title: A study of farmers' flood perceptions based on the entropy method: an application from Jianghan Plain, China.
abstract: Using survey data from 280 farmers in Jianghan Plain, China, this paper establishes an evaluation index system for three dimensions of farmers' flood perceptions and then uses the entropy method to estimate their overall flood perception. Farmers' flood perceptions exhibit the following characteristics: (i) their flood-occurrence, flood-prevention, and overall flood perceptions gradually increase with age, whereas their flood-effects perception gradually decreases; (ii) their flood-occurrence and flood-effects perceptions gradually increase with a higher level of education, whereas their flood-prevention perception gradually decreases and their overall flood perception shows nonlinear change; (iii) flood-occurrence, flood-effects, and overall flood perceptions are higher among farmers who serve in public offices than among those who do not do so; (iv) the flood-occurrence, flood-effects, and overall flood perceptions of farmers who work off-farm are higher than those of farmers who work solely on-farm, contrary to the flood-prevention perception; and (v) the flood-effects and flood-prevention perceptions of male farmers are lower than those of female farmers, but the flood-occurrence and overall flood perceptions of male farmers are higher than those of female farmers.
authors.affiliation: Professor at the College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Business, California State University, United States.
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lone
authors.affiliation: PhD Student at the College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, China.
authors.forename: Songying
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: PhD Student at the College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, China.
authors.forename: Rongrong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Business, California State University, United States.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Berends
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D004190:Disasters; D000067565:Farmers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D055868:Floods; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D011594:Psychometrics; D012424:Rural Population; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: China; Jianghan Plain; entropy method; farmers; flood perceptions