Examining decision-makers’ and public risk information behaviors during severe weather events in Mississippi and Alabama coastal communities

Objectives

1. To understand the landscape of social media discussions surrounding severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities by September 2022.
2. To understand the role of social media platforms in the amplification and/or attenuation of risk perceptions surrounding severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities by September 2022.
3. To understand the role of interpersonal conversations via social media in the amplification and/or attenuation of risk perceptions surrounding severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities by September 2022.
4. To identify common public risk communication practices pertinent to severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities and identify perceived communication barriers among decision-makers by June 2023.
5. To identify risk communication and information behaviors and understand perceived communication barriers among community members related to severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities by June 2023.
6. To identify commonalities and discrepancies in perceived communication barriers among decision-makers and community members related to severe weather events in Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast communities by June 2023.
7. To identify antecedents (e.g., risk proximity, urban vs. rural, social influence, information need) to risk information seeking and processing behaviors before, during, and after severe weather events among Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast community members by January 2024.
8. To determine how community member beliefs about the nature and quality of information channels influence risk information seeking and processing behaviors before, during, and after severe weather events in the Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast by January 2024.

Methodology

The proposed project will be conducted in three phases over the course of two years to understand the information channels, tools, and resources decision-makers and citizens use for short-term and long-term decision-making during severe weather events occurring in Mississippi and Alabama coastal communities. Areas of geographic focus are the three southern-most emergency management areas in Mississippi and the two southern-most emergency management areas in Alabama. 

In the first phase, a social media analysis will analyze publicly available conversations leading up to and during specific severe weather events. This research will demonstrate the nature of social media conversations through the duration of severe weather events in the Gulf Coast, and will inform recommendations for official public communication strategies via social media for threat events. 

During the second phase, interviews with emergency and floodplain managers, natural resource managers, state and local planners, land- and estuarine-use managers, and local elected officials from these emergency management areas will be conducted to understand the channels, tools, resources, and information decision-makers use for short-term and long-term planning, as well as their strategies for public communication during severe weather events. 

Focus groups with citizens from these emergency management areas will be conducted to understand the channels, tools, resources, and information they use for short-term and long-term planning, as well as their perceptions of officials’ public communication strategies during severe weather events. 

We will partner with county extension agents in this phase to recruit area decision-makers and citizens to participate in the research. Building from research conducted during phases one and two, during the third research phase a survey will be conducted with Gulf Coast citizens in the identified Mississippi and Alabama emergency areas to understand broadly individuals’ risk information seeking and processing tendencies during severe weather events.

Rationale

The Mississippi-Alabama Gulf Coast supports a robust population and tourism economy, including important industries and cultural assets. In the future, sea level rise is projected to increase, as well as more frequent and severe rainfall events, storm surges, and coastal flooding. Similarly, research has demonstrated that the number of tornadoes per year in the southeastern U.S. has increased over time. The impacts of frequent and severe weather events in the Gulf Coast region will be increasingly disruptive and costly over time, likely impacting property values and infrastructure viability, rapid conversions of existing natural ecosystems, industries such as agriculture, and human health and safety. 

And although the accuracy, specificity, and lead time with which severe weather events are now forecasted has improved, advances have not necessarily translated to more lives and properties saved in the aftermath of severe weather events. More research is needed to understand the social/behavioral factors that influence how individuals prepare for, respond to, and recover from severe weather events. 

The current proposal describes a plan for research aligned with the Resilient Communities and Economies Focus Area, including the following research priorities: 

• Identify the barriers to implementing resilience practices with a focus on the domains of economic, natural, built, and social resilience. 
• Assess coastal residents’ awareness of their personal risk exposure to coastal threats (e.g., storms, flooding, saltwater intrusion). 
• Identify risk communication barriers to inform personal and governmental decisions and identify how citizens obtain their most-trusted and reliable hazard information. 
• Assess vulnerabilities of groups to hazards and identify effective solutions to increase their resilience. 

This research will empower coastal risk managers, decision-makers, and the public with better communication and information strategies and resources to ensure the safety of residents and the resilience of their communities.