Le citoyen au coeur de la résilience dans l’agglomération de Montréal : lorsque l’adaptation au risque devient la préoccupation de chacun
Resilience, the capacity of a city or environment to maintain its structure, to reshape, learn and adapt to shocks and stresses, leads to an increased accountability of citizens in risk preparedness and mitigation. Since the city’s settlement, floods have occurred frequently in Montreal, but citizens are still little prepared, as the damage caused by the 2017 spring floodings shows. From the beginning of the 21st Century, international agencies and governments are striving to increase public awareness and encourage citizens to take action. An informed citizen will have an increased risk perception which will lead to a protection behavior. This link between information, perception and behavior is not clear however. Previous research shows in fact that the protection behavior depends on multiple factors such as experience, risk occurrence, as well as coping appraisal compared to costs of a measure. This thesis answers the following research question: how to encourage people to adopt protective actions against floods in Montreal? A research investigation involving 237 citizens from four areas of Montreal that were impacted by the 2017 spring floods sheds light on barriers to the adoption of protective action, analyzed through the Protective Action Decision Model (Lindell, Perry, 2012). In our case, the lack of action is due to a lack of information and knowledge about risk sources as well as mitigation measures, a perception that preparedness measures such as the 72h emergency kit are not efficient, a perception of a low self-efficacy in implementing mitigation measures, and the resource-intensive cost of these measures. One major factor is the uncertainty of floods, a risk that we are not capable to predict accurately, which combined with a high perceived responsibility of public authorities leads to a lack of incentive to act immediately. Based on these findings, a case study of New Orleans in the United States, offers some thoughts on the ways we can encourage citizens to undertake protective measures, including a combination of awareness measures, engagement, as well as enforcement and the use of incentives. This study of barriers to individual protective action against floods investigated here depicts the same problems we face when promoting action against climate change.
Perception Adaptation Resilience Risk awareness Uncertainty Risk management Floods Climate change Preparedness Mitigation