01697969

Component

This paper studies the impacts of disaster- and evacuation-related information from various information sources on university campus community members’ evacuation decision-making process during no-notice evacuations. These information sources include emergency notification system (ENS) on campus, people nearby, and social networking services (SNS). In addition, this study also explores the potential of using SNS as a low-cost option to deliver disaster- and evacuation-related information to campus community members. A survey is conducted to address these questions using participants recruited from the West Lafayette Campus of Purdue University (USA), including students, staff and faculty members. The survey data is analyzed using a structural equation model to capture the roles of information from various sources on three key evacuation-related decisions, including decision on whether to seek additional information, whether to follow others’ actions, and whether to evacuate. The impacts of sociodemographic characteristics and SNS usage on these decisions are analyzed using multiple indicators multiple causes models. Descriptive statistics and model estimation results show that information from sources with higher perceived credibility has a larger impact on participants’ evacuation-related decisions compared to those with lower ones. The study suggests the importance of increasing the credibility and number of followers of the SNS account used by ENS to enable the use of SNS as a complementary low-cost solution to more effectively disseminate disaster- or/and evacuation-related information to ensure that people’s actions enhance their safety.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABR30 Standing Committee on Emergency Evacuations.

19-01082

English

8p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Campuses; Decision making; Demographics; Emergency communication systems; Evacuation; Information dissemination; Social media; Structural equation modeling; Surveys

Purdue University

Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General)

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-01082

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:43AM