Examining the Community Perception Towards Communication Modes of Issuing Multi-Hazard Early Warning (MHEW) in Sri Lanka

Communication modes are considered important in the effective delivery of Multi-Hazard Early Warnings (MHEW) to the downstream community level. More significantly, in the global context, the lack of having proper communication modes and resistance of the community to adapt to novel technologically based communication modes have identified. Indian Ocean Tsunami which hit in 2004 is a crucial disaster incident where the lack of having effective communication modes for the warning dissemination emerged in many of the affected countries. To identify the community level perception on the existing communication modes in Sri Lanka, a field questionnaire survey was developed and conducted among 10 Grama Niladari divisions in the country and overall 323 community responses were obtained. As per the results obtained under the response analysis, traditional modes of communication were highlighted as the most effective communication mode both in urban and rural levels, among both males and females, and among each of the age category distribution. Further, the community perception level was indicated based on the mean perception score and sentimental perception score on the mobile-based communication platforms. This denoted that the community perception level is at a lower level over the warning dissemination through mobile-based platforms.