Measuring Individual Disaster Preparedness

Abstract

This Risk and Resilience Report provides an overview of recent individual preparedness research. The most common indicator is the availability of an emergency supply kit that mitigates short-term supply gaps. Other preparedness indicators include the prevalence of cash, insurance, vaccines, safety installations in buildings and access to vehicles. Preparedness also includes cognitive factors like risk knowledge, pre-defined strategies to coordinate communication and meetings, hazard-specific behaviors and skills, such as first aid and fire fighting training. The report also explores the data availability of these preparedness indicators for Switzerland and highlights existing gaps in the preparedness literature with regards to empirical evidence for the composition and effectiveness of emergency supply kits, as well as the specific challenges of suburban contexts. Recommendations for future analyses include: individual preparedness actions related to the COVID-19 pandemic; an evaluation of smartphones’ potential for digitizing disaster preparedness tools; impacts of the sharing economy on access to cars, housing and tools during disasters; and an ethnography of people that make individual disaster preparedness part of their identity and lifestyle.

Dieser Risk and Resilience Report von Kevin Kohler, Andrin Hauri, Florian Roth and Benjamin Scharte gibt einen Überblick über die jüngste Forschung zur individuellen Katastrophenvorsorge. Der Bericht erörtert eine breite Palette von Indikatoren, die zur Messung der individuellen Katastrophenvorsorge beitragen können und untersucht die Datenverfügbarkeit dieser Indikatoren für die Schweiz.