Perceptions of landslide risks and warnings in Hong Kong

With the increasingly adverse impact of global warming on extreme weather conditions, including landslides, it is more important than ever to alert the public to landslide risks so that people can take precautionary measures. We report the first major project in Hong Kong assessing the public's understanding of landslides and perceptions of the Landslip Early Warning System ("current LEWS") and exploring the perceived usefulness of the concept of a multi-tiered LEWS ("multi-tiered LEWS"). In Study 1, we gauged the public's understanding of landslides and knowledge of the current LEWS by collecting information from five focus groups. That information was used to construct the survey that we administered in Study 2, in which 1834 individuals participated in face-to-face interviews. The results show that only 37% of the participants saw the connection between global warming and landslides. The majority of the sample believed that slope safety has clearly improved over the last decade (88%) and that landslides are a remote concern (91%). Although 90% of the participants were aware of the current LEWS, only 28% were concerned about it because it had little impact on their residential or activity areas. The concept of a multi-tiered LEWS was positively received, although there is an urgent need for further research to demonstrate how to implement this concept with sufficient public education to ensure that it will improve public alertness of landslides.