Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception: A Study in Bandung

Abstract

Bandung is a city highly vulnerable to disasters (such as volcano eruption, floods). Preparation for dealing with disasters is a must to increase an effective response and reduce disaster risk. The purpose of the research is to develop a model of urban community readiness, especially the city of Bandung, in the face of impending disasters so that the factors affecting the preparedness behavior in the face of disasters. The sample for this research are 70 resident in Bandung were interviewed by using a questionnaire about adopting a set of behaviors for preparing for the disaster when it occurred. The factors identified include attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, perception of risk, and behavior. The research also collects information on social demographic factors and respondents experiences in dealing with disasters so that the research can explain the relationship between socio-environmental characteristics adopted from the theory of planned behavior. This research provides different insights into the relationship between attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, risk perception, and disaster preparedness behavior. This research shows that risk perception has a positive impact on disaster preparedness behavior and statistically significant.