Underlying Factors Affecting Death Due to Flood in Iran: A Qualitative Content Analysis Publisher



Yari A^{1, 2, 3} ; Ardalan A^{1, 2, 4} ; Ostadtaghizadeh A^{1, 2, 5} ; Zarezadeh Y³ ; Boubakran MS⁶ ; Bidarpoor F^{3, 7} ; Rahimiforoushani A⁸
Source: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Published:2019

Abstract

The occurrence of floods as a threat to human life seems to be increasing; thus, all sectors of the community should participate in flood risk management to understand and control the underlying factors affecting flood deaths. This qualitative study used content analysis method with a conventional approach to identify the underlying factors influencing flood deaths from the perspective of different social groups. The participants who had directly or indirectly witnessed flood deaths were amongst ordinary flood-affected people, academic groups, and disaster management authorities in different parts of Iran. The data collection was performed using in-depth interviews with 31 individuals and 7 focused group discussions. Purposeful sampling was adopted and continued until data saturation. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded by the research team after selecting the participants. Data analysis was performed to extract and categorize the effective factors on flood death using conventional content analysis method where coding categories were derived directly from the text data. The results of this study indicated that a wide range of factors affect the deaths caused by floods including the categories of hazard-related features, cultural, economic, social, demographic, management and physical factors. These seven categories covered 27 subcategories and 167 factors. The participants of this study referred to different codes at total 926 times. The completeness of the factors suggested that flood risk management and reduction require a variety of strategies and tactics. These include planning, training, promotion of culture of prevention, awareness, recognition and readiness, coordination, cooperation. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd