findings. (1) Compared with scores relating to comprehensive disaster-risk perception, participants had lower perception scores relating to possibility and threat, and higher perception scores relating to self-efficacy and response efficacy. (2) The carrier characteristics of their social networks significantly affected rural residents’ perceived levels of disaster risk, while the background characteristics did not. (3) Different dimensions of trust had distinct effects on rural residents’ disaster-risk perceptions. (4) Compared with social network variables, trust was more closely related to the perceived level of disaster risks, which was especially reflected in the impact on self-efficacy, response efficacy, and comprehensive perception. The findings of this study deepen understanding of the relationship between social networks, trust, and disaster-risk perceptions of rural residents in mountainous areas threatened by multiple disasters, providing enlightenment for building resilient disaster-prevention systems in the community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness: In the Perspective of Psychology and Behavior)

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