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Structural vs Non‐structural Flood‐alleviation Measures in the Yangtze Delta: A Pilot Survey of Floodplain Residents' Preferences
Author(s) -
RASID HARUN,
SHUNCAI SUN,
XIUBO YU,
CHEN ZHANG
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1996.tb00520.x
Subject(s) - floodplain , flood myth , popularity , logistic regression , yangtze river , geography , questionnaire , socioeconomics , environmental health , medicine , psychology , mathematics , economics , statistics , social psychology , china , cartography , archaeology
This study was initiated to test if structural flood‐alleviation measures were more popular than non‐structural measures among the floodplain residents of the Yangtze Delta, because of the long tradition of ‘living with embankments and other flood control structures’. The results of a pilot questionnaire survey among 239 respondents from four sample villages of two typical floodplains of the delta indicated that, contrary to expectations, the non‐structural measure of flood insurance attracted more favourable responses (97 per cent) than any one of the structural measures, although the latter were also frequently selected by the respondents (64 – 92 per cent). A number of multivariate logit regressions between each of the preferred flood‐alleviation measures and the respondents' flood adaptations identified some of the determinants of these preferences. For a more complete explanation of the causes of popularity of various flood‐alleviation measures, further research should incorporate a behavioural model with trade‐offs for alternative measures.