Articles | Volume 24, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2633-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2633-2024
Research article
 | 
01 Aug 2024
Research article |  | 01 Aug 2024

Surprise floods: the role of our imagination in preparing for disasters

Joy Ommer, Jessica Neumann, Milan Kalas, Sophie Blackburn, and Hannah L. Cloke

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Cited articles

Ali, A., Rana, I. A., Ali, A., and Najam, F. A.: Flood risk perception and communication: The role of hazard proximity, J. Environ. Manage., 316, 115309, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115309, 2022. 
Apel, H., Vorogushyn, S., and Merz, B.: Brief communication: Impact forecasting could substantially improve the emergency management of deadly floods: case study July 2021 floods in Germany, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3005–3014, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-3005-2022, 2022. 
Bakhtiari, V., Piadeh, F., Chen, A. S., and Behzadian, K.: Stakeholder analysis in the application of cutting-edge digital visualisation technologies for urban flood risk management: A critical review, Expert Syst. Appl., 236, 121426, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121426, 2024. 
Balog-Way, D., McComas, K., and Besley, J.: The Evolving Field of Risk Communication, Risk Anal., 40, 2240–2262, https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13615, 2020. 
Bø, S. and Wolff, K.: I Can See Clearly Now: Episodic Future Thinking and Imaginability in Perceptions of Climate-Related Risk Events, Front. Psychol., 11, 218, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00218, 2020. 
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Short summary
What’s the worst that could happen? Recent floods are often claimed to be beyond our imagination. Imagination is the picturing of a situation in our mind and the emotions that we connect with this situation. But why is this important for disasters? This survey found that when we cannot imagine a devastating flood, we are not preparing in advance. Severe-weather forecasts and warnings need to advance in order to trigger our imagination of what might happen and enable us to start preparing.
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