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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Defining The Importance Of Mental Preparedness For Risk Communication And Residents Well-Prepared For Wildfire, Christine Eriksen, Timothy Prior
Defining The Importance Of Mental Preparedness For Risk Communication And Residents Well-Prepared For Wildfire, Christine Eriksen, Timothy Prior
Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A
Building on a recognised information-to-action gap in wildfire risk communication, this paper examines what being physically and mentally 'well prepared' actually means to wildfire agency staff and volunteers in charge of disseminating risk information. Using the results of an open-ended survey conducted in southeast Australia, we examine how a set of preparedness messages is interpreted. The paper demonstrates that the concept of wildfire preparedness is ambiguous, and that being 'well prepared' is a complex mix of practical and mental preparedness measures. Many of the individual interpretations of preparedness messages are found to not align with the official outlined intent. In …