Effects of Information Provision
Attributes
Medium: Animals, Plants and/or Others
Country: China
Analytical Framework(s): Other
Study Date: 2009
Publication Date: 2010
Major Result(s)
Study Note: Sea levels are rising as a result of global warming. Adaptation is the only option to address the threats caused by sea level rise. Sea levels off the coasts of China have risen at rates higher than the world annual rate and Zhejiang Province has the highest rate in the country. Studies have shown that information provision plays an important role in both individual and institutional decision-making processes. This research aimed to assess how local decision-makers perceived sea-level rise and investigated the effects of information provision on decision-makers' perceptions and actions related to adaptation to sea-level rise in the coastal villages of Zhejiang Province.
Study Details
Summary: The sample group for this study was made up of local village leaders selected from 21 towns on islands in Zhejiang Province. Three kinds of towns (tourism towns, fishery towns and commercial towns) were chosen. In order to study the possible effects of information provision, a controlled experiment was designed. Subjects were randomly assigned to two experimental groups receiving an information brochure on sea-level rise and adaptation to it, or to a control group not receiving any such information. The experiment had three phases. The hypotheses to be tested were that the village without information and the other two villages with information would produce different outcomes while the two villages with information would produce similar outcomes. The results showed that local village leaders along the Zhejiang coast had little knowledge of global warming and sea-level rise. The study found that while some local village leaders in Zhejiang Province had a positive attitude towards adaptation to sea-level rise, most of them had a negative attitude towards taking specific policy action on this. More than half of them thought that it was the central government?s responsibility to take the necessary adaptation measures. The major finding of this study was that providing local decision-makers with information on sea-level rise and related adaptation could significantly improve their knowledge level, and positively change their attitude towards and awareness of sea-level rise adaptation, but would not lead to policy action.
Site Characteristics: Zhejiang Province is a maritime province with a sea area of 260,000 square kilometers. The province has the largest number of islands and isles in China; it has3,061 islands and islets with area of more than 500 square meters. From 1960 to 2000, the average rate of sea-level rise in Zhejiang was 2.75 mm, higher than the national average. According to the 2006 Sea Level Report in China, the sea level in Zhejiang coastal areas rose by 3.3 mm/year from 2004-2006, which is the highest rate in China(State Oceanic Administration of China 2007). The relative sea level along the Zhejiang coast is projected to rise by 20-40 cm by the year 2050 (Dong and Zhou2005). Thus, human well-being and wealth in Zhejiang?s coastal areas, especially on the islands, are at stake if the sea level continues to rise. This is why these areas were chosen as the study sites.
Comments: In order to test out the effects of the information brochure on the respondents' knowledge of and attitude to sea-level rise adaptation and the policy changes they had made, the same questionnaire was used in Phase II and Phase III for both the control and experimental groups. For the questionnaires in Phase II and Phase III, we asked the respondents in the experimental groups additional questions on how often they read the information brochure and the helpfulness, thoroughness and relevance of the information brochure. For the control group, in addition to the basic questionnaire, the respondents were asked whether they had received any information on sea-level rise from other village councils in either the last one or six months.