EOS1.4 | Science communication and citizen science to increase risk perception and awareness
EDI
Science communication and citizen science to increase risk perception and awareness
Co-organized by GM13
Convener: Maria Vittoria Gargiulo | Co-conveners: Raffaella Russo, Irina Dallo, Laure FallouECSECS, Maike Vollmer
Orals
| Fri, 28 Apr, 08:30–12:30 (CEST)
 
Room 0.14
Posters on site
| Attendance Fri, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 (CEST)
 
Hall X2
Posters virtual
| Attendance Fri, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 (CEST)
 
vHall EOS
Orals |
Fri, 08:30
Fri, 14:00
Fri, 14:00
The effectiveness of risk mitigation depends not only on the scientific community (e.g., hazard assessments) but also on how well-informed and prepared societies (the general public, authorities, media, etc) are about the risk itself. It is thus crucial to train the (local and national) population enabling them to increase their preparedness for disasters and, consequently, improve society’s resilience.
For this purpose, science communication and citizen science are becoming increasingly significant in an era challenged by various uncertainties. Thereby scientists and experts play an important role in establishing certainty in the public opinion field and in improving the communication efforts of the institution in charge of public communication.
It is therefore of fundamental importance, for the scientific and civil community, to disseminate information on risk to create greater individual awareness and sensitivity, and to enable all citizens to make a tangible contribution to society resilience through virtuous behaviour in everyday life, even outside the school/work environment.

This session is dedicated to scientists, science communicators, and practitioners with a particular focus on Early Career Scientists. The aim of the session is to create a space for discussion on both best practices and theoretical approaches when practicing science communication or citizen science. Welcomed are submissions exploring different means for sharing or producing risk information related to natural or/and anthropogenic hazards taking into account different aspects (e.g., stakeholders, cultural context, temporality, uncertainties). Of special interest are contributions addressing the dynamics of risk communication from preparing over responding to recovering from a crisis. Moreover, communications on how
to evaluate the impacts of such efforts and how to include science communication in a scientist's daily activity are welcome.

Orals: Fri, 28 Apr | Room 0.14

Chairpersons: Raffaella Russo, Maike Vollmer, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo
08:30–08:40
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EGU23-7342
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On-site presentation
Robin Lacassin, Maud Devès, Hugues Pécout, and Geoffrey Robert

Population information is a fundamental issue for effective disaster risk reduction. As demonstrated by numerous past and present crises, implementing an effective communication strategy is, however, not a trivial matter. Here, and in Devès et al. 2022, we draw lessons from the seismo-volcanic “crisis” that began in the French overseas department of Mayotte in May 2018, and which is related to a submarine eruption off the eastern coast of the island. The seismo-volcanic activity is still ongoing today and large uncertainties remain about its possible future evolution. Mayotte’s case study is interesting for several reasons: (1) although the seismo-volcanic phenomenon itself is associated with moderate impacts, it triggered a social crisis that risk managers themselves qualified as “a communication crisis”, (2) risks are perceived mostly indirectly by the population, which poses specific challenges, in particular to scientists who are placed at the heart of the risk communication process, and (3) no emergency planning or monitoring had ever been done in the department of Mayotte with respect to volcanic issues before May 2018, which means that the framing of monitoring and risk management, as well as the strategies adopted to share information with the public, has evolved significantly over time. Our first contribution is to document the gradual organization of the official response. Then we attempt to understand what may have led to the reported “communication crisis”. To that end, we collect and analyze the written information delivered by the main actors of monitoring and risk management to the public from May 2018 to April 2021. Finally, we compare its volume, timing, and content with what is known of at-risk populations’ information needs. Our results outline the importance of ensuring that communication is not overly technical, that it aims to inform rather than reassure, that it focuses on risk and not only on hazard, and that it provides clues to possible risk scenarios. We issue recommendations for improvement of public information about risks in Mayotte, but also elsewhere in contexts where comparable geo-crises may happen. 

Devès, M., Lacassin, R., Pécout, H., & Robert, G. (2022). Risk communication during seismo-volcanic crises: the example of Mayotte, France. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2001–2029, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-2001-202

How to cite: Lacassin, R., Devès, M., Pécout, H., and Robert, G.: Risk communication during seismo-volcanic crises: the example of Mayotte, France, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7342, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7342, 2023.

08:40–08:50
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EGU23-4508
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ECS
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On-site presentation
Blaise Mafuko Nyandwi, Matthieu Kervyn, François Muhashy Habiyaremye, François Kervyn, and Caroline Michellier

Disasters induced by natural hazards are increasing globally and have severe impacts. Some of these hazards, as volcanic eruptions, are related to the earth's interior mechanisms and cannot be prevented. Thereby, risk mitigation is the best strategy for reducing their impacts in densely populated areas, such as the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, exposed to volcanic threats from Nyiragongo. This requires the population to be prepared to respond to volcanic risk, by having a high state of awareness, anticipation, and readiness. “Living with a volcano” should be one of the life skills all Goma children acquire during their schooling, regardless of where they attend school. Therefore, this study used a mixed-method approach (questionnaire survey, focus group and written composition) to assess the awareness raising impact of two educational tools recently implemented in Goma for secondary students: the Hazagora serious game and the volcano museum. Several students (402 in total) from 12 schools participated in one of these risk awareness activities, while other students were assessed as controls. Results indicate that the tools have a positive impact on students’ volcanic disaster understanding, their risk perception, and their implication in DRR initiatives. Specifically, the volcano museum increases knowledge of volcanic process more than the Hazagora serious game; the latter increases more the perceived self-capacities and willingness of implementing protective measures. Risk perception raises almost identically with both tools. In general, participants indicate that they receive sufficient scientific information throughout the Hazagora serious game and the volcano museum visit to better understand the physical mechanisms of volcanic hazards and their impacts on human properties and livelihood. In addition, they claim to have received relevant information on protective measures and abilities, and to be willing to search for additional risk information. This study highlights that the two tools are complementary; thus, awareness raising through a diversity of tools can be more effective than a single and isolated activity.

How to cite: Mafuko Nyandwi, B., Kervyn, M., Muhashy Habiyaremye, F., Kervyn, F., and Michellier, C.: Building a prepared community to volcanic risk: assessment of awareness raising tools for secondary school in Goma, (Eastern DR Congo), EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4508, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4508, 2023.

08:50–09:00
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EGU23-9175
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ECS
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On-site presentation
Francesco Arrigoni, Christian Ambrosi, Tiziana Apuani, Massimo Ceriani, and Cristian Scapozza

The historical evolution of a territory is usually related to its geological features and geomorphological dynamics. Floods and slope instabilities modify the landscape impacting on human life. The perception of the value of natural resources in mountain area and the culture of respect is an essential component in strategies aimed at ensuring the population a future of well-being, social and economic growing.

The AMALPI Trek takes its name from the A.M.AL.PI.18 Project [1], which is the Italian acronymous for “Moving Alps, and Movements in the Alps”, developed in the framework of the European funded Interreg Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Program V-A 2014-2020. The project aims to encourage an innovative strategy for the promotion of natural and cultural heritage in the Alpine area from Maloja to St. Gotthard (through Val Bregaglia, Valchiavenna, Regione Moesa and Alto Ticino), even by the creation of a cross-border geo-cultural trail connecting sites which have experienced important geomorphological and anthropic changes due to the occurrence of landslides of great social impact. The trail is addressed to a scientific-cultural and educational tourism, to raise the perception of landscape components in the framework of the “total history”, composed by the geo(morpho)logical, bioecological and historic-cultural heritages. Placed in a central position, the AMALPI Center (scheduled to open mid-2023 in Chiavenna), will be a study and research hub on large landslides, reference for school activities and promotion events. In addition, an open access hiking guidebook and map will lead the trekker to discover tools and methods that allow the comprehension of past and ongoing processes, with the help of illustrative panels describing the main patrimonial aspects of the territory, which is rich in historical palaces, archaeological sites, and natural monuments.

The AMALPI Trek runs through 10 Alpine valleys and crosses 7 mountain passes, for a total of about 150 km, plus several thematic itineraries that branch out of the main trail. Along the way, 19 large landslides of different age and type are touched. In many segments, the AMALPI trek follows historical trade routes, used in the past for the exchange of silk and soapstone products. There are some links between large landslides and stone resources typical of these mountains. A striking example are the “crotti”, natural caves used as cellars, perfect places for the storage of foods and other goods, and the “trone”, local soapstone caves, both generated by the gravitational accumulation of cyclopean boulders. The petrographic features of soapstone outcropping rock offer then a good workability, but locally they become weakness planes predisposing sliding.

Looking at the causes and effects of landslide events, the trekker accrues the perception of human vulnerability to natural hazard, but it is also invited to discover how to prevent, mitigate, and manage hillslope dynamic to develop a sustainable and fulfilling life in mountain areas.

 

[1] Interreg V-A Italy-Switzerland 2014-2020 Cooperation Program, Axis II “Cultural and natural enhancement”). Project ID 594274, “A.M.AL.PI. 2018 – Alpi in Movimento, Movimento nelle Alpi. Piuro1618–2018”.

https://progetti.interreg-italiasvizzera.eu/it/b/78/alpiinmovimentomovimentonellealpipiuro

How to cite: Arrigoni, F., Ambrosi, C., Apuani, T., Ceriani, M., and Scapozza, C.: AMALPI trek: a geocultural trail from Maloja to St. Gotthard to increase the awareness of natural hazard in mountain settings, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9175, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9175, 2023.

09:00–09:10
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EGU23-13054
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ECS
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Virtual presentation
Sophie van der Horst, Felix van Veldhoven, Eva Boon, Jan-Willem Anker, Timo Kelder, Lisette Klok, and Hasse Goosen

Much of the scientific insights and information on climate change and adaptation do not reach decision-makers, companies, and citizens. In literature, this gap between science and society has been referred to as a ‘valley of death’. One of the reasons for the gap is that scientists and societal actors have different understandings and perceptions of what is usable. Climate services should shift from being science-driven, to services that are user-driven and science-informed. In line with this thought, practices such as co-creation and tailoring climate information to user contexts are suggested and described to increase the success of climate services. 

Within the EU funded REACHOUT project, we applied 'storytelling' techniques to create climate stories for six cities across Europe. This is a novel way to transform climate data (hazard maps and datasets) into information that is appealing to local users and citizens. The climate stories combine a narrative structure with visualizations to communicate scientific knowledge to an audience. 

Climate stories are currently being developed within REACHOUT to advance user-oriented climate services to support the implementation of the Green Deal. The initial results are promising as the climate stories are welcomed by the cities as an innovative means to communicate results from the project to the wider audience. For instance, the city of Athens, Milan and Logroño use climate stories about heat to increase awareness and initiate action. 

Climate stories have also been used within the Dutch Climate Impact Atlas to explain climate hazards and impacts to users. In our presentation, we will elaborate on our experiences with the development of climate stories, and discuss the best practices.

How to cite: van der Horst, S., van Veldhoven, F., Boon, E., Anker, J.-W., Kelder, T., Klok, L., and Goosen, H.: Using climate stories to bridge the valley of death, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-13054, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13054, 2023.

09:10–09:20
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EGU23-17394
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ECS
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On-site presentation
Yannik Stuka, Valentina Bosetti, and Matthew Ryan Sisco

In the scientific community, there is vast consensus that human activity caused the climate to change significantly with regards to pre-industrial times and actions need to be taken immediately to prevent the worst scenarios from materializing. In the general public, however, such widespread support cannot be observed and is even completely lacking in some parts of the population. To a large part, this great heterogeneity seems to be built on the volatile effects of personal weather experiences on climate change perceptions. Individuals reverting to this source of information to make inferences about the climate are prone to attribution biases and other psychological fallacies, failing to grasp the true magnitude and strength of ongoing climate change.

 

This paper investigates this mechanism by looking into the effects of the 2020 hurricane season on climate change perceptions. After identifying the strongest hurricanes in the USA, Google Trends data is used to extract the salience as perceived by the population of each of these events. This data is then combined with a rich survey module containing responses on attitudes and behaviors on climate change to uncover the distinct building blocks of how hurricanes can shape climate change beliefs.

 

It can be observed that during periods of hurricane exposure, people worry more about climate change and display higher motivation to act in favor of climate change mitigation. The effect intensifies with the magnitude of the tropical storm and the length of the entire hurricane season. In a second part of the analysis, the focus is laid on different effect magnitudes for distinct personal characteristics. Political ideology in particular has been identified to heavily distort how people learn from weather events, emphasizing that how climate extremes are evaluated is only a reflection of their previously held core beliefs. This makes it increasingly hard to convince skeptical (e.g. conservative) peer groups of the challenges lying ahead. In this paper however, an ideology gradient can be discovered, showing a stronger effect of hurricane exposure for Conservatives than for Liberals. This can mostly be explained through a higher baseline worry by Liberals about climate change, and thus a lower margin to react to the occurrence of hurricanes. Conservatives, traditionally being more climate change skeptical, have scope to update their climate change beliefs and do so in the face of extreme weather events in this study.

 

Overall, these findings confirm previous literature on the positive impact of hurricanes on belief in and worry about climate change but open up a whole new ally on the distinct effect on conservative parts of the population. The positive impact on generally climate change skeptical individuals can spark hope and lay the foundation for further research into how to convince those that were thought to be inconvincible, to ultimately win widespread support and consensus for climate change action. This is what is ultimately needed to be able to win support for powerful policies enacted by governments who can draw on majorities in parliaments, and finally achieve large-scale changes in behavior to fight against climate change.

How to cite: Stuka, Y., Bosetti, V., and Sisco, M. R.: The wind is changing – Hurricanes and Climate Change Perceptions, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17394, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17394, 2023.

09:20–09:30
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EGU23-15345
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ECS
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Highlight
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On-site presentation
Anna Boqué Ciurana, Jon Xavier Olano Pozo, Gisela Cebrián-Bernat, and Juan Prieto

EMPOCLIM is a project that aims to raise awareness and involve young people in sustainable development through school climate assemblies at five educational centers in Camp de Tarragona, Spain. Thanks to innovative democratic processes designed to learn, deliberate, and decide in an assembly way, the students look for solutions to climate change, proposing actions to promote sustainability at the local and regional levels.

EMPOCLIM emphasizes strengthening environmental awareness and empowering young people through education, recognizing their potential to become ambassadors and agents of change for climate action and sustainable development in their environment, and sharing knowledge and experiences with their families, local communities, and policymakers.

As a result of the climate assemblies, a generation of an action plan and political recommendations by the participating educational communities to achieve the 2 SDGs Climate action and affordable and clean energy at the local and regional levels is obtained.

Parallelly EMPOCLIM project has developed two didactic guides for teachers to work with the knowledge involved with two specific SDGs (the two mentioned before).

Once the EMPOCLIM project was finished, the methodology established continued to be implemented in the high schools on demand, as University Rovira i Virgili offered this Workshop as one that transfers university information to high schools. In the future, EMPOCLIM will probably evolve up-scaled in different national and European proposals and to other educational levels.

We acknowledge  Diputació Provincial de Tarragona for funding the EMPOCLIM project.

How to cite: Boqué Ciurana, A., Olano Pozo, J. X., Cebrián-Bernat, G., and Prieto, J.: Empowering youngsters: Climate high school assemblies to increase risk perception and awareness, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15345, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15345, 2023.

09:30–09:40
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EGU23-14593
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ECS
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On-site presentation
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Claire Shires and Benjamin van Wyk de Vries

Communication across linguistic and cultural borders is vital in our globalised but compartmentalised world, where different people from different origins mix and interact. In the context of geological hazards and the geological environment, we are working towards a clear system that enables specialists in different fields to communicate effectively with each other, and for a common system that allows all types of non-specialists (e.g. general public) to communicate as well. This works using symbols and pictograms to represent geological and environmental phenomena and features, for example geohazards, that can be used to communicate clearly and efficiently. Certain hazard symbols are already in use across the globe, such as those for chemical or environmental hazards, or such as 'rock fall' warning signs that are universal. In this project, we focus on the geological environment and geohazards, and much of the work is done within a UNESCO Geoscience Programme project 'Geoheritage for Resilience', using geoheritage sites as sites for communication and testing, and more recently with a Franco-Mexican ECOS exchange project 'Building Sense in Natural Heritage'. Our geological pictograms, or ‘geomojis’, bridge the gap between simple symbols and words, crossing language borders by representing concepts that we have identified as particularly important for understanding geohazards and risk. Our geomojis are linked to the Global Framework for Geology (see Global and Planetary Change, 2018 - https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/427), allowing the context of each geomoji in the Earth system to be understood. We are currently running international workshops to promote discussion and test the geomojis that we have created. These workshops have raised new pictographic needs and the problems associated with them. The goal of these workshops is to consolidate geoscience knowledge from different specialisations and create a basic standardised set of symbols for all geological hazards. This standardisation of geohazard symbols could improve communication not only between specialists and non-specialists, but between geologists themselves. The global framework and geomojis help us to think outside the box of our specialist environment. These geo-pictograms can be used for geoscience communication in all forms, from hazard and risk publications to signage at geological sites and in discussions with local populations. They can be adapted and modified for the local context and needs, while providing a central, and global, base for comparison. We plan to use the set of reference geomojis to accompany a multilingual glossary on geological hazard and risk terminology, a project that we hope will help international geoscience communication.

How to cite: Shires, C. and van Wyk de Vries, B.: Using geomojis to communicate geosciences: from development to use, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14593, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14593, 2023.

09:40–09:50
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EGU23-12912
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ECS
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On-site presentation
How communicative materials design affects the risk-informed process of stakeholders' engagement: A case study in Taiwan
(withdrawn)
Chia-Wei Chang, Jo-Ting Huang-Lachmann, Fang-Yi Chu, Hsin-Chi Li, and Yung-Ming Chen
09:50–10:00
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EGU23-12639
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ECS
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Highlight
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On-site presentation
Jon Xavier Olano Pozo, Caterina Cimolai, Andrea Arnal, Mercè Cisneros Bermejo, Anna Boqué Ciurana, Daniel Dermit, Marc Massip, Javier Sigró, and Enric Aguilar

Despite the evidences of the effects of climate change, and the need to adopt adaptation and mitigation measures against its effects,  it still exists a significant current of denialism . Radio podcasts, an evolution of classical radio shows, are an interesting communication and leisure tool for disseminating climate misinformation in today's saturated communication world.

In the framework of the CLIMACAST: UNDERSTANDING AND EXPOSING CLIMATE MISINFORMATION ON PODCASTS project, we monitor, identify, verify and disseminate short notes to fight this climate misinformation. Currently, the project is in the middle of its execution; and we have monitored monitoring more than a thousand hours of podcasts in Spanish-speaking countries from July to December of 2022. The project, funded by META and Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network is a joint collaboration between C3/IU-RESCAT/URV, VERIFICAT and Kinzen and Chequeados.

The climate misinformation measure unit of this project is a climate claim. A claim is the smallest unit of analysis of verifiable information containing a disputed claim about climate, climate variability and climate change. In addition, to be considered a claim, the information or meaning included in the message should be verifiable content. To track problematic terms, the editors of Verificat monitor podcasts where people post climate disinformation to detect recurring words or phrases in this area to define keywords to find the podcasts. When the podcasts are selected, an artificial intelligence tool transcribes them to a specifically designed dashboard. If it detects problematic content - for example, the word 'calentólogo' (warmist) is typical of negationist slang - the system highlights the keyword for greater detection by analysts. The analyst checks if the keyword refers to some climate and/or meteorological aspect. Then, the analyst determines the content's verifiability based on the message's real climate disinformation. Each claim identified is classified in six main narratives: the main misinformation: climate change does not exist, climate change is not human-caused, climate change is not bad, solutions to face climate change do not work, climate science is not liable and greenwashing.

The results show how the claims are regularly identified in regular podcasts. However, it also shows slight growth in the two weeks of COP27.

How to cite: Olano Pozo, J. X., Cimolai, C., Arnal, A., Cisneros Bermejo, M., Boqué Ciurana, A., Dermit, D., Massip, M., Sigró, J., and Aguilar, E.: Fighting Climate Misinformation: Fact-Checking of Climate Misinformation in Spanish-speaking podcasts., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12639, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12639, 2023.

10:00–10:10
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EGU23-11949
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ECS
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On-site presentation
Paola Mazzoglio, Stefano Macchia, Enrico Gallo, Julia Winter, and Pierluigi Claps

The lack of basic information about the area where people live and about major hydrometeorological disasters that occurred in the past can lead the population to underestimate the flood risk. The flood risk perception is often related only to past direct experiences and to the memory of floods that took place in the same areas. However, this risk perception is high during the weeks that follow a flood event and then decreases rapidly.

In Italy, the regional agencies in charge of flood management widely use disaster reports (DRs) as the preferred way to collect and standardize information on past flooding events and on the meteorological conditions of that events. However, these DRs are often examined only by technicians, while the general audience is rarely aware about their availability or cannot fully understand what is reported in these documents.

In this work, we performed a systematic survey of the DRs drawn in the past years by the Italian regional agencies in charge of civil protection. We suggest that these DRs could be improved to provide more effective communication to citizens in view of increasing flood risk awareness, reinforcing the communication of civil protection planning and management, and improving the resilience of the population to extreme events. More specifically, we suggest that these disaster reports could be reframed into disaster tales (DTs) without losing the detail level required for the typical technical uses of the DRs. Moreover, these recompiled DTs can be used as tools that offer wider knowledge of the events to improve people’s preparedness and self-protection behavior when a future major flood event will occur.

From a practical point of view, we suggest improving the structure of these reports with the integration of short videos and pictures taken by citizens during the event, maps and interactive tools able to present handier multimedia views of the events. By watching and listening to what has happened, the population can better understand the feelings of the people experiencing an emergency, learning how to act during future floods. We also suggest using a storyline approach to present the whole sequence of events and decisions taken during the flood, putting in chronological order the most significant episodes occurred during the event and the recovery phase.

Application to some case studies of flooding occurred in Italy illustrates how to implement the DRs to create more readily accessible DTs.

How to cite: Mazzoglio, P., Macchia, S., Gallo, E., Winter, J., and Claps, P.: Moving from disaster reports to disaster tales to increase flood risk awareness, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11949, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11949, 2023.

10:10–10:15
Coffee break
Chairpersons: Maria Vittoria Gargiulo, Raffaella Russo
10:45–10:55
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EGU23-6102
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ECS
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On-site presentation
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Inga Retike, Jaanus Terasmaa, Oliver Koit, Jānis Bikše, Jekaterina Demidko, Marlen Hunt, and Agnese Kukela

Groundwater accounts for nearly 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth. Not only does groundwater provide almost half of the global drinking water supply and ensures the well-being of humans and sustain dependent ecosystems (rivers, lakes, and wetlands), it is an essential aspect in climate change mitigation too. Despite the exceptional importance of groundwater in social, economic, and environmental processes, it remains poorly understood, mismanaged, and often neglected. In order to increase global awareness of groundwater protection, the theme for World Water Day 2022 was “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible” with the culminating event - the first UN-Water Summit on Groundwater held in Paris on 7-8 December. Data collection and sharing on groundwater were among the key actions highlighted during the Summit because “we cannot manage what we do not measure”.

One of the ways to make groundwater visible is to demystify the underground resources beneath our feet through citizen science. Many volunteer water monitoring programs have generated valuable data sets around the world. Data collection by volunteers is cost- and time effective, supports local communities by raising awareness of groundwater protection, and boosts outdoor tourism. Moreover, such campaigns provide information on water bodies that would otherwise remain unmonitored and, if carefully designed, can be used by national water managers and even support decision-making.

Here we present a joint Estonian-Latvian web-based application for the volunteer monitoring of springs launched in February 2021 (accessible by allikad.info and avoti.info). The web-based map application aims to collect new information on already known springs and locate new ones by providing clear guidelines on how to carry out proper spring monitoring. More than 200 users have already joined the application and approximately 600 new springs have been added to the database. Together, 1132 new observations have been made and 2930 images of springs have been added. This valuable information source has been recently recognized by national water managing authorities and used to improve the transboundary groundwater monitoring network between Estonia and Latvia. We will present how citizen science can improve groundwater management, as well as our success stories and lessons learned. 

The study benefits from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation project No.2018-1-0137 “EU-WATERRES: EU-integrated management system of cross-border groundwater resources and anthropogenic hazards”  and Interreg Estonia-Latvia cooperation program project “WaterAct”.

How to cite: Retike, I., Terasmaa, J., Koit, O., Bikše, J., Demidko, J., Hunt, M., and Kukela, A.: Voluntary spring monitoring to make invisible groundwater visible, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6102, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6102, 2023.

10:55–11:05
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EGU23-2059
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On-site presentation
Design thinking for supporting citizens in climate change adaptation
(withdrawn)
Diane Pruneau, Lydia Duranleau, and Nathalie Piedboeuf
11:05–11:15
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EGU23-2951
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On-site presentation
David Wales, Alexandra Olson, and Alexis Gizikis

“The future of emergency communication requires a new ecosystem that enhances capacity and capability by creating an environment that is accessible, equitable, and anticipates change as a constant state.”

This is the key finding of research designed to identify policy recommendations for the EU and which is intended to be of assistance to policymakers at national, regional, and local levels.

It recognises that current models of communication in relation to emergencies are typically oriented towards top-down or single-direction communication, flowing from professionals to lay persons. The impact of this legacy approach extends far beyond the obvious and visible delivery mechanisms. It also frames the underpinning research, discussions, and attitudes. As such, it perpetuates existing limitations and biases of the system, for example, an underappreciation of the needs, role, and contribution of citizens and communities.

It also means that global aspirations- such as enhancing resilience and integration- can at best only ever be partially achieved because they are only seen through a narrow and restrictive lens. This has profound implications and fundamental changes are required to better accommodate multi-directional communication in which the role of authorities and professionals adapts to one of enablement, rather than control.

The primary and overarching recommendation for a new communications ecosystem emerged through considering the wider meaning of specific findings from the research. These are shown below:

  • Bridge the communication gaps between professionals and citizens. For example in relation to language (terminology), content, risk tolerance, stereotypes, desired outcomes/priorities, and assumptions.
  • Recognise that communication is a continuous activity that is reliant on creating the right conditions for it to be effective.
  • Design consistent messaging and communication that is inclusive and adaptable to specific needs.
  • Recognise communication as a learning opportunity and actively design in opportunities to exploit this throughout the cycle.
  • Communication strategies should recognise and positively support the opportunities that emergencies provide for citizens, communities, and formal agencies to enhance integration and resilience.

In proposing this paper to the EGU General Assembly 2023, we hope it may represent a valuable opportunity to consider opportunities to align the work of the climate and crisis sectors in this area. Hopefully, in doing so, we will learn from each other and make the task of those using our work easier and more effective.

Note: The authors were funded by the ENGAGE project to produce the report referenced in this abstract. ENGAGE is an EU-funded project, which started in July 2020 and whose mission is to identify novel knowledge, impactful solutions, and emergency response guidelines for exploiting Europe ́s societal resilience.

 

How to cite: Wales, D., Olson, A., and Gizikis, A.: Communication for emergencies – the need for a new and inclusive ecosystem, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2951, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2951, 2023.

11:15–11:25
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EGU23-3974
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On-site presentation
Terraferma: an interactive tool for insurance seismic risk awareness in Italy
(withdrawn)
Antonio Tirri, Luigi Ferraresi, and Antonio Petruccelli
11:25–11:35
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EGU23-5636
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On-site presentation
Roberto Coscarelli, Loredana Antronico, Stefano Luigi Gariano, and Paola Salvati

Young generation will have to manage, in the not-too-distant future, the increase of climate-change-related hazards. Infact, extreme rainfall events, increases in mean temperatures,  decreases in mean rainfall, tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, droughts are already having a significant impacts on people’s life and to the environment. In light of this, the more young people will be aware of the climate change (CC) and will know how to deal with the risks induced by it, the more they will be able to take measures and adopt behaviors to reduce negative impacts as well as to influence the choices of policy makers. For this reason, knowing the perception, the degree of knowledge and the preparedness of young people to these issues is becoming increasingly important.

By means of a quantitative research method (structured questionnaire), a survey on  a group of Italian high public school students, aged between 13 and 20 and located in central (Umbria region) and southern (Calabria region) Italy, was carried out. This survey focused on young people awareness, perception and preparation concerning natural risks, including landslide and flood risk, and climate change. The survey's results show the following informations: a) the questioned students are aware of the CC issue and they generally believe that human actions and lifestyle affect CC; moreover, young people are more worried than adults about how CC may affect nature and the environment; b) the findings confirm the close relationship between youth and the media in terms of perception, information, and understanding of CC and its impacts; c) besides believing that better risk communication between authorities and citizens is necessary, the students  have low level of trust in local administrations and on the policy regarding geo-hydrological risk; d) young interviewed who participated in a specific educational activity on landslide and flood hazard revealed that they had a good understanding of the triggering processes of these phenomena. Even though the samples is not highly representative of the whole Italian young population, the survey shows that Italian political institutions need to plan responsible, morally sound, and convincing activities in order to win over citizens' credibility and trust, especially younger ones. Additionally, it is crucial that scientists collaborate with politicians, policy makers, and schools to i) promote shared and sustainable actions involving public, particularly the younger generation, and thus increasing people resilience; and ii) develop an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to comprehend a complex phenomenon like climate change and its effects on people and environment.

How to cite: Coscarelli, R., Antronico, L., Gariano, S. L., and Salvati, P.: Investigating students' perception of climate change and geo-hydrological risk in Italian public high schools, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5636, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5636, 2023.

11:35–11:45
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EGU23-16339
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Highlight
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Virtual presentation
Earthquake emergency and cognitive disabilities: an experience.
(withdrawn)
Stefano Zanut
11:45–11:50
11:50–12:30

Posters on site: Fri, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 | Hall X2

Chairpersons: Maria Vittoria Gargiulo, Maike Vollmer, Raffaella Russo
X2.1
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EGU23-4858
Seungkwon Jeun and Kibong Kwon

In recent years, natural disasters such as typhoons, torrential rains, and wildfires have increased due to climate change. Such a phenomenon is an unpredictable meteorological phenomenon. In this kinds of disasters, warning and alert information rapid transition should be made through disaster prevention-related agencies and regional warning systems. Recently, there has been an increasing demand for such rapid transition information. From the point of view of the current transition system for disaster warning and alert system, the severe weather information from the Meteorological Agency in South Korea is transmitted to broadcasting stations and related media using fax, e-mail, and the like. However, these manual transmission of information is not as much fast as it should be required. To make matters worse, there were cases where it did not delivered. In terms of management and operation of this warning system, related agencies have different independent operation systems depending on the type of disaster. For this reason, when multiple disasters occur at the same time or in stages, it is difficult to respond immediately because the systems are not well coordinated. In addition, for the same meteorological phenomenon, the damage that occurs in the area will differ depending on the disaster prevention capacity of the area, the degree of urbanization and industrialization, and the different shape of watershed of the area. In this study, we analyzed existing severe weather information transmission systems. The new novel system shows a prototype that reflects being rapid, being accurate and being integrated. Then, the study presents a methodology for considering the characteristics of the region. Prototypes planned in this way are evaluated whether functional performance is implemented.  The proposed system lets the urgency of weather events make a decision from a meteorological point of view. This will automatically and quickly categorize the level of need you have to be notified of. Depending on the grade, it will promptly and automatically generated and deliver customized information to the public and the government immediately right after any concerned situation occurs. The system has reflected the construction of a standardized information transmission system. Then, the proposed system will enable operation and management by integrating forecasting systems operated independently by each agency into one system. System integration increases the efficiency of generating and transmitting the necessary information, enabling effective response to the complex disasters. Even in the same weather, if the degree of disaster impact varies by region, the customized information level will be differentiated according to vulnerability, exposure, hazardous, and disaster prevention capacity.  

This study will enable the rapid transmission of necessary information to the public and related organizations for efficient response to unpredictable and complex natural disasters through the improved severe weather information transmission system. Finally, It is expected to contribute to minimizing human and material damage due to natural and social disasters by providing alert and warning with customized information for each region that reflects the degree of disaster impact.

How to cite: Jeun, S. and Kwon, K.: System Development of generation and transmission of customized severe weather information for Emergency responses in South Korea, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4858, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4858, 2023.

X2.2
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EGU23-9182
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ECS
Louise Le Vagueresse, Maud Devès, Jocelyn Jacquot, Robin Lacassin, and Raphaël Grandin

Population information is key to disaster risk reduction and scientists have a key role to play in that respect. However, implementing effective scientific communication is not trivial. We draw lessons from our experience of the seismo-volcanic crisis of Mayotte, France. In May 2018, an unprecedented seismic activity started in Mayotte. It was found, a year later, to be linked to volcanic activity, and the birth of a huge submarine volcano ~50km off the east coast of the island. The activity is still ongoing and is being actively studied to understand the phenomena and estimate associated risks. But there are large uncertainties, due to a lack of preexisting knowledge as the area had been poorly studied before 2018, and is challenging to instrument. In this context, informing at-risk populations is difficult. During the first months of the earthquake swarm, the perceived lack of information led to strong anxiety and a feeling of distrust towards scientists and authorities (Fallou et al., 2020; Devès et al., 2022). Experts in charge of monitoring, who are mostly from mainland France, are attempting to develop new ways of disseminating knowledge (e.g., a simplified monthly newsletter, translated into local languages). Nevertheless, they struggle to overcome the socio-cultural gap between mainland France and Mayotte archipelago (multilingualism, levels of literacy, precarious living conditions, see Roinsard, 2014). There is thus a need to explore alternative ways of communicating scientific information so that it can reach the relevant audiences more effectively. We present an approach drawing on the expertise of earth sciences and human and social sciences that reverse the classic top-down approach (the latter does not generally work very well, even less so in Mayotte). We first develop visual and interactive information tools to better represent the uncertainties associated with the knowledge produced by the volcanological and seismological observation network of Mayotte (REVOSIMA). We focus on the link between seismicity and deformation, two phenomena whose consequences are the easiest to perceive for the populations. We then train secondary school students, in collaboration with their teacher, on the basis of these materials. Finally we accompany those students, with the help of their teachers, to develop their own scientific dissemination materials with the objective to transmit this information to their family and friends. This method has the advantage of delegating the tasks of translating and disseminating the acquired knowledge to individuals from different socio-cultural backgrounds on the island who are familiar with the codes and information habits of their respective communities. As this project is still ongoing, we discuss here its conditions of realisation and its contribution to ongoing research on the communication of scientific information in a context of risks and crises.

How to cite: Le Vagueresse, L., Devès, M., Jacquot, J., Lacassin, R., and Grandin, R.: Participatory approach to adapt scientific communication to the socio-cultural context: the case of the seismo-volcanic activity in Mayotte, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9182, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9182, 2023.

X2.3
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EGU23-6079
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ECS
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Highlight
Maria Vittoria Gargiulo, Ferdinando Napolitano, and Paolo Capuano

In a geologically interesting land like Italy, and in particular Campania, educating and informing about the concept of risk in general, and specifically seismic risk, is of fundamental importance.

The possibilities of seismic risk mitigation, in fact, depend not only on the scientific community but also on how well prepared and informed society is about the risk itself. It is, therefore, crucial to train the local population to increase disaster risk preparedness and resilience within our region.

The Science Capital framework, developed by Prof. Louise Archer er al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21227), refers to a person’s science-related resources, such as their science-related understanding, knowledge, attitudes, activities, and social contacts. It also offers a key to defining how everyone's store of scientific knowledge is enriched and influenced by their habits, family, and network of contacts. Understanding this context and its dynamics helps us to enhance the resources available for scientific culture, with a view to building a competent and inclusive educational community. 

With this in minds, we built a didactic protocol dedicated to seismic risk perception taking into consideration the Science Capital framework.

“Waves…a tool to explore our home!” allows students to acquire both specific topics, such as the physical quantities involved in an earthquake, its generation and its dynamics, and general concepts, such as the perception of seismic risk and the impact of man in the prevention, in the possible induction and in the response to an earthquake.

An evaluation phase was carried out to assess the learning experience and the effectiveness of the science communication technique.

This work has been supported by CORE ("sCience and human factor for Resilient sociEty") project, funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101021746 .

 

How to cite: Gargiulo, M. V., Napolitano, F., and Capuano, P.: Waves…a tool to explore our home! A successful experience in improving risk perception, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6079, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6079, 2023.

X2.4
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EGU23-15461
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ECS
Péter Szabó, Rita Pongrácz, Elisavet Galanaki, and Vassiliki Kotroni

Although anthropogenic global warming is well-known within the scientific community, the public is still not certain how to associate specific local climate events to this global issue. Therefore, it is essential to raise public awareness by providing sound, graphical, interesting and easily understandable scientific information. Our attribution projects aim for this task both in Hungary and Greece – the former started in September 2021, while the latter a year later. Within the projects, we have slightly different approaches for analysis and dissemination as well. In Hungary, seasonally relevant indices are calculated and published in each season near the time of an event occurrence, and the dissemination is done mainly via a national platform aiming for climate awareness (www.masfelfok.hu), but to reach the public even more, a broad media platform and a large social media network is used as well. In Greece, NOA has also developed a dissemination strategy that mainly focuses on weather and climate extremes and produces layman and explanatory articles that are published on www.meteo.gr, which is visited more than 350.000 times daily.

We found common and relevant indices both for Hungary and Greece that can be shown, thus we selected agriculturally-relevant, spring climate indices for both countries: vegetation start for cold-resistant plants, vegetation start for warm-demanding plants, late frost, and possible frost period. The analyses are performed within the two projects based on several data sources with daily temporal resolution: (1) an ensemble of CMIP6 global climate model simulations of both natural-only forcings and historical runs, (2) an ensemble of regional climate model simulations from Euro-CORDEX, including the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, (3) a fine-resolution, homogenized observation-based gridded data for Hungary.

How to cite: Szabó, P., Pongrácz, R., Galanaki, E., and Kotroni, V.: Attribution and communication of climate indices in Hungary and Greece, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15461, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15461, 2023.

X2.5
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EGU23-8055
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Highlight
Raffaella Russo, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo, Maria Prosperina Vitale, Serena Quarta, and Paolo Capuano

During and after catastrophes it is important to investigate the role played by key governmental institutions and scientific community in vehiculating correct information to the whole population on how to manage the consequences of disasters in order to minimize losses and avoid other possible cascading effects. Indeed, messages spread out by policy makers and scientific community get positive effects, only if they are trusted by citizens.

The European project entitled “sCience and human factOr for Resilient society” (H2020 CORE) considers trust as a key factor for the individuals’ risk perception, their behavioural response and disaster preparedness. Within this scenario, a survey is promoted by means of an online questionnaire including scales and indicators related to risk perception and trust by controlling for geographical context, socio-demographic and economic backgrounds together with direct and indirect individual experiences. The aim of the survey is twofold: on one hand, it permits to consider the effects on citizens’ behaviors by analysing  different hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunami, wildfire, industrial accident, terrorist attack, flash flood and COVID-19 pandemic; on the other one, it allows to underline best practices adopted by institutions during emergencies in different countries by also investigating the role of fake news.

The final aim is to release guidelines devoted to the policy makers and scientific community experts in order to understand what they can do to be trusted by communities. 

Acknowledgment: The present abstract has been produced for the CORE project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101021746.

How to cite: Russo, R., Gargiulo, M. V., Vitale, M. P., Quarta, S., and Capuano, P.: Investigating the role of citizens' trust during and after emergencies, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-8055, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8055, 2023.

X2.6
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EGU23-1615
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Chiara Scaini, Antonella Peresan, and Carla Barnaba

Citizen science has proven very useful to increase awareness and preparedness of societies prone to disaster risk. The active involvement of citizens is also strongly envisaged by strategic documents related to disaster risk reduction (e.g. SENDAI Framework, United Nations Global Assessment Report). Here, we describe the CEDAS (building CEnsus for seismic Damage ASsessment) project, which involved high-school students in citizen science activities related to seismic risk reduction. In particular, students collected data on building characteristics (e.g. height, material) near to their homes using their phone or personal computer. Prior to data collection students were trained on risk-related concepts (hazard, exposure and vulnerability) with specific focus on buildings exposure the area where the activity was carried out (northeastern Italy). CEDAS was implemented in 2021 and 2022 involving approximately 320 students who collected more than 6000 building forms. The CEDAS project is not only data collection: students also analyzed the data and compared the exposure parameters in different areas. Finally, the interpreted the results with the help of teachers and researchers. CEDAS has demonstrated its potential for collecting exposure data in seismic-prone areas and/or include characteristics useful for multi-hazard and multi-risk assessment. However, its generalization requires the adaptation of the training material to the specific context. This presentation will support the discussion on CEDAS based on active involvement of participants. Attendants will have the opportunity to test the CEDAS approach for selected buildings. Pictures of the building front and aerial view, together with a street view, will be displayed on the screen. The active involvement of participants will support the discussion both on technical (e.g. parameters to be prioritized during the collection) and communication (e.g. citizens engagement and training) aspects. The discussion will also cover future developments of CEDAS, in particular in relation to risk awareness and preparedness (e.g. definition of impact assessment metrics).

How to cite: Scaini, C., Peresan, A., and Barnaba, C.: The CEDAS (building CEnsus for seismic Damage Assessment) project: citizen science to increase risk awareness, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1615, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1615, 2023.

X2.7
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EGU23-16067
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Highlight
Laure Fallou, Alice Corbet, Eric Calais, Nixon Calixte, Rémy Bossu, and Patrick Attiè

The OSMOSE project aims to develop citizen seismology in Haiti where seismic risk is high and the scars left by the 2010 earthquake are still very prominent. The project proposes to use low-cost seismic sensors (Raspberry Shake) to (1) complement the national seismic network and (2) improve risk perception, preparedness and scientific knowledge of the population.

This second objective is not self-evident and requires the integration of these volunteers in a wider network, with a real communication strategy towards them but also towards the general population. Originally, the communication strategy was to be established on three levels: the first one for exchanges between the volunteers and the scientists of the project, the second one to support the volunteers in their interactions with their communities so that they become « seismology ambassadors », and the third one to inform the general public. The project planned to support this communication strategy with a series of classic tools (website, social media, partnerships with schools or media), innovative ones (Messaging Apps bots, Virtual Reality...) and already existing tools such as the LastQuake application developped by the EMSC, which allows to collect and give information about felt earthquakes.

During the conception phase some challenges linked to the cultural, economic and hazard context had been considered and taken into account. For instance materials must be translated in French and Creole. Access to technology, whether for practical or literacy reasons, is very unequal.  Moreover, the team had the ambition to study the place of voodoo, religious and scientific culture in the explanation of earth movements in order to adapt the approach and make communication more effective to increase risk awareness and preparedness.

However, we faced many unforeseen difficulties in implementing this communication strategy, mainly related to the security and political context in Haiti. The security context made it nearly impossible to access the field, which would have allowed for in-depth sociological surveys. These surveys had for objectives to better understand risk perception and risk culture, but also educational and cultural barriers (e.g., how can we talk about earthquakes when people do not know that geological faults exist?) or the great differences between the educated people, the urban and impoverished public of the slums and the rural inhabitants. Yet, this knowledge is decisive in the establishment of the communication strategy and difficult to replace by purely quantitative online research. The existing litterature is unsufficient. Beyond these methodological difficulties, the political problems and the disorganization of the State have had repercussions on the academic community, and therefore on the project partners.

Through this presentation of a concrete example of communication in citizen science and the difficulties encountered, the authors wish to share their experience and launch a discussion around the solutions envisaged (an even stronger engagement with volunteers through a WhatsApp group, alternative ways to understand risk culture…).

This, in the expectation and hope for the Haitian people that the political and security situation will improve.

How to cite: Fallou, L., Corbet, A., Calais, E., Calixte, N., Bossu, R., and Attiè, P.: Implementing a Citizen Seismology Communication Strategy in a Complex Economic, Political and Security Context: Issues and Feedback from the OSMOSE Project in Haïti, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16067, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16067, 2023.

X2.8
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EGU23-3241
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ECS
Irina Dallo, Laura Noemi Schnegg, and Michèle Marti

Maps are a widely used mean to communicate spatial hazard and risk information to the public, with the aim to increase individual risk awareness. The use of maps is triggered by scientific evidence that maps are the format most preferred by the public. However, past studies have shown that, if not well designed, maps are often misinterpreted and can trigger wrong attitudes. Thereby, the different elements such as the icons on the map, the chosen layers, the legend, or the used color scale influence the comprehension of the information on the map. In the context of natural hazards, and more precisely earthquakes, research has so far mainly focused on the design of hazard maps, and little is known about the effective design of risk maps. We thus assessed how to design understandable, useful, and actionable seismic risk maps for the public.

To this end, we conducted a transdisciplinary project in Switzerland by ensuring an interdisciplinary co-production of the map and testing it with the public. First, we – an interdisciplinary group at the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich – co-designed different versions of the seismic risk map varying the color scale and legend format. Second, we tested these versions with a public survey (between-subjects experiment); representative for the German- and French-speaking part of Switzerland. We assessed which map version was correctly interpreted, perceived as useful, increased people’s risk perception, and triggered people to take protective actions. Further, we analyzed whether certain social groups (e.g., house owners) had different preferences, risk perception, or intentions to take action.

At the conference, we will present the preliminary results of the survey and provide evidence-based recommendations on how to design user-centred seismic risk maps. This should support institutions responsible for public communication to add seismic risk maps to their products to effectively inform the public about seismic risks and, in turn, increase their risk awareness and intention to take protective actions. 

This project has received funding from the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), and the Swiss Federal institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

How to cite: Dallo, I., Schnegg, L. N., and Marti, M.: The design of user-centred seismic risk maps – the Swiss case, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3241, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3241, 2023.

X2.9
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EGU23-1956
Byungyun Lee and Woo-Sug Jung

In Korea, disaster broadcasting online system and disaster information delivery platform provide disaster information broadcasting and text messages as well as various multimedia services to inform the public. However, it is not possible for Disaster Prevention-Related Organizations and accurately acquire disaster situation information in real time and provide information for preemptive response.

Therefore, in order to quickly deliver weather emergency information to the Disaster Prevention-Related Organizations like fire fighter, we analyse necessary meteorological information for fire fighting and transfer the customized contents that can effectively respond to disaster situations are developed. We propose a system architecture to deliver meteorological information to the person in charge.

 

How to cite: Lee, B. and Jung, W.-S.: Design of Weather Emergency Information Delivery System to Disaster Prevention-Related Organizations, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1956, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1956, 2023.

Posters virtual: Fri, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 | vHall EOS

Chairpersons: Irina Dallo, Laure Fallou
vEOS.1
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EGU23-15970
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ECS
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Highlight
Shreyasi Choudhury, Bruce D. Malamud, and Amy Donovan

Serious games (SGs) for natural hazards (NHs) can provide an artificial space for players to understand the risk they face through defined rules and quantifiable results. Here, we deduce a scoring system for natural hazard SGs to understand whether these games introduce and communicate the interplay between social/physical vulnerability, exposure, hazard, and uncertainty (called ‘four elements’ here forth) to target players. We first identified 48 natural hazard SGs via a critical review of peer-reviewed and grey- literature. From these 48 SGs, we select 22 that were accessible and scored them on a 12-point scale through a two-stage process: (i) identify the indicators (or evaluation criteria) for three risk elements – vulnerability (6 indicators), hazard (7 indicators), and exposure (7 indicators) – along with uncertainty (8 indicators); and (ii) deduce the scores of the games by employing the evaluation criteria on 22 games. Based on the scores, we found that 70% of the 22 SGs could be applied to more than one hazard type (one of the hazard indicators), whilst 52% of the games included social vulnerability and/or critical loss facilities as exposure. About half of the SGs (48%) fostered player unpredictability which means that the focus of most natural hazard SGs is to indicate how decisions taken by one community member can impact the whole community or another individual in a community. Comparing the game scores, four games ranked highest with a score of 9 out of a possible 12; showing that such games can communicate hazard risks into an appropriate context. Games with high scores (above 10 out of 12) can help the people-at-risk (who are the target players in SGNHs) weigh up in their mind the costs and benefits of different actions, empowering communities to take disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and resilience actions.

How to cite: Choudhury, S., Malamud, B. D., and Donovan, A.: An effectiveness scoring system for risk and uncertainty in serious games for natural hazards, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15970, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15970, 2023.

vEOS.2
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EGU23-1073
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Highlight
Panagiotis Michalis, Katerina Georgiou, Orestis Sampson, Vasilis Nousis, Marios Palazis, Chrysoula Papathanasiou, Eleftherios Ouzounoglou, and Angelos Amditis

Disaster risk is expected to amplify in the forthcoming years considering the recent climatic projections that highlight that the frequency of shifting weather events is expected to increase posing a significant threat to the resilience of critical assets and societal functions [1]. The increasing trend of extreme weather events and natural hazards highlight the urgency of societies to adapt to current and future evolving hazards. Emerging technologies can play a significant role towards the preparedness and response of societies to disaster risks; however, the vast majority of existing solution are customised to the needs of citizen protection authorities and do not enable interaction with citizens to bridge the risk perception action gap.

This work presents AEOLIAN AR mobile application which focuses on actively engaging both citizens and citizen protection authorities (CPAs) to enhance their risk perception but also response actions during an emerging crisis. AEOLIAN is a new crowdsourcing solution which is following a co-creation design process, through various development iteration phases with main end users [2]. The solution places at the centre both relevant authorities and vulnerable citizens, in an effort to deliver functionalities focused on knowledge generation and exchange among target users. This involves the dissemination of early warnings and real-time bi-directional interaction and exchange of crowdsourcing information between experts and vulnerable communities in case of evolving hazards, allowing for precautionary actions to be employed in areas of concern. It is coupled by Augmented Reality (AR) technology, which seamlessly blends real environments and virtual objects [3], to enrich the knowledge of citizens by providing an immersive storytelling of ‘disaster tales’ to inform users about historical hazardous events that have occurred in their region. Gamified disaster risk training modules also aim to empower participation and learning for climatic and anthropogenic related risks. AEOLIAN has the potential to improve understanding and risk communication between CPAs and citizens towards building disaster resilient societies.

Acknowledgments:

This research has been financed by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101019707, project RiskPACC (Integrating Risk Perception and Action to enhance Civil protection-Citizen interaction).

References:

[1] Michalis, P. and Vintzileou, E. (2022). The Growing Infrastructure Crisis: The Challenge of Scour Risk Assessment and the Development of a New Sensing System. Infrastructures. 2022; 7(5):68. https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7050068.

[2] Michalis, P., Anniés, J., Papathanasiou, C., Ouzounoglou, E. and Admitis, A. (2022). Co-creation as an approach to bridge the Risk Perception Action Gap and customise crowdsourcing tools to respond effectively to climatic risks. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Natural Hazards and Infrastructure, 5-7 July 2022, Athens, Greece, ISSN 2623-4513.

[3] Katika, K., Karaseitanidis, I., Tsiakou, D., Makropoulos, C., Amditis, A. (2021) Augmented Reality(AR) Supporting Citizen Engagement in Circular Economy, Circular Economy and Sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00137-7.

How to cite: Michalis, P., Georgiou, K., Sampson, O., Nousis, V., Palazis, M., Papathanasiou, C., Ouzounoglou, E., and Amditis, A.: AEOLIAN: A new Augmented Reality mobile application to enhance disaster training and response to evolving hazards, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1073, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1073, 2023.

vEOS.3
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EGU23-1381
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Highlight
Chrysoula Papathanasiou, Panagiotis Michalis, Konstantinos Stavrou, Evangelos Tsougiannis, Jeannette Anniés, Sofia Papageorgiou, Eleftherios Ouzounoglou, and Angelos Amditis

Natural and man-made disasters are associated with significant impacts on society, economy and the environment and are considered an issue of national priority at a global level. Further to that, such disasters are exacerbated by climate change (EC DG-ECHO, 2021) and their frequency of occurrence and impact intensity is expected to increase significantly, further affecting the countries’ interlinked economies. The standard practice adopted to mitigate risks includes the undertaking of measures, customized to the needs, particularities and socioeconomic features of the area under threat (Papathanasiou et al., 2015). Informed policy- and decision-making processes need to be outlined from relevant stakeholders. However, this top-down approach, which currently involves policies and measures decided by relevant authorities is not only outdated, but has also been proven to be insufficient. Currently, there is a justified tendency to actively include citizens in disaster management, fostering thus a more citizen-oriented, bottom-up approach. State-of-the art technological tools with advanced functionalities offer extended capabilities towards this direction. RiskPACC project brings together researchers, practitioners and first responders from nine European countries in at least 21 co-creation workshops at 7 case studies, enhancing the communication between local Civil Protection Authorities (CPAs) and citizens and bridging the risk perception-action gap (RPAG) (Michalis et al., 2022).

This work outlines the co-creation approach adopted for the Municipality of Rafina-Pikermi (MRP) use case workshops that focus on wildfires and floods. The functionalities of the AR Aeolian mobile application were defined based on feedback by CPAs and citizens, as provided during workshops, successive iterations and response to appropriate questionnaires posed by the tool providers. User-friendliness was a core design element of the tool to ensure its easy applicability by citizens and control by CPAs, meeting at the same time the need to train the local community how to effectively manage disasters. The process of familiarizing CPAs and citizens with such solutions and encouraging their active participation in relevant training sessions supported them to better understand their particular role in disaster risk reduction, fostering improved situation awareness and risk perception, which is strongly encouraged by immersive technologies. Lessons learnt from citizen empowerment to adopt technical solutions for disaster risk management can be replicated to other use cases with similar population features.

 

Acknowledgments:

This research has been financed by European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101019707, project RiskPACC (Integrating Risk Perception and Action to enhance Civil protection-Citizen interaction).

 

References:

EC, Directorate-General ECHO, (2021). Overview of natural and man-made disaster risks the European Union may face: 2020 edition, Publications Office.  

Michalis, P., Anniés, J., Papathanasiou, C., Ouzounoglou, E. and Admitis, A. (2022). Co-creation as an approach to bridge the Risk Perception Action Gap and customise crowdsourcing tools to respond effectively to climatic risks. Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Natural Hazards and Infrastructure, 5-7 July 2022, Athens, Greece, ISSN 2623-4513.

Papathanasiou, C., Makropoulos, C. and Mimikou, M., (2015). Hydrological modelling for flood forecasting: calibrating the post-fire initial conditions, Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 529, Part 3, pp. 1838-1850, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.07.038

How to cite: Papathanasiou, C., Michalis, P., Stavrou, K., Tsougiannis, E., Anniés, J., Papageorgiou, S., Ouzounoglou, E., and Amditis, A.: Enhancement of local community resilience to natural and man-made disasters through the application of co-created novel technological tools, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1381, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1381, 2023.

vEOS.4
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EGU23-5104
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ECS
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Caroline Johansen

In order to successfully set the EU on the path to reach climate neutrality by 2050, it is essential to have communities on board and willing to make changes to act for a sustainable future. However, without courses focused on climate change on the core curriculum of most schools in Europe, many adults are under informed about the effects of climate change, and what can be done on an individual level to reach these goals. The impact of warming oceans are multifold and affect not only communities that directly boarder the sea, but all neighboring nations as well. The Deep Network project addresses the need for adults to become more aware of the problems regarding climate change and the ocean by curating an online ocean-education information hub. To accomplish this, a network will be built working in close partnership with researchers, ocean activists, industries, and professional adult educators to develop high quality, accessible educational material that covers a range of topics related to how human activities impact the ocean. Some of the topics covered in the Deep Network project include ocean pollution, rising sea levels, ocean warming/acidification, habitat destruction, fisheries, and tourism. Additionally, to engage communities to action and to maintain a sustained interest in marine science and conservation, “inspiring practices” will be promoted for each topic. These are examples of realistic actions or lifestyle changes that one can directly implement into one’s own life. Anthropogenic influences on the oceans directly affect us all in varying ways. The goal of The Deep Network project is to create a strong line of accessible communication, trust, and transparency between ocean research and the communities, to ensure that the responsibility of a sustainable future falls not on the scientists, activists, and industry partners alone. A well-informed community has the potential to make a difference in legislation and gives people the opportunity to make educated decisions to act for a sustainable future.

How to cite: Johansen, C.: The Deep Network: curating and co-producing quality ocean-education information for adults., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5104, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5104, 2023.

vEOS.5
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EGU23-13888
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Martin Archer, Michael Hartinger, Marek Cottingham, Xueling Shi, Evaldas Vidugiris, Anne Holland, James Harold, Emmanuel Masongsong, Duke Hill, Michael Fox, Shane Coyle, Robert Alexander, Alessandra Pacini, and Robert Candey

The changing conditions in near-Earth space cause space weather. This poses a risk to our everyday lives through the technology we rely upon through impacts on crucial power, communications, navigation, and transport systems. Analogues of sound in the space plasmas around our planet, known as Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves, are one means by which energy is circulated from the solar wind to the radiation belt, auroral, and ionospheric regions. Time-series data of ULF waves is often analysed visually, however, such data lends itself more naturally to our sense of sound. Guided by experts in audio, citizen science, and public engagement, we have developed sonification tools that render ULF waves audible. Alongside this, a graphical user interface has been developed, enabling citizen scientists to highlight signals within this audible data that standard methods can struggle to identify. These efforts are part of a NASA-funded pilot project called HARP (Heliophysics Audified Resonances in Plasmas), where high-school students and members of the public contribute to space weather science through listening. We provide an overview of how we carefully developed and tested this citizen science project before launching it publicly.

How to cite: Archer, M., Hartinger, M., Cottingham, M., Shi, X., Vidugiris, E., Holland, A., Harold, J., Masongsong, E., Hill, D., Fox, M., Coyle, S., Alexander, R., Pacini, A., and Candey, R.: Lend Me Your Ears: Space Weather Citizen Science Through Harnessing Sonification, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-13888, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13888, 2023.