Duane D. Baumann

Educational Programs and Human Response to Natural Hazards

That an individual is aware of the risk of a natural hazard and the range of damage mitigation measures is no guarantee that he or she will act on this information. Based on a review of the literature, the available evidence is weak on the relatonship between awareness or knowledge and the consequent adoption of damage mitigation measures. Although substantial sums of money are expended each year on public information programs on natural hazards, little effort has focused on the cost-effectiveness of such programs.

FLOOD INSURANCE: SOME DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION

The literature on response to natural hazards is surveyed to identify factors possibly at work in determining what coping behaviors are adopted. These factors are then explored in the context of a specific study of the purchase or nonpurchase of flood insurance in the floodplain communities of Seguin and New Braunfels, Texas. Three factors are found to be significantly related to insurance adoption: previous experience of flood damage, social class, and a single dimension of personality-internal-external locus of control.

Social acceptance of water reuse

Abstract Recycling of waste water presents one of the main options to the water supply planner. Public attitudes against recycled water, however, are seen to be a major inhibitor of its use. Research during the 1960s and 1970s indicated that acceptance of recycled water varied according to potential use—from about 50 per cent acceptance for potable water to almost 100 per cent for irrigation and industrial cooling. Initial acceptance is shown to depend mainly upon cognitive factors, including the awareness of the public about water supply, distribution and treatment, the perception of the adequacy of existing supplies, and income. Peripheral factors such as age, political affiliation and attitudes to local government are also related to acceptance, but neither price nor psychological factors influence the level of acceptance. It is concluded that public acceptance of waste-water reuse is not a formidable obstacle to its adoption, but that a greater constraint is the pessimistic perception by planners of consumer attitudes.

The Adoption of Residential Flood Mitigation Measures: What Price Success?

A review of public efforts to persuade persons-at-risk to take protective measures against natural hazards reveals a variety of programmatic strategies to which their success or failure presumably ...

Resource Management and Conservation Education

Abstract There is a need to examine the ideas underlying the teaching of conservation, since changes are needed in order to bring conservation in the classroom into step with a rapidly changing world. The definition of conservation, the future of resource availability, and the status of conservation in education today, are among the topics examined. Suggestions are made on improving the content and emphasis of conservation courses.