Analysis on Public Risk Perception and Environmental Risk

This research examined how Scientifically Estimated Environmental Risks (SEERs) of floods, hurricanes, and hazardous mate-rial releases are related with perceived risks of those hazards. This study also tested the relationship between household char-acteristics and environmental risk perceptions. Major findings of this research are as follows. First, there were little differences in risk perceptions of natural and technological hazards across demographic groups. Specifically, the respondents ’ risk perceptions of both natural and technological hazards did not differ by age, household size, and marital status. By contrast, educational level, gender (male =1), and median household income were statistically related to perceived risk of the natural hazards, whereas edu-cational attainment and gender were statistically related to perceived risk of hazardous material releases. Finally, SEERs of floods and hurricanes were positively related to respondents ’ perception of property damage, but not related to injury or heath problems from those natural hazards. SEER of hazardous materials was related to all three categories of risk perception of a hazardous material release. These results suggest that environmental cues such as proximity to rivers and bays do not much contribute to an increase in the respondents ’ perception of safety and health problems resulting from natural hazards. The fact that there was a sig-nificant correlation with property damage suggests that risk area residents believe that they can protect themselves (e.g., by evac