Record Details

Education as a Determinant of Response to Cyclone Warnings: Evidence from Coastal Zones in India

DSpace at IIT Bombay

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Education as a Determinant of Response to Cyclone Warnings: Evidence from Coastal Zones in India
 
Creator SHARMA, U
PATWARDHAN, A
PATT, AG
 
Subject cyclones
early warnings
education
traditional knowledge base
warning-response process
TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
NATURAL DISASTERS
MORTALITY DECLINE
WEATHER
PREDICTION
GROWTH
FARMERS
PLANTS
INFORMATION
POPULATION
 
Description Education is often considered a means for enhancing adaptive capacity, based on the consideration that formal education is likely to improve the ability of individuals to evaluate risks and respond to warning information. We explore the relation between the level and nature of education and enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk. We make a distinction between formal school-based education and nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge of environmental precursors and conditions that may be associated with tropical cyclone occurrence. We evaluate two possible routes through which education could lead to enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk; first, education, both formal and nonformal, may lead to a better ability to access, understand, and interpret warning information and hence lead to an appropriate response to the warning; and second, formal education may be associated with greater income levels and socioeconomic status and thus with greater resources for evacuating in response to cyclone warning. We find that the hypotheses regarding the link between formal education and adaptive capacity are actually not well supported by empirical data. On the other hand nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge for predicting cyclones based on environmental precursors emerged as a significant determinant of the ability to understand and interpret warning information and provides a strong case for preserving and promoting a hazard-specific traditional knowledge base along with formal education.
 
Publisher RESILIENCE ALLIANCE
 
Date 2014-10-15T08:27:44Z
2014-10-15T08:27:44Z
2013
 
Type Article
 
Identifier ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY, 18(2)
http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05439-180218
http://dspace.library.iitb.ac.in/jspui/handle/100/14682
 
Language en