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Copyright of Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While social vulnerability assessments should play a crucial part in disaster management, there is a lack of assessment tools that retain sensitivity to the situation‐specific dynamics of vulnerabilities emerging in particular hazard scenarios. We developed a novel scenario‐based vulnerability assessment framework together with practitioners in crisis management and assessed the suitability of its components in three past crises and their scenario‐based derivations: a large‐scale power outage, the COVID‐19 pandemic, and a cyber‐attack. Rather than deterministically concluding about vulnerability based on prefixed factors, the framework guides relevant stakeholders to systematically think through categories of vulnerability pertinent to a scenario. We used a table‐top exercise, interviews, and focus groups to demonstrate how the framework broadens the crisis managers' understanding of the scope of factors that may cause vulnerability, the related sources of information and enables to identify individuals burdened by certain vulnerability mixes. The new framework could be applied to different types of crises to enhance preparedness, demand‐driven relief and rescue during critical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeless and materially disadvantaged people are considered particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. So far, there is no systematic knowledge about how the homeless and materially disadvantaged people perceive the risks of COVID-19 and what factors influence the development of sceptical views and underestimation of dangers posed by the virus. The aim of our study is therefore to: (1) Explore COVID-19 risk perception of socially marginalised individuals, focusing on their assessment of the probability of getting infected by the virus and the perceived harmful consequences of the disease; and (2) examine the factors influencing COVID-19 risk beliefs of these individuals. We use cross-sectional survey data with 273 participants from eight countries and data from 32 interviews and five workshops with managers and staff of social care organisations in ten European countries. Our results indicate that among survey participants, 49% can be labelled COVID-19 sceptics with regard to probability of getting infected, and 38% with regard to harmful consequences of the disease. We find that COVID-19 scepticism is related to low levels of all types of social capital, low trust in information from authorities and being a minority. However, the most important predictor is the respondents' general lack of concern about health risks. Additionally, the qualitative data indicates the multifaceted nature of COVID-19 scepticism, as it may relate to the origins of COVID-19, the probability of infection, its consequences and protective measures, among others. Improved understanding about factors influencing COVID-19 scepticism in these groups contributes to a better understanding of the information disorder during crises, and the ways in which this could be managed through policies against marginalisation, including in disaster risk reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To review the evidence of associations between adverse birth outcomes (ABO) and industrial air pollution. Methods: Searches were conducted in PubMed, and Scopus databases, and additional articles were found from snowball search techniques. The included studies feature a study population of mothers with live-born babies exposed to industrial air pollutants, and they examine the effects of industrial pollutants on adverse birth outcomes--namely, low birth weight, term low birth weight, preterm birth, and small for gestational age. Results: Altogether, 45 studies were included in this review. Exposure to PM2.5, PAHs, benzene, cadmium, and mixtures of industrial air pollutants and living near an industrial area affect birth outcomes. Conclusion: This study concludes that industrial air pollution is an important risk factor for ABO, especially low birth weight and preterm birth. The strongest evidence is associations between ABO and air pollution from power plants and petrochemical industries. Understanding of specific chemicals that are critical to birth outcomes is still vague. However, the evidence is strongest for more specific air pollutants from the industry, such as PAH, benzene, BTEX, and cadmium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health effects of particulate matter, increasing emissions from transportation and requisites for making use of biofuels brings up the need to understand how individuals interpret air-pollution-related risks from wood burning and traffic. We aim to clarify the extent to which perceived risks from road-traffic and wood-smoke can be explained by the individual psychological, social status-related and socio-institutional factors in the case of two Northern European countries, Finland and Estonia. This approach elucidates which of the closely intertwined factors shape the perception of risks from air pollution in different socio-institutional contexts and for different air pollution sources. The study uses data from cross-sectional population surveys conducted among 1112 Finnish and 1000 Estonian residents about environmental health risk perception and coping. Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that in both countries' cases, the perceived personal and general risk from traffic exhaust and wood-smoke can be explained by the perception of exposure to pollution and, also, by the level of knowledge of, the worry about and the possible symptoms from environmental health factors. The perceived vulnerability due to poor health further sensitises individuals towards risks from air pollution. Higher trust towards state institutions in guaranteeing a healthy living environment and greater perceived openness about the risks may attenuate the feelings of vulnerability to air pollution risks in Finland compared to Estonia. The ingrained appeal for wood burning may explain the higher acceptance of exhausts from wood-burning compared to traffic. This may lead to scant support for measures to reduce emissions from wood combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners' approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for major hazards and could be adapted further to particular types of disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Crisis and disaster research has extensively contributed to theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical advances in the understanding of resilience, vulnerability, social capital and risk awareness. These concepts identify complex social phenomena, which are intensified, in both positive and negative terms, by crises and disasters. However, the accumulation of knowledge about these notions has produced a vast range of definitions, which affects the way they are used in the study of crises and disasters. This paper sets a research agenda, by promoting a conceptual model to help simplify and make more researchable these complex concepts. This model stems from a triangulation of methods, with the goal of providing more researchable definitions of these notions and of illustrating linkages among them, seldom addressed in the way this model suggests, in the context of the crisis management cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid‐19 pandemic has challenged the resilience of care organisations (and those dependent on them), especially when services are stopped or restricted. This study focuses on the experiences of care organisations that offer services to individuals in highly precarious situations in 10 European countries. It is based on 32 qualitative interviews and three workshops with managers and staff. The four key types of organisations reviewed largely had the same adaptation patterns in all countries. The most drastic changes were experienced by day centres, which had to suspend or digitise services, whereas night shelters and soup kitchens had to reorganise broadly their work; residential facilities were minimally affected. Given the drastic surge in demand for services, reliance on an overburdened (volunteer) workforce, and a lack of crisis plans, the care organisations with long‐term trust networks with clients and intra‐organisational cooperation adapted easier. The outcomes were worse for new clients, migrants, psychologically vulnerable people, and those with limited communicative abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 propelled the creation, transmission, and consumption of false information – unverified claims, misleading statements, false rumours, conspiracy theories, and so on – all around the world. When various official or unofficial sources issue erroneous, misleading or contradicting information during a crisis, people who are exposed to this may behave in ways that cause harm to the health and well-being of themselves or others, e.g., by not taking appropriate risk reducing measures or blaming or harassing vulnerable groups. To work towards a typology of informational content that may increase people's vulnerability in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, we explored 98 instances of potentially harmful information that spread in six European countries – France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia – between March and May 2020. We suggest that during the pandemic, exposure to harmful information may have made people more vulnerable in six ways: (1) by discouraging appropriate protective actions against catching/spreading the virus, (2) by promoting the use of false (or harmful) remedies against the virus, (3) by misrepresenting the transmission mechanisms of the virus, (4) by downplaying the risks related to the pandemic, (5) by tricking people into buying fake protection against the virus or into revealing their confidential information, and (6) by victimising the alleged spreaders of the virus by harassment/hate speech. The proposed typology can be used to guide the development of risk communication plans to address each of these information-related vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the rationale for implementing the fare-free public transportation system (FFPTS) in Tallinn, Estonia, that took place on 1 January 2013. Through a series of interviews with relevant informants, we identify the main enablers and the FFPTS in Tallinn faced and the potential of such a system to contribute to the sustainable city development. Our analysis shows that the interlinking between local and national politics determines not only the type of initiatives implemented and the support they receive but also the degree of their success and their stability. We conclude that to be even more effective, it should be extended to the all potential users, not just to local registered residents as it has been recently applied in state-run bus travels in rural municipalities in Estonia. Finally, more restrictive private car policies should be considered to fuel a sustainable mobility transition and increase cities life quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactive multimedia enables a mediated nature experience in ecologically vulnerable areas. The aim of this study is to clarify the social and individual motivational factors governing satisfaction with virtual nature tours. After visiting the Piusa Caves Nature Reserve in Estonia, and participating in its virtual tourism (VT), 299 tourists responded to a questionnaire regarding their natural and VT experiences. We use a general linear model to explore the effectiveness of predicting satisfaction with VT based on values, beliefs about treating nature, pro-ecological norms, and need for emotional arousal from virtual experiences. Compared to people with a high need for arousal, people with a low need are more easily satisfied with VT, regardless of its weak emotional triggers, e.g. lack of lively impressions, feeling of place change, and connection to real nature. Pro-ecological beliefs augment satisfaction with VT in people with a high need for arousal. Mediated nature experiences offer ways of engaging with nature more conveniently to hedonistic travellers and would likely be rejected by people who seek social interaction and physical challenges when travelling. As VT is better received among women, lower educated people, and 50–70-year-olds, these may be ideal target groups for promotion of mediated nature experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Adverse health impact of air pollution on health may not only be associated with the level of exposure, but rather mediated by perception of the pollution and by top-down processing (e.g. beliefs of the exposure being hazardous), especially in areas with relatively low levels of pollutants. The aim of this study was to test a model that describes interrelations between air pollution (particles < 10 μm, PM10), perceived pollution, health risk perception, health symptoms and diseases.Methods: A population-based questionnaire study was conducted among 1000 Estonian residents (sample was stratified by age, sex, and geographical location) about health risk perception and coping. The PM10 levels were modelled in 1 × 1 km grids using a Eulerian air quality dispersion model. Respondents were ascribed their annual mean PM10 exposure according to their home address. Path analysis was performed to test the validity of the model.Results: The data refute the model proposing that exposure level significantly influences symptoms and disease. Instead, the perceived exposure influences symptoms and the effect of perceived exposure on disease is mediated by health risk perception. This relationship is more pronounced in large cities compared to smaller towns or rural areas.Conclusions: Perceived pollution and health risk perception, in particular in large cities, play important roles in understanding and predicting environmentally induced symptoms and diseases at relatively low levels of air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Adverse health impact of air pollution on health may not only be associated with the level of exposure, but rather mediated by perception of the pollution and by top-down processing (e.g. beliefs of the exposure being hazardous), especially in areas with relatively low levels of pollutants. The aim of this study was to test a model that describes interrelations between air pollution (particles < 10 μm, PM10), perceived pollution, health risk perception, health symptoms and diseases.Methods: A population-based questionnaire study was conducted among 1000 Estonian residents (sample was stratified by age, sex, and geographical location) about health risk perception and coping. The PM10 levels were modelled in 1 × 1 km grids using a Eulerian air quality dispersion model. Respondents were ascribed their annual mean PM10 exposure according to their home address. Path analysis was performed to test the validity of the model.Results: The data refute the model proposing that exposure level significantly influences symptoms and disease. Instead, the perceived exposure influences symptoms and the effect of perceived exposure on disease is mediated by health risk perception. This relationship is more pronounced in large cities compared to smaller towns or rural areas.Conclusions: Perceived pollution and health risk perception, in particular in large cities, play important roles in understanding and predicting environmentally induced symptoms and diseases at relatively low levels of air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]