Community perceptions of bushfire maps across Australia and where to next

Research in Australia has been conducted on the public’s response to risk and warning communication (Dootson et al. 2019; 2021), however, less research effort has focused exclusively on the efficacy of bushfire maps in the public information and warnings milieu (e.g., Cao et al., 2016;2017; Whittaker et al., 2020). This research addresses that gap with a nation-wide survey of N= 3,007 community members in Australia funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia (see Begg et al., 2022). The survey examines community comprehension of, and intended actions prompted by, 14 bushfire maps, supplied by emergency services agencies. Drawing on the Protective Action and Decision-Making Model (PADM; Lindell and Perry 2012), this research specifically examines the extent to which the community are exposed to bushfire maps, how well they grab attention, the extent to which the community comprehend what the map is communicating about the hazard and the associated risk. Further, the research seeks to understand the extent to which a map can signal threat and inform protective action perceptions. These perceptions then form the basis for decisions about how to respond to an imminent or long-term bushfire threat. The outcome of the PADM process, together with situational facilitators and impediments, produces a behavioural response from the community comprising further information searching, emotion-focused coping, and or protective action (Lindell & Perry, 2012).