Analysis of Citizens' Qualitative Risk Assessment for the Development of Environmental Risk Communication in Contaminated Sites

摘要

Investigations on stakeholders' risk judgments potentially provide basic understanding on how to develop integrated risk management and risk communication strategies. This study investigates factors affecting laypeople's risk perception. The model for investigations was created in order to examine relationship between laypeople's risk perception and its determinants. In this model, the relationship between lay peoples' risk perception and potential predictive factors, including socio-demographic characteristics of laypeople and factors related to the nature of risks (perceived probability of environmental contaminations, probability of receiving impacts, and severity of catastrophic consequences), were examined by means of multiple regression analysis. Psychological and cognitive factors, such as the ability to control the risk, concern, experiences, perceived benefits of industrial development, and social trust were also included in the analysis. The observations have been carried out in the Maptaphut municipality in Rayong Province, Thailand. 181 questionnaire sheets were distributed to residents who live in industrial communities. The results showed that the laypeople' risk perception was constructed based on their perceived severity of catastrophic consequences, and perceived probability of receiving impacts; however, people in low-risk communities perceived risks based on their experimental processing system which is influenced by their collective experiences and social trust.