An Analysis of the Integration of Place Attachment into Visualizations of Hurricane Storm Surge Threats

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates ways of reducing the devastating effects that hurricane related storm surges can have on the safety and well-being of communities. Reducing and managing risks from storm surge are challenging because of the complex nature of the hazard and the inherent uncertainty in storm surge forecasting. Weather forecasters and emergency managers often use maps and animations (visualizations) to communicate storm surge risks and threats to the public. However, little is known about how these visualizations influence people's understanding and response to risk. This project will contribute to research on visualizations and how well these work for the communication of hazardous weather risks. By focusing on attachment to place within the context of coastal communities, the investigators will improve understanding of how people interact with information about coastal hazards and what role visualizations play in understanding and decision-making. The investigators will engage with practitioners and stakeholders throughout the project, from the planning stages to dissemination of the research results, ensuring project relevancy and building strong societal benefit for the needs of affected communities. This project will support educational activities through interdisciplinary training of students and faculty at a variety of institutions including from minority serving colleges and universities. The project will contribute to broader efforts to increase public scientific literacy by focusing on the role of visualizations in communicating complex scientific concepts in a relatable and usable manner. This project will contribute to fundamental theoretical and methodological advances in geography, geospatial science, cartography, as well as decision, risk and management science and their intersection with communication of hazardous weather risks. The research will bridge the gap between how spatially explicit storm surge information is being conveyed by scientists and their interpretation and use by members of the public in at-risk coastal communities. The investigators will consider the role of concepts such as space and place in data representation and hypothesize that connecting people to place through theoretically and empirically informed visualizations will enhance at-risk populations' understandings of and responses to storm surge hazard threats. The project's research questions are: How do residents of coastal communities perceive a sense of place in their everyday lives and when hazardous storm surge threatens? How can sense of place constructs be integrated into visualization of storm surge threats? How do different ways of representing space and place in storm surge visualizations interact with people's understandings of and responses to the hazards? The investigators will use a multi-method interdisciplinary approach that employs an experimental participatory cognitive mapping process, research on and development of innovative storm surge visualizations, iterative focus groups on risk perception and the degree to which attachment to place factors in to decision-making, and an online survey to test the impact of different types of visualizations. Together this suite of methods will be able to inform how the visualizations, attachment to place, and other factors influence people's understandings of and responses to storm surge hazards. The research includes stakeholder engagement in coastal areas and experts from several related government agencies. Although the project focuses on coastal Georgia and South Carolina, the methods, technology, and visualization concepts will be relevant to other coastal communities in the U.S. vulnerable to hurricane storm surge. Furthermore, the theories and empirical findings will be relevant to non-coastal communities by understanding how attachment to place within visualizations can be used to improve communication of risk hazards and decision-making. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.