Study on index system of assessment of public disaster perception in the western China

Abstract

The study on humanity response to global environment change is a new direction in the research of global change science, of which an important aspect is to study the adaptation strategies of human being to environmental changes in different regions. One reasonable and scientific adaptation strategy is based on not only scientific assessment of the impact of environmental change on society, but also correct estimation of the public perception of environmental change, whereas the research on the latter is terribly weak. This paper intends to understand the personality difference in public perception of environment in the western China primarily by establishing the assessment index system of nation environmental perception and analyzing the results of questionnaire survey in some regions of Shaanxi Province. The conclusions are as follows: 1) The state of public perception of disaster is one of the foundations of constituting and enforcing reasonable adaptation strategy to environmental change. 2) The personality differences of public perception of disaster appear as follows: female disaster perception is stronger than male; the order of disaster perception from strong to weak from the point of age characteristics is 20–30, 0–20, 40–50, 30–40, 50–60, 60 year old or over in turns; the order of disaster perception from strong to weak from the point of educational characteristics is senior high school, college, illiterate, junior high school, primary school, in turns; the order of disaster perception from strong to weak from the point of occupation characteristics is student, farmer, teacher, worker and functionary, in turns; the order of disaster perception from strong to weak from the point of habitat characteristics is city, countryside, towns, and metropolis in turns.