Description
This project will extend the equally-named internship on wildfires. While during the internship you have focused on what we already know about human behavior and wildfires and what kind of information should, form a scientific and public safety point of view, be communicated to the people, in this study you will investigate what people actually know about wildfires and what determinants need to be targeted in communicating about wildfires.
Thus this project will focus on the actual needs of the people and contrast them with what knowledge they should have. You will further investigate what makes people behave in a certain way when they are faced with a wildfire and what could be done potentially to increase citizen involvement in the prevention of wildfires.
This project will be carried out in close collaboration with NIPV as well as the Fire Services.
Research Questions
What information does the public know about wildfires and what information are they missing? And which psychological determinants influence their behavior and should therefore be targeted in communication about wildfires? Based on that, what are the necessary steps to avoid critical failure points in the future?
Type of Research
Survey and interview research in a multi-method and mixed-method approach.
Key words
Wildfires, needs assessment, psychological determinants, prevention, communication, fire prevention, fire fighting
Information
Please contact Steven Watson (s.j.watson@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment.
Start
Start is flexible.
This assignment must be coupled with a previous internship.
Literature
- Karemaker, M., ten Hoor, G. A., Hagen, R. R., van Schie, C. H., & Ruiter, R. A. (2025). The effects of the Fire Safety at Home programme on four fire safety behaviours among older adults. Fire Safety Journal, 104337.
- Karemaker, M., Ten Hoor, G. A., Hagen, R. R., van Schie, C. H., Boersma, K., & Ruiter, R. A. (2021). Elderly about home fire safety: A qualitative study into home fire safety knowledge and behaviour. Fire safety journal, 124, 103391.
- de Hoop, E., Brouwers, H. J., Buijs, S. L., Egberts, L., van Gerrevink, M. J., de Ruiter, M. C., & Veraverbeke, S. (2022). Multi-stakeholder analysis of fire risk reduction in a densely populated area in the Netherlands: a case-study in the Veluwe area. Environmental Research Letters, 17(9), 095011.
- https://nipv.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230123-NIPV-Wildfire-Signal-23.pdf