Analyzing Risk Response Dynamics on the Web: The Case of Hurricane Katrina

Using a unique data set that documented the hourly web-surfing behavior of over 140,000 Internet users in five southeastern states in August 2005, we explore the dynamics of information gathering as Hurricane Katrina developed and then hit South Florida and the Northern Gulf Coast. Using both elemen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Risk analysis 2009-12, Vol.29 (12), p.1779-1792
Main Authors: Lee, Ka Lok, Meyer, Robert J, Bradlow, Eric T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Clickstream data
Data analysis
Disasters
Emergency preparedness
exploratory data analysis
functional data analysis
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricanes
Information acquisition
Information dissemination
Internet
Natural disasters
Risk assessment
risk communication
Risk management
risk perception
Statistical methods
Studies
U.S.A
User behavior
Websites
World Wide Web
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using a unique data set that documented the hourly web-surfing behavior of over 140,000 Internet users in five southeastern states in August 2005, we explore the dynamics of information gathering as Hurricane Katrina developed and then hit South Florida and the Northern Gulf Coast. Using both elementary statistical methods and advanced techniques from functional data analysis,⁽ ¹ ⁾ we examine both how storm events (such as the posting of warnings) affected traffic to weather-related websites, and how this traffic varied across locations and by characteristics of the web user. A general finding is that spatial-temporal variation in weather-site web traffic generally tracked the timing and scale of the storm threat experienced by a given area. There was, however, considerable variation in this responsiveness. Residents in Florida counties that had been most directly affected by Hurricane Dennis just a month earlier, for example, displayed more active visitation rates than those who had been less affected. We also find evidence of a gender effect where male users displayed a disproportionately larger rate of visitation to weather sites given the onset of storm warnings than females. The implications of this work for the broader study of behavioral risk response dynamics during hazards are explored.
ISSN:0272-4332
1539-6924
DOI:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2009.01304.x