Flood Warning and Damages in Alice Springs: Part 1 Executive Summary. Part 2 Tangible Damages Part 3 Intangible Damages & Emergency Procedures
Handmer, John; Smith, D. I.; Greenaway, Mark
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report ; 53/1989
1989-04-01
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:1989-04
English
Power and Water Authority
Alice Springs
Report ; 53/1989
application/pdf.
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/228902
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/673596
Technical Report WRA89053 Viewed at 03:02:00 on 18/02/2010 Page 85 of 139. I I I I I' I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I <4 Appendix Critical evaluation of the brochure FLOODING IN ALICE SPRINGS (copy attached) Se::~is Pa:cker =.~:od Hazard Research Cent re X~~dlesex Polytechnic ::":::--:donf UK l~~sitcr to CRES, AND 29.8.88) T::~s evaluation concentrates on 10 aspects of the above ~~~led brochure which may lead to it being less effective t~an intended. The brochure has many positive aspects and is generally well-designed and presented but these points ~re not commented upon here. I. Use of the map of flood prone areas tends to assume ;:-:ac the public understands maps and can interpret them, In p~actice the public's map interpretation skills are highly var-iable and a significant proportion (in some cases a majority) are extremely poor at understanding and using maps. Some of the research on public map cognition is very c::scouraging. 2. Experience in London, England following a major at::empt to educate Londoners about the Thames tidal flood r~sk in the late 1970s, was also discouraging about the e~fect of flood information brochures. This experience may be r-elevant to Alice Springs although differences in the composition of the population and the recency of serious flooding between the two locations make extrapolation of the lessons difficult (some in Alice Springs have more recent flood experience than those Londoners studied). All householders living in flood prone areas in London were delivered a flood hazard leaflet specifying the nature of the flood risk and what to do in case of a flood emergency. A follow-up evaluative survey indicated that: a) Many never even looked at the brochures 'Jiven (0 them; many threw them away without looking at them. bj Those who looked at the brochures often could no~ recall what was in them, and could not locate them when aSKed to do so. cj A large proportion of the population misinterpreted even the simplest information and public evacuation instructions.