Public Awareness Campaign on Flooding

1
Public Awareness Campaign on Flooding

• Mary OHalloran, Flood Relief
• The Office of Public Works, Dublin, Ireland

2
PRESENTATION FORMAT

• Background to Campaign
• Campaign details
• Analysis of Public Awareness Campaigns
• Lessons learned
• Future activities

3
Background

• Background to flood relief in Ireland
• Review of National Flood policy in 2003
• New policy for flood risk Flood mgt.
• Identified OPW as lead agency in flood risk mgt.
  and flood relief
• Greater level of Importance attributed to
  no-structural flood relief measures, e.g.
  Communication measures

4
Public Awareness Campaign - overview

• Aims
• To raise public awareness of flooding as an issue
• To provide advice on the measures that can be
  taken to minimise the impacts and damages caused
  to persons and property
• To be of practical help to all those whose homes,
  farms and businesses may be at risk

5

• CAMPAIGN RESEARCH
• Researched UK Flooding Campaign
• Advice / support from Environmental Agency (EA)
  UK and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
  (SEPA)

6
Public Awareness Campaign on Flooding

• Key Message
• You cant prevent flooding but you can prepare for
  it
• Taking action can make a difference
• Theme of the campaign was Plan, Prepare, Protect

7
Challenges

• Convincing the public that they carry some
  responsibility for the protection of themselves ,
  their families and their property
• Convincing those at risk of flooding that the
  risk applies to them and that taking action can
  make a difference
• Meeting raised public expectations due to
  unprecedented economic growth in the country
• Making the flood awareness message relevant to
  those at risk
• A lack of interest in communication about events
  perceived as unlikely

8
Campaign Formats

• Website www.flooding.ie
• Information booklet titled Plan, Prepare
  Protect
• Information leaflets
• Media campaign

9
Campaign Underlying Principals

• Individuals carry some responsibility for the
  protection of their families and property
• People whose properties are at risk should inform
  themselves on practical measures they can take to
  plan and prepare in advance of a flood so they
  can protect themselves should they be subjected
  to flooding

10
Key Message
11
Flood Awareness Campaign - details

• 70,000 copies of Flooding Plan, Prepare,
  Protect distributed to Local Public Libraries,
  Citizens Information Centres, Local Authority
  Offices
• 150,000 Information leaflets distributed in areas
  most prone to flooding

12
Website www.flooding.ie

• Am I at risk?
• Protection
• Be prepared
• In the event of a flood
• After flooding
• Farming
• Business
• Planning
• Who can help?

13
Be prepared
14
Who can help?
15
Information leaflets /brochures

• Assessing flood risk
• Preparing for a flood
• In the event of a flood
• Creating a flood plan
• After a flood
• Flooding and Business owners
• Insurance cover

• Looking after lifestock pets
• Making a home flood resistant
• Restoring your home after a flood
• Restoring the garden
• Flooding facts
• Emergency plan

16
Creating a Flood Plan for the Family and the
Elderly

• Keep a list of emergency numbers close
• Make up a flood kit
• Gas and electricity shut off points?
• Medication?
• Plan an escape route
• Where will you stay?

17
Making a home flood resistant

• Flood protection products
• Floodgates
• Floodbags
• Barriers
• List of suppliers of flood protection products

18
Campaign Launch Dec. 2005

• National and local radio stations
• National and regional press- adverts, articles
• 20 billboards nationwide in flooding blackspots
• Floor advertising in 14 shopping centres

19
Booster Campaign October 2006

• Co-incided with launch of national flood hazard
  mapping website www.floodmaps.ie
• Distribution of fridge magnets to households in
  flood risk areas
• Media campaign

20

21
Flood Awareness Campaign- Analysis

• Survey of Public Attitudes to Emergency Planning
  conducted for the Dept. of Defence (Office of
  Emergency Planning) 2005
• Survey findings re flooding recall of recent
  radio advertising was limited
• Material well received- most popular small
  leaflet enough to assimilate
• Booklet would be of interest to those at risk,
  but would be more appropriate to consult on
  internet, libraries etc.

22
Conditions vs.events

• Conditions
• Bad traffic
• Pollution
• Drug abuse
• Housing costs
• Poor health service
• Poverty
• Cost of Childcare

• Events
• Road accident
• Toxic spillage
• Criminal attack
• Economic collapse
• Epidemic
• Earthquake
• Flood

23
Campaign evaluation SEPA (Scotland)

• What works well.
• Going into the community
• Communicating with community groups
• One to one engagement _ Trailer bus, 95 of
  those who visted traler bus said they would take
  some action as a result
• Connecting with people
• Familiar messages
• Repeat messages

24
What works less well.

• National campaigns without local follow up
• Advertising in National Newspapers
• Areas with poor community focus
• National Broadcasting
• Non-targeted activities

25
How do we know we have reached our audience?

• We are successful when people
• Understand their risk
• Accept that it applies to them
• Know what to do
• Change their habits
• Are ready to respond
• Reduce the impact

26
How do we measure success?

• Difficult to measure impact of Public Awareness
  Campaigns
• Annual Campaign evulation surveys
• Feedback forms

27
FutureActivities -Way forward

• Engage Market Research Specialists to carry out
  review of Campaign to date.
• Management of the website
• Research and review of international best
  practice
• Trailer/bus to flooding blackspots
• Consider a scheme to provide Flood Proection
  products to those at risk

28
Lessons learned

• Any public information campaign relating to
  emergency planning needs to confront a number of
  hurdles
• A cycnical attitude to most official
  communications
• The risk of unecessarily alarming the public
• A lack of interest in communication about events
  perceived as unlikely
• Must Plan with the people not for them, by
  going into the communities
• The three times rule research in the UK
  showed that people only took action after being
  flooded three times

29
Lessons learned

• Any communication therefore needs to be impactful
  but calm, reasoned, authoritative, easy to
  understand and not too detailed
• It seems that an appropriate tactic, as with the
  flooding campaign, might be brief, impactful
  messages, whether by TV, radio, press or direct
  mail, pointing to more detailed backup, perhaps
  on a website or in libraries or Citizens
  Information Centres
• However , as the flooding campaign illustrates,
  the task of capturing attention for a
  communication not perceived as being of immediate
  relevance is not an easy one

30
Conclusions

• Active awareness raising is effective in
  mitigating flood damage
• Campaign evaluation is required to measure
  success
• Learning from research and experience is
  essential in targeting future campaigns