Evaluation of Individuals' Perception of Disaster Risk in Terms of Various Variables

The aim of this study is to determine the disaster risk perceptions of individuals and to evaluate them in terms of various variables affecting this situation. The study was conducted between February 2022 and March 2022 on 416 individuals aged 18-65 living in Erzincan province. Data were collected electronically using the 'Disaster Risk Perception' scale. Data were evaluated using Mann Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests. 63.5% of the individuals were female and 47.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24. 52.4% of the participants were single and the percentage of university graduates was higher (30.5%). The economic level of the participants was medium (81.0%). When the characteristics related to disasters were analyzed, 37% had never experienced a disaster before, while 52.2% had not received any training on disasters before. The mean disaster risk perception score of the individuals was 82.85±10.32, which is almost at a high level. In addition, while age, gender, marital status, educational status and disaster experience factors affect disaster risk perception, economic status and receiving training on disasters were found to have no effect on disaster risk perception. Studies conducted to determine disaster risk perception are very important within the scope of disaster management. Because these studies reveal individuals' ideas about disasters and their approaches to disasters. For this reason, it is recommended to conduct studies on individuals to determine their risk perceptions especially for each type of disaster.