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This section assesses whether a media about which a respondent had technical or personal difficulty concerns was among the preferred media for flood awareness and warning purposes. These are tabulated in Table 5.2.

From Table 5.2, it was observed that some of the respondents had technical or personal difficulty concerns if internet, email, text message, exhibitions & seminars, public announcement system or phone calls were used for flood awareness purposes.

Distribution of these media with technical or personal difficulty concerns and the media preferred for flood awareness purposes by those respondents is shown in Figure 5.25.

Figure 5.25: Preferred media for flood awareness by respondents having technical or personal difficulty

From Figure 5.25 it can be observed that, respondents who had technical or personal

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Internet Email Text message Exhibitions, seminars PAS Phone - Voice call

Technical or personal difficulty in using

Newspaper Brochures or leaflets Television

Radio Internet Email

Phone - Voice call Text message PAS

Exhibitions, seminars Visit to property

awareness purposes. However, at the same time it can be observed that other media, about which some other respondents had technical or personal difficulty concerns were preferred by those respondents. Therefore, it can be concluded that a wide range of media should be employed for flood awareness purposes.

Distribution of media with technical or personal difficulty concerns as discussed earlier and the media preferred for flood warning purposes by these respondents is shown in Figure 5.26.

Figure 5.26: Preferred media for flood warning by respondents having technical or personal difficulty

As earlier, from Figure 5.26 it can be observed that, respondents who had technical or personal difficulty concerns about a particular media appear not to prefer that media for

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Internet Email Text message PAS Phone - Voice call

Technical or personal difficulty in using

Newspaper Brochures or leaflets Television Radio

Internet Email Phone - Voice call Text message

PAS Exhibitions, seminars Visit to property

about which few other respondents had technical or personal difficulty concerns were preferred by those respondents. This serves to reinforce the previous finding that a wide range of media should be used for flood warning purposes to take into account the needs and preferences of those who have technical or personal difficulties with certain media.

5.9 Summary

This chapter presented the analysis of the postal survey responses received. The response rate for the survey was 20.85% and the responses represented all the age groups well. The percentage of female respondents was slightly more (57.9%) than the male respondents. The length of stay of the respondents varied widely but a substantial percentage of the respondents were living in their houses in the flood zone areas for more than 2 years (81.5%), most of them (76.6%) owned their houses and a substantial number of respondents (38.5%) had prior flood experience.

Section 5.3 presented a series of inferences about the level of knowledge the respondents had about flood risk in their areas. It is noteworthy that the areas where the questionnaires were posted were identified to be at risk of flooding. About three-quarters of the respondents (74.1%) indicated that they considered the risk of flooding to their properties to be medium to high. The respondents indicated that the causes and sources of flooding were primarily high water levels and overloading of drains as a result of heavy rainfall. About half of the respondents indicated that their house could be damaged (54.8%) and that flooding could also result in damage to furnishings and electrical appliances (49.7%). However, surprisingly about three-quarters of the respondents indicated that they had taken no action to limit the impact of flooding on their families (71.3%) and a similar proportion did not have any plan for action in case of flooding (72.8%).

Section 5.4 presented the analysis of the sources of information identified by the respondents, the level of satisfaction about the information they had received and the topics on which they thought they needed more information to raise their awareness about flooding. Weather forecasts on TV, radio and in newspapers as well as neighbours and friends were indicated as their main sources of information by the majority of the respondents. Further, less than half of the respondents indicated that

information was easily available (38%). More than half to three-quarters of the respondents indicated that they sought further information on how to take preventive and protective measures before floods to minimise damage to their properties (52%), the action they should or should not take during flooding (60.8%) and the level of risk during bad weather (70.6%).

It is noteworthy that SEPA does not issue flood warnings to individuals but one can receive flood warning information by visiting the SEPA website or by contacting SEPA by phone. An analysis of the sources of flood warnings found that just over a quarter of the respondents (28.6%) indicated that they had received flood warning and that most of the flood warnings (44.2% of the 28.6%) they came across were from ‘Other’ sources.

A further analysis of the responses revealed that more than half (61.8%) of the flood warnings were issued by the police. It was further found that about three-quarters (69.6%) of the respondents who had indicated that they had received a flood warning, did not take any post-warning action.

The last section of the questionnaire, analysed and presented in section 5.5 and 5.6, was aimed at identifying the media usage pattern of the respondents and their preferences for receiving flood risk awareness information as well as flood warnings. Although responses to the media usage pattern related questions were lower than responses to other questions, one of the questions, which enquired about the media the respondents used on a day-to-day basis, received a good response (83.1% responses). The respondents indicated that TV, radio, internet, e-mail, phones and newspapers, in that order, were the media they used the most. Some of the respondents also indicated that they had concerns about privacy related to visit to property, phone calls and text messages on their cell / mobile phones; and personal or technical difficulties concerns related to internet, email, text message, exhibitions & seminars, public announcement system and phone calls. The analysis of which were their preferred media for flood risk awareness found that TV, brochures or leaflets and radio were their preferred media.

Likewise the analysis of the preferred media for communication of flood warnings found that TV, radio, phone calls and visit to property were their preferred media.

A detailed exploratory analysis of the survey responses examining the effect of

analysis is presented in Sections 5.7 and 5.8. The displayed data suggested that perceived perception of flood risk, length of occupancy of current residence, home ownership and prior flood experience were not closely related to individuals who took preventive or protective actions to limit the impact of floods on their families. The analysis further found that the sources of information the respondents indicated that they used on a day-to-day basis, for example newspapers, were different from the media they preferred for flood risk awareness, for example brochures and warning, for example radio. Further, some of the media stated above which the respondents indicated that they had privacy concerns about, for example visit to property, and personal or technical difficulty in using them, for example, mobile phones, were also the media some of the respondents indicated as their preferred media for flood risk awareness and warning, indicating that a broad range of media should be employed in developing flood risk communication strategies.

The analysis also demonstrated the limitations of quantitative research methodology in investigating reasons behind specific findings although it was successful in bringing some surprising findings to the fore. These findings were explored through qualitative research by carrying out one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions. The qualitative analysis of these data is presented in the next chapter.

Chapter 6