Damage outside Wellington's Westpac Stadium following 2016's Kaikoura Earthquake. Only a third of people in the capital are fully prepared for a natural disaster. Photo / File
Damage outside Wellington's Westpac Stadium following 2016's Kaikoura Earthquake. Only a third of people in the capital are fully prepared for a natural disaster. Photo / File
Researchers are exploring innovative new ways to help turn around poor rates of disaster preparedness among Kiwis.
Civil Defence's latest preparedness survey found that, while the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes had brought a bump in readiness, just one in five Kiwis had done all they needed to get through a big disaster.
That meant they had survival plans that included what to do when not at home, had necessary emergency items they regularly updated, and had stored enough water.
A third had all the emergency supplies and plans needed at home, and half thought they had enough items stored to prepare them.
Yet a quarter said they didn't know enough to help them prepare, more than a third didn't often think about what disasters could strike their area, and one in five simply thought they'd never experience one.
"Despite being at high risk for natural hazard events, many New Zealand citizens are under-prepared," Victoria University researcher Amanda Wallis said.
"This may mean that traditional strategies used to encourage preparedness are not as effective as they could be.
"We need creative intervention strategies with science-based designs to help solve this problem."
Wallis recently carried out surveys in Wellington looking at how earthquake preparedness related to peoples' attachment to place meaningful to them.
Already, she has found people who felt more closely attached to their homes were more likely to also take steps to prepare for disasters.
This graph shows how preparedness has changed over time. Source / Civil Defence/Colmar Brunton
"This means that place attachment shows promise to help make Wellington and New Zealand more prepared, and therefore more resilient to nature's challenges," she said.
"I hope that these findings, particularly any successful intervention strategies, will be used by government agencies and hazard organisations to inform the work that they do."
Another Wellington-focused study, led by fellow Victoria University researcher Lauren Vinnell, looked at wider underlying reasons that could explain why people in the capital weren't prepared enough.
A 2015 Civil Defence report found that while Wellington was better prepared than other regions - a third of residents were disaster-ready and just over half were prepared at home - an alarming number hadn't made any arrangements.
That was despite the city's vulnerability to being cut off, its exposure to major fault lines and tsunami sources, and several big shakes over the last decade.
Levels of preparedness have spiked last year, with findings rising to levels not seen since post the 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes. Source / Civil Defence/Colmar Brunton
"Overall, people in Wellington are not as prepared as they could or should be for something like an earthquake," Vinnell said.
"I want to change this, so that we as individuals and as a city can survive better the hazards in our future."
The first important question to answer, Vinnell said, was exactly why people were or weren't preparing at the moment.
"It's difficult to change a behaviour if we don't understand the factors motivating or inhibiting that behaviour."
Vinnell will also draw on surveys, which will include measures of established social psychological factors, such as attitudes towards preparedness.
"The second question is how we can increase disaster preparation," she said.
"By using the answers I get to the first question, I can select and use different tools in community campaigns to see which are effective at increasing preparation behaviour."
A third project, led by Massey University's Marion Tan, focused on the many smartphone apps now being developed by agencies and companies.
"Many of these disaster apps claim to provide information on the onset, during or immediately after a disaster," Tan said.
"However, limited research has gone to the extent of how users perceive and use these apps.
"During high-stress situations, such as during disasters, individual's information processing capabilities may be compromised.
"In this context, we want to know what usability characteristics must be upheld to ensure apps are usable during crises."
Tan would analyse user reviews from 55 different disaster apps - and also build a prototype that would be tested as well.
She said the work would offer developers a practical guideline, while giving fellow researchers a deeper insight into the area.
The three projects are part of Resilience to Nature's Challenges, one of 11 national science challenges being funded by the Government and drawing together hundreds of collaborating scientists.
