  Community risk perceptions can influence their abilities to cope with coastal
hazards such as hurricanes and coastal flooding.Our study presents an initial
effort to examine the relationship between community resilience and risk
perception at the county level, through innovative construction of aggregate
variables. Utilizing the 2012 Gulf Coast Climate Change Survey merged with
historical hurricane data and community resilience indicators, we first apply a
spatial statistical model to construct a county level risk perception indicator
based on survey responses. Next, we employ regression to reveal the
relationship between contextual hurricane risk factors and community
resilience, on one hand, and county level perceptions of hurricane risks, on
the other. Results of this study are directly applicable in the policy making
domain as many hazard mitigation plans and adaptation policies are designed and
implemented at the county level. Specifically, two major findings stand out.
First, the contextual hurricane risks represented by peak height of storm surge
associated with the last hurricane landfall and land area exposed to historical
storm surge flooding positively affect county level risk perceptions. This
indicates that hurricanes another threat wind risks need to be clearly
communicated with the public and fully incorporated into hazard mitigation
plans and adaptation policies. Second, two components of community resilience
higher levels of economic resilience and community capital are found to lead to
heightened perceptions of hurricane risks, which suggests that concerted
efforts are needed to raise awareness of hurricane risks among counties with
less economic and community capitals.
