HOMEOWNER ADAPTATION TO FLOODING - AN APPLICATION OF THE GENERAL HAZARDS COPING THEORY

This research examines the question of whether long-term adjustments to repeated flooding by individual homeowners can be explained by the application of the Burton, Kates, & White (1978) model developed to describe societal coping with natural hazards. A Flood Coping Scale is developed from the model and validated by conformity of the respondents to scale types. Construct validity is confirmed by the association of many of the previously specified flood and victim characteristics with the levels of the scale as well as the scale itself. The existence of thresholds between levels of coping as proposed by the model is examined. Flood/victim characteristics considered separately are not found to act as thresholds; patterns of characteristics show some pattern; and a summation of characteristics does reflect the predicted thresholds. Finally, flood victim behavior is compared with the post-industrial adjustment model to assess its utility in explaining changes in victim behavior observed over the last decade. The model's usefulness is confirmed. © 1990, SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC. All rights reserved.