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Improving relocation acceptability by improving information and governance quality/results from a survey conducted in France

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A Correction to this article was published on 15 April 2020

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Abstract

This article focuses on the acceptability of relocation of the goods the most exposed due to sea level rise, and this increasingly recommended strategy to reduce coastal vulnerability. However, the implementation of these measures raises significant individual and political resistance. The themes of this research relate specifically to the role of communication and to trust in the institutions responsible for implementing this measure. Communication has to be designed in a way to decrease distortions in individuals’ risk perception and to help improving quality of the governance of the adaptation to coastal flooding due to sea level rise. We conducted a questionnaire among 782 French coastal residents to deal with these two main dimensions of the acceptability of relocation. Firstly, we question the conditions for a favourable communication strategy by estimating the differentiated impact of communication using fear or conversely humour. Secondly, we study trust in institutions in charge of the implementation of relocation policies with several criteria of governance quality. Our results underline that humour-based communication has the comparative advantage of inducing a stronger emotional response in terms of stimulating interest and thought. Furthermore, the survey highlighted the influence of governance quality. These results confirm the decisive role of governance mechanisms for the acceptability of relocation. They also suggest a need for ongoing support to awareness-raising measures taking into account, among other psychological factors, the need for people to feel that they have some control over implemented measures.

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Change history

  • 15 April 2020

    The original article has been updated. Unfortunately due to a mistake during the production of the article, the article was published with an incomplete author group. Only the first author was included. The other 3 authors have been added to the author group.

Notes

  1. Site of the Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Ministry; http://www.georisques.gouv.fr/un-Descriptif-des-risques-la-commune

  2. Having studied the correlations between variables in order to avoid duplication.

  3. It must be noted that this refers to floods in the town or village and it does not necessarily concern the respondents.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the Programme of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique OHM (Observatoire Homme Milieu) and by Montpellier University. The authors thank Jean Marc Rousselle for his support when putting the survey online.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, CEE-M, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Cécile Bazart, Hélène Rey-Valette & Nicole Lautrédou-Audouy

  2. Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Univ. Montpellier, EPSYLON EA 4556, F34000, Montpellier, France

    Raphaël Trouillet

Authors
  1. Cécile Bazart
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  2. Raphaël Trouillet
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  3. Hélène Rey-Valette
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  4. Nicole Lautrédou-Audouy
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Correspondence to Cécile Bazart.

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The original version of this article was revised: the author group was incomplete.

Highlights

• This is the first national survey in France on the acceptability of relocation policies.

• This article evaluates climate change adaptation acceptability depending on whether communication is based on humour or fear.

• The acceptability of relocation measures is evaluated before and after the questions relating to governance quality in order to measure its impact.

• The results show that communication and awareness-raising are decisive for relocation in anticipation of sea level rise.

• Taking psychological factors into account tends to increase the acceptability of relocation measures.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Summary of the questionnaire

  1. 1.

    Choice of and attachment to place of residence

Municipality of residence, impact of the proximity of the sea on the choice of your home (score from 1to10), distance from the neighbourhood to the beach and the sea, length of stay in the neighbourhood.

  1. 2.

    Perception of coastal flooding risk

Emergency level to intervene in relation to the risk of sea level rise for the area (4 items), opinion on the ability to fight the rise of the sea (score from 1 to 10), type of worries concerning an increased frequency of coastal flooding (8 items).

  1. 3.

    Perception of management policies and relocation acceptability

Introductory part with photos illustrating current policies (protection and reloading) and an explanation of relocation policies.

Choice of the type of adaptation policy considered the most appropriate to adapt to sea level rise after 2050 (4 items), feeling that the choice is shared by other inhabitants and elected officials (score from 1 to 10), perceptions relative to relocation policies (5 items), relocation acceptability of the most exposed houses (score from 1 to 10) (question selected to measure differences), feeling that it is courageous for an elected official to implement a relocation policy ( score from 1 to 10) (question selected to measure the differences), feeling that the respondent’s home could well be affected by relocation? YES/NO/do not know.

  1. 4.

    Information about, and trust in, management institutions

Type of determinants of trust in an institution (technical skills, credibility and reliability, proximity of elected officials, transparency of choices, fairness of measures, consultation possibilities) (1 choice).

Opinions on management measures carried out so far in link with coastal risks in terms of their efficiency, related skills, consultation of concerned populations, integration in urbanization policies, research of collective interest and transparency (score from 1 to 10 for each item)

Satisfaction with information given about alternative measures, cost, probability of risk occurrence and effectiveness of measures (score from 1 to 10 for each item).

  1. 5.

    Perceptions relative to relocation policies (score from 1 to 10 for each item)

The beaches are part of our natural heritage and must be preserved for generations to come. It is useless to seek to anticipate; it is better to leave to do and adapt as and when. It is useless to protect the beaches because early or later they will be submerged/flooded. Relocation offer the opportunity to rethink the city. Willingness to pay more taxes to fund the policy of relocation (selected question to measure the differences).

  1. 6.

    Perceptions and feelings raised using differentiated communication visuals

figure a

Feeling raised by the message of the visual (proposed items were feeling of fatalism, it is catastrophic, fear of human or material losses, scepticism, it is an exceptional situation which does not account for the reality, the elected officials are responsible because they urbanized too much in risk areas, the owners have not been vigilant enough at the time of purchase, I feel more convinced of the interest of the relocation of the most exposed houses) (1 choice).

Three questions were already asked to evaluate the rating gap as a proxy for the impact of the messageAcceptability of relocation for the most exposed houses? (score from 1 to 10)

Feeling that it is courageous for an elected official to embark on a relocation policy (score from 1 to 10)

Willingness to pay more taxes to fund relocation policy (score from 1 to 10)

Experienced emotion after the visual was presented to respondents (6 positive items and 6 negative items). Judgement on the effectiveness of the visual to motivate citizens for a relocation policy (4-point Likert scale).

  1. 7.

    Measuring environmental awareness (8 items selected among the NEP framework (Dunlap et al. 2000) (6-item Likert scale)

Human beings have the right to change the natural environment according to their needs. When humans try to change the course of nature, this often produces disastrous consequences. The so-called ecological crisis that is threatening the human race has been greatly exaggerated; humans have been created to govern nature. If things continue at the current rate, we will soon experience a major ecological disaster. The balance of nature is very sensitive and easily disturbed.

  1. 8.

    Sociodemographic profile

Gender, age, childhood in a coastal town, marital status, ownership, number of years of residence in the house, socio-professional category, level of education, affiliation and donations to environmental associations and professional activity linked to the survey concerns.

Appendix 2

Table 7 Selection of predictors to be added in our models with respect to their values of AIC and L-ratio
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Appendix 3

Table 8 Mixed-effects models
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Bazart, C., Trouillet, R., Rey-Valette, H. et al. Improving relocation acceptability by improving information and governance quality/results from a survey conducted in France. Climatic Change 160, 157–177 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02690-w

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