Motivation and Engagement in Disaster Mapping in Europe

We should not be seeing this number of people dying in 2021 from floods. It just should not be happening."" Hydrologist H.

Cloke’s words echoed the widespread shock following the death of 243 people in some of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in the world during the European 2021 floods.

Extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in the future (IPCC).

As communities grow more exposed to hazard risks, in addition to state preparedness and urban resilience, it is urgent to address public involvement in disaster preparedness (DP) measures to promote individual preventive behaviour (SFDRR 2015-2030).

Despite EU advances in Disaster Maps (DM) tools and disaster management procedures of community professionalisation, DM are used mostly by expert stakeholders but are seldom user-friendly for citizens, and current DP initiatives suffer from limited public motivation and engagement.

People do not exist in a vacuum and social and cultural dynamics play a crucial role in defining risk and motivation to engage in DP.

Thus, DP strategies should include a systematic assessment of the impact of socio-cultural and spatial factors on peoples’ motivation and engagement in DP to inform better disaster training.

The Motivation and Engagement in Disaster Mapping in Europe (MEDiME) project proposes a theoretical framework of motivation and engagement and a new disaster training based on interactive HM to investigate motivation and engagement in DP and the use of DM for foreign residents.

An original socio-cultural and spatial model to understand people’s motivation to participate in DP initiatives based on the Japanese DP research and measures will be implemented, for Japan has always been at the forefront of DP for high levels of community engagement and mainstreamed DM. Project results will increase the impact of EU DP strategies, and inform useful DM uses for the broader public.