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On 14 November 2016, the Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake and tsunami occurred in Aotearoa New Zealand, impacting the city of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). As many people reside in apartments in Wellington, we undertook a survey followed by interviews to understand evacuation information communicated to apartment dwellers, and how residents used that information for decision-making. Immediately following earthquake shaking, some apartment dwellers stayed in their building as per official advice, while others evacuated because they felt safer outside. A small proportion evacuated because of the tsunami threat, and many of these participants did so because of the 'Long or Strong, Get Gone' evacuation advice. Others were unclear whether their apartment building was in a tsunami evacuation zone. Some returned immediately after the initial evacuation, while others with damaged apartments evacuated for weeks to months. Participants used regular information upates particularly via social media channels, to inform decisions about returning after longer-term evacuation. However, communicating with the Body Corporate or landlord was difficult, and apartment dwellers reported having trouble getting information about the damage status of their building, making decisions about returning challenging. Given the unique context of apartment dwellers, communication strategies should be honed to assist responses to a future event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of citizen science in natural hazard risk awareness, assessment, mitigation, and preparedness is being recognised as an important element of disaster risk reduction. Citizen science has potential as a collaborative resilience building activity that can help build the capacity of, and relationships between, individuals, communities, and institutions to prepare and respond to disaster. Specifically, citizen science can increase resilience by building the collective- and self-efficacy of individuals, organisations, and communities as well as other factors such as enhancing planning, coping mechanisms, social capital, community participation, leadership, empowerment, trust, and a sense of community. We present a case study of a two-phased citizen science initiative related to tsunami preparedness and response, undertaken between 2015 and 2016 in Orewa, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. The activities of the first phase acted as a catalyst for the second phase and thus contributed directly to resilience building. Phase One was a citizen-initiated, co-developed survey on tsunami preparedness and intended response. The results from the survey, showing that participants had a low understanding of appropriate response to a potential tsunami threat, were used by community leaders to develop a community preparedness and awareness-building exercise: Phase Two. Phase Two was a joint citizen and agency-facilitated tsunami evacuation exercise "Ahead of the Wave", with science-led data collection on evacuation numbers and timing. This initiative was aimed at improving the response capacity of a coastal community at risk of tsunami and was initiated by the community itself with support from other agencies. We present an overview of the methodological approaches taken to understand community resilience to tsunami risk in Orewa. Further, we highlight the importance that researchers working in the citizen science space must recognise the time required to invest in co-production and the importance of understanding the different motivations of organisations and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early warning systems (EWSs) can prevent loss of life and reduce the impacts of hazards. Yet, recent severe weather events indicate that many EWSs continue to fail at adequately communicating the risk of the hazard, resulting in significant life and property loss. Given these shortcomings, there has been a shift towards people-centred EWSs to engage with audiences of warnings to understand their needs and capabilities. One example of engaging with warning audiences is through the collection and co-creation of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Much of the research in the past has primarily focused on using VGI in disaster response, with less exploration of the role of VGI for EWSs. This review uses a scoping methodology to identify and analyse 29 research papers on EWSs for severe weather hazards. Results show that VGI is useful in all components of an EWS, but some platforms are more useful for specific components than are others. Furthermore, the different types of VGI have implications for supporting people-centred EWSs. Future research should explore the characteristics of the VGI produced for these EWS components and determine how VGI can support a new EWS model for which the World Meteorological Organization is advocating: that of impact-based forecasting and warning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hikurangi Subduction Interface, located 50 to 100 kilometres off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, has the potential to generate the most destructive tsunami New Zealand is likely to encounter over a 1000-year timeframe. Yet, while such a severe risk hangs over the area, the number and detail of tsunami risk management policies do not match this risk. This article presents research on the influence of low-likelihood on perceptions for developing destructive tsunami risk management policy. It explores the thoughts and opinions of natural hazard risk practitioners in regards to tsunami risk management policy, along with the use of risk modelling (RiskScape) for tsunami policy development. Results highlight risk perceptions associated with the low-likelihood of a destructive tsunami, including such an event being perceived as "not happening here" and the development of tsunami risk management policy perceived as sitting in the "too hard basket'". We discuss how these risk perceptions could be influenced by cognitive biases due to their seemingly illogical nature and how risk modelling can be used as a communication tool to help overcome these perception challenges. We conclude with some recommendations for how we could better match tsunami risk management policy with tsunami risk through further developing local government provisions for risk management, the influence of cognitive biases, risk modelling, and policy flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People tolerate different levels of risk owing to a variety of hazards. Previous research shows that the psychometric properties of hazards predict people's tolerance of them. However, this work has not taken into account events such as earthquakes. The present study tested how earthquakes score vis‐à‐vis risk properties and risk tolerance as compared to five other familiar hazards. Participants from Wellington, New Zealand (N=139) rated these six hazards using measures of risk characteristics and risk tolerance. Participants demonstrated different levels of risk tolerance for the different hazards and viewed earthquakes as having similar risk features to nuclear power. They also preferred different risk mitigation strategies for earthquakes (more government funding) to the other five hazards (stronger legislation). In addition, earthquake risk tolerance was predicted by different risk characteristics than the other five hazards. These findings will help risk communicators in identifying which risk characteristics to target to influence citizens' risk tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a pressing health challenge for all countries, including Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). As of early 2022, NZ public health measures have reduced impacts of the pandemic, but ongoing efforts to limit illness and fatalities will be significantly aided by widescale uptake of available vaccines including COVID-19 booster doses. Decades of research have established a broad range of demographic, social, cognitive, and behavioural factors which influence peoples' uptake of vaccinations, including a large amount of research in the last two years focused on COVID-19 vaccination in particular. In this study, we surveyed people in New Zealand ( N  = 660) in May and June of 2021, at which point the vaccine had been made available to high-risk groups. We explored individual versus collective motivations, finding that people who were hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination scored lower on independent self-construals (how people define themselves) but higher on community identity, weaker but still positive perceived social norms, lower general risk of COVID-19 to New Zealanders and higher vaccine risk for both themselves and others, and lower response-efficacy both for personal and collective benefits. Overall, the findings suggest some benefit of collective over individual appeals, but that generally messaging to encourage vaccination should focus on conveying social norms, risk from COVID-19 broadly, and vaccine safety and efficacy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This study examines people's response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents in Wellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 min were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual variables, and actions taken during the shaking, but were significantly related to perceived shaking intensity, risk perception and affective responses to the shaking, and damage/infrastructure disruption. These results have important implications for future research and practice because they identify promising avenues for emergency managers to communicate seismic risks and appropriate responses to risk area populations., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.