This article examines how personal beliefs about hazard events interact with social context factors to influence how individuals interpret their relationship with their environment, assign meaning to natural hazards and their consequences, and make preparedness decisions. Building on earlier work applying the same theoretical model to volcanic hazard preparedness, this article examines earthquake and flood hazard preparedness. The study incorporates both quantitative and qualitative approaches to elicit more detailed information regarding the influences underlying individuals' decisions to adopt preparation activities to minimise the effects of natural hazards. Findings indicate that preparedness decisions are not made in isolation. Through community level discourse and processes importance is attached to natural hazards and protective measures. It is only when natural hazards are perceived as having greater salience than other threats that people are motivated to prepare for their effects. A major finding is a distinction between trust and distrust of civic authorities. The data suggest that preparedness decisions were strongly influenced by the relevance people attached to information provided by these civic authorities. Delivering hazard mitigation strategies involves engaging with community members in order to understand their needs and to render meaningful assistance to their preparedness decisions.

This article is about modelling causal-relationship factors related to disaster preparedness. A model identifying the relationships between person- and community-level factors and intention to prepare for volcanic risks is tested in communities surrounding the Mt Merapi volcano, Indonesia. The analysis extends the test of a model developed by one of the authors in an individualistic culture, New Zealand, to members of a collectivistic culture. Using the data obtained from communities situated around Mt Merapi (n = 322), analysis revealed that community-level (collective efficacy and community participation) and variables describing the quality of the relationship between community members and civic agencies played significant roles in predicting intentions to prepare for volcanic hazards. The analysis also revealed that individual-level variables (outcome expectancy) were less influential compared with studies applying the model in individualistic countries. Some policy implications related to the findings are discussed.

Survivors of the 921 Earthquake in the Tung Shih areas were the target population for this study. The researchers used purposive sampling strategies to select information-rich participants for study in depth. A total of 15 interviewees and 8 focus group members participated in this study. Qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti 5.5, was used for cross-case and content analyses. The results indicate that acceptance, preparedness, self-reliance, spirituality, Hakka spirit, resource availability, social support networks, and serving others have positive impacts on disaster resilience. Participants from the in-depth interviews group affirm the importance of government involvement. Participants from the focus group pay special attentions on re-establishing social support networks. Furthermore, they reinforce the importance of understanding culture and meanings for the local people.

This article reports on an investigation into the use of Incident Control Systems (e.g., AIIMS/ CIMS) by personnel involved in emergency incident management in fire and emergency services agencies in Australia and New Zealand. A questionnaire was distributed that aimed to assess how information flowed between emergency incident management personnel at different layers of the incident control system, and what enabled and constrained coordination between those personnel. Data were collected from personnel on the fire or incident ground; members of Incident Management Teams; as well as staff operating in regional and state centres of coordination. To date there have been 579 responses spread across 24 agencies. The findings reveal that while there is a high level of satisfaction with overall organisational arrangements and reporting relationships, there are some systemic tensions in, and dissatisfaction evident with, communication arrangements. The extent to which Incident Control Systems facilitate the organisational flexibility needed during dynamic and often unpredictable situations is also discussed. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with similar questionnaire data collected in 2003 by AFAC (Australasian Fire Authorities Council).