Tsunami Questionnaire Survey in Heraklion Test Site, Crete Island, Greece
Abstract
The Heraklion city (Crete Island, Greece) has been chosen as one of the test-sites for the EU-FP7ASTARTE tsunami project. Heraklion is the biggest city in Crete Isl. and the fourth biggest in Greece with a population of about 120,000 which, however, during the summer vacation period nearly doubles. In the past, Heraklion was hit by strong, destructive tsunamis such as the ones of AD 8 August 1303, 10 October 1650 and 9 July 1956. The first and the third were caused by large tectonic earthquakes associated with the eastern segment of the Hellenic Arc the first and with the back-arc extensional regime the third. The one of 1650 was associated with the eruption of the Columbo submarine volcano in the Santorini volcanic complex. One of the activities scheduled for WP9 of ASTARTE project, which aims at building tsunami resilient societies in Europe, is dedicated to organize questionnaire surveys among the populations of the several ASTARTE test-sites. Although the questionnaire is comprised by more than 50 questions, the central concept is to better understand what people know about tsunamis and if they are ready to cope with risks associated with future tsunami occurrences. In Heraklion the survey was conducted during tourism peak season of July 2014, thus questionnaires were collected by both local people and tourists, thus representing a variety of countries. We attempted to keep balance between males and females, while the age ranged from 15 to 65. Totally, 113 persons were interviewed of which 62 were females and 51 males. From the point of view of origin, 58 out of 113 were local people and residents, 22 were Greek tourists and 29 foreign tourists. Generally, the questionnaire consists of four parts. In the first, people were asked about their relation with the area of Heraklion. In the second part, the questions considered the knowledge that people have on tsunamis as a natural, hazardous phenomenon. More precisely, people were asked questions such as what a tsunami is, if Heraklion could be affected by a tsunami, how a tsunami is generated etc. In the third part of the survey, people were asked questions regarding evacuation practices in case of a tsunami attack. In the last part, personal data, such as nationality, age, education level and more were collected. To analyse the replies received we used the statistical software SPSS. The results are really interesting showing that most people have only a general idea about the phenomenon of tsunamis while they don't feel sure about what to do or to avoid in case of a tsunami. This research is a contribution to the EU-FP7 tsunami research project ASTARTE (Assessment, Strategy And Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe), grant agreement no: 603839, 2013-10-30.
- Publication:
-
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- April 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015EGUGA..1710784P