Factors influencing communities’ flood risk perceptions: outcome of a community survey in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment, Australia

ABSTRACT

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment in NSW, Australia has a unique topography that makes it highly susceptible to flood risks. A recent flood management review has indicated the need for better flood education for the communities residing in the floodplains of the catchment. This research article describes the perceptions of residents to flood risks to their property and factors that can influence this perception. The data was collected through on-line, face-to-face and postal surveys, and the results were derived from the 172 responses received. This article aims to provide a better understanding of the perceptions of the community residing in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment, and to help develop more effective risk communication strategies, to enable better management of floods, and greater level of support from the communities on flood management. Findings of this research show that the communities have a low perception of flood risks in the region and that factors such as proximity to the rivers, gender, age and duration of living in the area can influence perceptions of flood risks to property.

KEYWORDS:

• Floodplain management
• risk perception
• flood risk
• climate change
• Hawkesbury-Nepean

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the community members who participated in the survey and were open to express their views on the subject.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data storage

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [SM].

Notes

1 The reason to include these regions was because of the concerns highlighted by experts such as Gillespie et al. (2002) who emphasised the future extreme flood risk potential in these regions due to future development.