IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v5y2019i1d10.1057_s41599-019-0317-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatiotemporal patterns of US drought awareness

Author

Listed:
  • Sungyoon Kim

    (The University of Alabama)

  • Wanyun Shao

    (The University of Alabama
    Center for Complex Hydrosystems Research)

  • Jonghun Kam

    (The University of Alabama
    Center for Complex Hydrosystems Research)

Abstract

Drought is a creeping climatological phenomenon with persistent precipitation deficits. Unlike rapid onset natural hazards such as floods and wildfires, the intangible and gradual characteristics of drought cause a lack of social response during the onset. The level of awareness of a local drought increases rapidly through mass media reports and online information searching activities when the drought reaches its peak severity. This high level of local drought awareness drives concerns for water shortage and support for water policy. However, spatiotemporal patterns of national-scale drought awareness have never been studied due to constraints imposed by time-consuming and costly survey data collection and surveys’ limited sample sizes. Here, we present the national-scale study to reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of drought awareness over the contiguous United States (CONUS) using Google Trends data and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results show that the first two PC modes can explain 48% (38% for PC1 and 10% for PC2) of the total variance of state-level drought awareness. We find that the PC1 mode relates to a national pattern of drought awareness across the CONUS. The spatiotemporal patterns further imply that residents in the Northeastern US region are the most aware of the emergence of drought, regardless of the geographic location of the occurrence. The results illustrate how big data, such as search query and social media data, can help develop an effective and efficient plan for drought mitigation in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Sungyoon Kim & Wanyun Shao & Jonghun Kam, 2019. "Spatiotemporal patterns of US drought awareness," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:5:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-019-0317-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-019-0317-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-019-0317-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-019-0317-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bairong Wang & Jun Zhuang, 2018. "Rumor response, debunking response, and decision makings of misinformed Twitter users during disasters," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 93(3), pages 1145-1162, September.
    2. Wanyun Shao & Maaz Gardezi & Siyuan Xian, 2018. "Examining the Effects of Objective Hurricane Risks and Community Resilience on Risk Perceptions of Hurricanes at the County Level in the U.S. Gulf Coast: An Innovative Approach," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 108(5), pages 1389-1405, September.
    3. Adam Smith & Jessica Matthews, 2015. "Quantifying uncertainty and variable sensitivity within the US billion-dollar weather and climate disaster cost estimates," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 77(3), pages 1829-1851, July.
    4. Tien Ming Lee & Ezra M. Markowitz & Peter D. Howe & Chia-Ying Ko & Anthony A. Leiserowitz, 2015. "Predictors of public climate change awareness and risk perception around the world," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 1014-1020, November.
    5. Bairong Wang & Jun Zhuang, 2017. "Crisis information distribution on Twitter: a content analysis of tweets during Hurricane Sandy," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(1), pages 161-181, October.
    6. J. Carlton & Amber Mase & Cody Knutson & Maria Lemos & Tonya Haigh & Dennis Todey & Linda Prokopy, 2016. "The effects of extreme drought on climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation attitudes," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 211-226, March.
    7. J. Stuart Carlton & Amber S. Mase & Cody L. Knutson & Maria Carmen Lemos & Tonya Haigh & Dennis P. Todey & Linda S. Prokopy, 2016. "The effects of extreme drought on climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation attitudes," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 211-226, March.
    8. James Stoutenborough & Arnold Vedlitz, 2014. "Public Attitudes Toward Water Management and Drought in the United States," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(3), pages 697-714, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seungil Yum, 2021. "The effects of Hurricane Dorian on spatial reactions and mobility," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(3), pages 2481-2497, February.
    2. Fabrizio Terenzio Gizzi & Jonghun Kam & Donatella Porrini, 2020. "Time windows of opportunities to fight earthquake under-insurance: evidence from Google Trends," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Jiangmei Xiong & Yulin Hswen & John A. Naslund, 2020. "Digital Surveillance for Monitoring Environmental Health Threats: A Case Study Capturing Public Opinion from Twitter about the 2019 Chennai Water Crisis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Huiyun Zhu & Kecheng Liu, 2021. "Capturing the Interplay between Risk Perception and Social Media Posting to Support Risk Response and Decision Making," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Jonghun Kam & Jihun Park & Wanyun Shao & Junho Song & Jinhee Kim & Fabrizio Terenzio Gizzi & Donatella Porrini & Young-Joo Suh, 2021. "Data-driven modeling reveals the Western dominance of global public interest in earthquakes," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guglielmo Zappalà, 2023. "Drought Exposure and Accuracy: Motivated Reasoning in Climate Change Beliefs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 649-672, August.
    2. Guglielmo Zappalà, 2022. "Drought exposure and accuracy: Motivated reasoning in climate change beliefs," Working Papers 2022.02, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    3. Andrew M. Linke & Frank D. W. Witmer & John O’Loughlin, 2020. "Do people accurately report droughts? Comparison of instrument-measured and national survey data in Kenya," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 1143-1160, October.
    4. Olugbemi Mosunmola Aroke & Behzad Esmaeili & Sojung Claire Kim, 2021. "Impact of Climate Change on Transportation Infrastructure: Comparing Perception Differences between the US Public and the Department of Transportation (DOT) Professionals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Anton Eitzinger & Claudia R. Binder & Markus A. Meyer, 2018. "Risk perception and decision-making: do farmers consider risks from climate change?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 507-524, December.
    6. Joseph P. Reser & Graham L. Bradley, 2020. "The nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(5), September.
    7. Abinash Bhattachan & Matthew D. Jurjonas & Priscilla R. Morris & Paul J. Taillie & Lindsey S. Smart & Ryan E. Emanuel & Erin L. Seekamp, 2019. "Linking residential saltwater intrusion risk perceptions to physical exposure of climate change impacts in rural coastal communities of North Carolina," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(3), pages 1277-1295, July.
    8. Blanco, Esther & Baier, Alexandra & Holzmeister, Felix & Jaber-Lopez, Tarek & Struwe, Natalie, 2022. "Substitution of social sustainability concerns under the Covid-19 pandemic," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    9. Theodoros Skevas & Ray Massey & Jasper Grashuis, 2022. "Farmer adoption and intensity of use of extreme weather adaptation and mitigation strategies: evidence from a sample of Missouri farmers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Guy Jackson, 2023. "Environmental subjectivities and experiences of climate extreme-driven loss and damage in northern Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(7), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Booth, Pamela & Walsh, Patrick J. & Stahlmann-Brown, Pike, 2020. "Drought Intensity, Future Expectations, and the Resilience of Climate Beliefs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Zahra Ranjbar & Mohammad Chizari & Hasan Sadighi & Homayon Farhadian & Philippe Lebailly & Thomas Dogot & Jorge Armando Ortegón Rojas & Yenny Katherine Parra-Acosta & Hossein Azadi, 2021. "Risk Factors in Various Climates of Wheat Production in Western Iran: Experts’ Opinions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Albert Moerkerken & Julia Blasch & Pieter Beukering & Erik Well, 2020. "A new approach to explain farmers’ adoption of climate change mitigation measures," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 141-161, March.
    14. Zhihua Xu & Jingmei Li & Jingzhu Shan & Wensi Zhang, 2021. "Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand residents’ coping behaviors for reducing the health risks posed by haze pollution," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 2122-2142, February.
    15. Llewelyn Hughes & David M. Konisky & Sandra Potter, 2020. "Extreme weather and climate opinion: evidence from Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 723-743, November.
    16. Aistė Balžekienė & Audronė Telešienė & Vaidas Morkevičius, 2022. "Spatial Dependencies and the Relationship between Subjective Perception and Objective Environmental Risks in Lithuania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, March.
    17. Kyle Hunt & Bairong Wang & Jun Zhuang, 2020. "Misinformation debunking and cross-platform information sharing through Twitter during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: a case study on shelters and ID checks," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 103(1), pages 861-883, August.
    18. Agarwal, Puneet & Aziz, Ridwan Al & Zhuang, Jun, 2022. "Interplay of rumor propagation and clarification on social media during crisis events - A game-theoretic approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 714-733.
    19. Wu, Chunying & Xiong, Xiong & Gao, Ya & Zhang, Jin, 2022. "Does social media distort price discovery? Evidence from rumor clarifications," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Yoder, Landon & Houser, Matthew & Bruce, Analena & Sullivan, Abigail & Farmer, James, 2021. "Are climate risks encouraging cover crop adoption among farmers in the southern Wabash River Basin?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:5:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-019-0317-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.