Unveiling the Nexus Between Farmer Households’ Subjective Flood Risk Cognition and Disaster Preparedness in Southwest China

Wei Liu (), Zhibo Zhang, Zhe Song and Jia Shi
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Wei Liu: School of Public Administration, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Zhibo Zhang: School of Public Administration, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Zhe Song: School of Public Administration, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
Jia Shi: School of Public Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: Understanding Farmer households’ subjective flood risk cognition is important for effectively mitigating the impacts of flood, and adequate disaster preparedness reduces the impact of floods on the sustainability of farmers’ livelihoods. The existing literature focuses on objective flood risk assessment and subjective–objective risk consistency and less systematically explores the correlation between Farmer households’ subjective flood risk cognition and disaster preparedness. Therefore, this study aims to explores the correlation between Farmer households’ subjective flood risk cognition and disaster preparedness. This study employed a random sampling method to conduct a survey among 540 households in Gaoxian County, Jiajiang County, and Yuechi County, which are flood-prone areas in Southwest China. Based on the survey results, this research framework can be used to evaluate systems of subjective flood risk cognition and farmers’ disaster preparedness. We chose the Tobit Regression Model to empirically explore the correlation between subjective flood risk cognition and farmers’ disaster preparedness. The results showed that among the 540 surveyed farmers, their overall subjective flood risk cognition was at a medium-high level (3.58), with self-efficacy more than response efficacy, more than threat, and more than probability. Further, the overall disaster preparedness of farmers was at a medium level (0.5), with physical disaster preparedness more than emergency disaster preparedness and more than knowledge and skills preparedness. The regression analysis showed that the probability of flooding and the threat in Farmer households’ subjective flood risk cognition were positively related to disaster preparedness, whereas self-efficacy, response efficacy, and overall risk cognition in Farmer households’ subjective flood risk cognition were negatively related to disaster preparedness. This study is representative of or may serve as a reference for building governance systems and disaster prevention in other flood risk areas in Southwest China.

Keywords: floods; farmers; subjective risk cognition; disaster preparedness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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