Evacuation in natural disaster: Evakuacija u prirodnim katastrofama

Research output: Book/ReportBookResearch

Abstract

The monograph represents the result of a quantitative research study on citizen evacuation in natural disasters caused by floods (hereinafter referred to as natural disasters). The focus of the research is on examining citizens' perceptions regarding consent to evacuation and the manner of its implementation, with a specific emphasis on knowledge of evacuation routes and nearby assembly points, reception areas, and deployment areas for evacuation purposes. Additionally, the authors investigate the influence of demographic (gender, age, education level, high school achievement, and parenthood), socio-economic (employment status, income level, marital status, military service status, and distance of residence from the river), and psychological characteristics (fear, previous experience, risk perception, motivation, and religiosity) of citizens on the aforementioned dimensions of evacuation in natural disasters caused by floods. For the purpose of the research, local communities in the Republic of Serbia with high and low flood risk were stratified using statistical methods and the method of experiential generalization. Consequently, a stratum, i.e., population, consisting of all adult residents of local communities where floods occurred or where there is a risk of their occurrence, was obtained. From this stratum, a random sample of 19 communities out of a total of 154 with indicated vulnerability or potential vulnerability to floods was selected. The research covered the following local communities: Obrenovac, Šabac, Kruševac, Kragujevac, Sremska Mitrovica, Priboj, Batočina, Svilajnac, Lapovo, Paraćin, Smederevska Palanka, Jaša Tomić, Loznica, Bajina Bašta, Smederevo, Novi Sad, Kraljevo, Rekovac, and Užice. A household survey strategy was chosen for the implementation of the survey, employing a multi-stage random sampling method. During this process, data on various dimensions of evacuation, as well as on demographic, socio-economic, and psychological characteristics of citizens, were collected. The collected, sorted, classified, and processed data were analyzed using various techniques, including determining the frequency of a particular response in the total response mass of respondents, determining the percentage of participation of a particular response in the total response mass, and using the Chi-square test of independence (χ2) to establish statistically significant differences between compared groups or to determine statistically significant relationships between individual responses. Additionally, one-way analysis of variance and independent samples T-test were utilized. Considering the experiences of the Republic of Serbia regarding difficulties in implementing citizen evacuation from flooded areas, it can be said that the monograph has both scientific and social significance. Taking into account the quantity and quality of the sample structure, the results presented in this paper can be generalized to the entire population. On the other hand, notwithstanding the effort invested and the extensive results presented in the monograph, a large number of research questions regarding evacuation remain to be addressed. The research findings can have significant implications for improving the implementation of evacuation in natural disasters caused by floods. As such, they will undoubtedly constitute the fundamental body of knowledge in future research on citizen evacuation in natural disasters caused by floods. Keywords: 1. safety 2. natural disasters 3. citizens 4. evacuation 5. consent to evacuation 6. knowledge of evacuation routes 7. knowledge of assembly points 8. demographic factors 9. socio-economic factors 10. psychological factors. Referenca: Cvetković, V., & Gačić, J. (2016). Evakuacija u prirodnim katastrofama. Beograd: Zadužbina Andrejević.

Details

Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Publication statusPublished - 2016