Public Knowledge, Perceptions and Practices in the High-Risk Lightning Zone of South Africa

Inocent Moyo and Sifiso Xulu
Additional contact information
Inocent Moyo: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa
Sifiso Xulu: Department of Geography, University of the Free State, Phuthaditjhaba 9869, South Africa

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-14

Abstract: Lightning activity is a hazard for human societies and the environment, and a common feature of South Africa’s climate system, although with great regional variation. The north-eastern section of the country, including the predominantly rural uMkhanyakude District Municipality, is among the most vulnerable regions, where a growing trend of lightning-related deaths and injuries has been observed in recent years. Despite this, and the Disaster Management Act (No. 57 of 2002), which mandates the implementation of hazard and risk assessments at all scales, no detailed research on the community risk perception of lightning incidents has yet been conducted, although such information could help to facilitate mitigation strategies. This explorative study involved a questionnaire survey of 150 community members that aimed to address this gap. Our results suggest that lightning is a real danger and the community had failed to effectively and successfully respond to its various socio-economic implications at the community and individual levels; this demonstrated the vulnerability of the community to the lightning activity in the study area. The contribution of this study is the identification and explanation of how lightning is regarded, understood, interpreted and responded to and how this information provides an opportunity for effective government intervention.

Keywords: lightning; risk perception; community; uMkhanyakude District Municipality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7448/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7448/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7448-:d:593117

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().