Perceptions of Risk and Vulnerability Following Exposure to a Major Natural Disaster: The Calgary Flood of 2013

Many studies have examined the general public’s flood risk perceptions in the aftermath of local and regional flooding. However, relatively few studies have focused on large‐scale events that affect tens of thousands of people within an urban center. Similarly, in spite of previous research on flood risks, unresolved questions persist regarding the variables that might influence perceptions of risk and vulnerability, along with management preferences. In light of the opportunities presented by these knowledge gaps, the research reported here examined public perceptions of flood risk and vulnerability, and management preferences, within the city of Calgary in the aftermath of extensive flooding in 2013. Our findings, which come from an online survey of residents, reveal that direct experience with flooding is not a differentiating factor for risk perceptions when comparing evacuees with nonevacuees who might all experience future risks. However, we do find that judgments about vulnerability—as a function of how people perceive physical distance—do differ according to one’s evacuation experience. Our results also indicate that concern about climate change is an important predictor of flood risk perceptions, as is trust in government risk managers. In terms of mitigation preferences, our results reveal differences in support for large infrastructure projects based on whether respondents feel they might actually benefit from them.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142892/1/risa12851_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142892/2/risa12851.pd

Communicating the Risks and Benefits of Human Urine-Derived Fertilizer

Ensuring long-term access to nutrients needed for food production is a growing global challenge. Human urine diversion and recycling is a viable and energy-efficient means of recovering nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from wastewater. Before implementation, however, it is critical to understand how communicating differently about human urine-derived fertilizer may influence its public acceptance. This study tests how different strategies of communication (video compared to texts), as well as different amounts of information, impact public acceptance. We also explored how specific characteristics, such as age and education level, may impact the usefulness of the different strategies of communication. The results indicate that short and long videos are the most useful risk communication strategies, and age fully moderates this relationship. This research may serve as a jumping off point for future studies focused on how risk communication strategies may affect consumer acceptance of other emerging food technologies

Affect or information? : examining drivers of public preferences of future energy portfolios in Switzerland

The energy transition in Switzerland, as in many other countries, aims to increase the proportion of electricity produced using renewable energy technologies. In this context, governmental agencies and other institutions have attempted to communicate the implications of (domestic) electricity systems through the use of web-based and interactive decision support systems (DSSs). Studies show that, when no additional information is provided, preferences concerning the future electricity mix are mainly driven by the affective reactions that energy technologies evoke. A question remains, however, regarding how people engage with the information provided in a DSS, as well as whether such information is influential in terms of shaping people’s choices. We asked our participants to build an electricity portfolio using a DSS, which modeled the Swiss electricity system. The participants’ political orientation and their affective reactions to different energy technologies guided their information search, as well as the choice of energy technologies within their portfolio. The attention paid to the information provided was not directly related to the participants’ portfolio choices. The selective processing of information, which was based on the participants’ prior attitudes, suggests that they target information they are already familiar with in the DSS. However, this also illustrates a caveat previously identified in motivated political reasoning, since selective information processing, together with the tendency to disconfirm information that is incongruent with prior beliefs, can lead to the polarization of previously held views. As the information provided through the DSS we tested was unable to change the participants’ affective-cognitive evaluation of energy technologies, its use should be carefully considered in light of the possible effects of consolidating existing beliefs