Enhancing coastal community preparedness: The role of education, experience, and exposure to information

Coastal hazards create impact damage on vital assets in lowland coastal zones. While education, experience, and information exposure affect individual preparedness, the combined impact of coastal hazards on community readiness needs further exploration. This study aims to explore factors influencing coastal community preparedness, by examining relationships between preparedness and information exposure variables, and by assessing the impact of knowledge, experience, and information exposure using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This study involves 932 respondents in the Indonesian coastal cities of Banda Aceh, Mataram, and Ambon. The SEM analysis confirmed a well-fitting model with the following statistics: χ2 = 17.961, RMSEA = 0.017, GFI = 0.996, CFI = 0.998, AGFI = 0.986, TLI = 0.996, and Normed Chi-Square = 1.283. These results indicate strong alignment between the proposed model and the observed data. The study found positive relationships between preparedness variables and their respective indicators. Similarly, exposure variables related to information sources on coastal hazards and early warnings also showed positive associations with their indicators. Education, experience, and exposure to information were identified as significant factors influencing community preparedness, explaining 89 % of the variability in preparedness variables. These findings underscore the importance of these factors in enhancing community resilience to coastal hazards.