Citizens education about floods: a Serbian case study

The aim of quantitative research is a scientific explication of the effects certain demographic, socio-economic and psychological citizens characteristics on citizens education in Serbia about floods. It is because of that that during the whole 2015 a series of 2,500 face-to-face interviews was conducted in 19 out of the 190 municipalities of the Republic of Serbia. The study population consisted of all adult residents of the local communities in which floods occurred, and the sample size complied with the geographical and demographic size of the community. Results of the descriptive statistical analysis showed 24.9% of respondents were educated about natural disasters at school, 40.2% in the family, 29.9% at work, 39.9% of respondents know where elderly, disabled and infants live, 14% noted that they knew the risks of floods, etc. The research findings indicated that there is a statistically significant correlation between the level of knowledge about natural disasters and sex, age, marital status levels of education, fear of disaster, previous experience and income level. On the other hand, education at school, within the family, at work is statistically significantly associated with age, the level of education, marital status and employment status. The awareness of where elderly, disabled and infants live was not statistically significantly related to sex, the level of education, marital status and previous experience. The research indicates how to raise the level of citizens’ knowledge starting from their demographic, socio-economic and psychological characteristics. The research originality lies in the uncharted impact of those factors on the citizens’ knowledge about natural disasters in Serbia. The results can be used for the design of strategies to improve citizens’ knowledge about the natural disasters caused by flooding.

Keywords: floods, citizens, education, factors, Serbia.

Cvetković, V., Tarolli, P., Roder, G., Ivanov, A., Ronan, K., Ocam, A., & Kutub, R. (2017). Citizens education about floods: a Serbian case study. Paper presented at the VII International scientific conference Archibald Reiss days