Connecting Perceived Flood Risk and Resilience in Auckland, New Zealand
Date
Authors
Vallis, Stacy
Piri, Imelda
Burgess, Andrew
Besen, Priscila
Morrison, Ann
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Abstract
New Zealand cities are shaped by a history of natural hazards. Climate change has amplified these risks, increasing frequency, intensity, and destructiveness, demonstrated by the nationwide impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods. Utilising anonymous cross-sectional survey and network analysis, this study responds to an existing knowledge gap to investigate the interrelationships between the perceived flood risk and perceived urban flood resilience using selected residential suburbs in Auckland, New Zealand, to support better alignment between urban residents’ needs and expectations for policymaking and implementation. Our study provides novel insights through identification of a Flood Resilience Perception cluster characterised by statistical associations between perceived flood risk and perceived urban neighbourhood flood resilience, namely, perception of safety from flooding, trust in local authorities, rainfall worry, distance from flooding source, perceived sufficiency in emergency response, and provision or receipt of assistance during flooding. These interrelationships indicate cognitive, behavioural and informational, sociocultural, and geographic and physical mediators collectively shape the perception of flood risk and resilience at the neighbourhood scale, supported by integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses. Our findings highlight opportunities for greater dialogue between residents and decision-makers through participatory flood risk governance, noting the gap between residents’ low awareness of existing digital flood risk communication tools and efforts to seek flood-related information, that can be addressed through improved engagement with existing public-facing flood risk provisions. The analysis pipeline is freely available and designed for use in territorial jurisdictions in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally to gauge community flood resilience.Description
Keywords
0502 Environmental Science and Management, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 1604 Human Geography, 4404 Development studies, 4406 Human geography, Climate Change, Flood Risk Perception, Resilience Investment, Neighbourhoods, Aotearoa New Zealand, Urban: SDG6, SDG11, SDG13, Sustainable Cities and Communities
Source
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, ISSN: 2212-4209 (Print), Elsevier BV, 106089-106089. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.106089
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© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.