An Inclusive Appraisal of Community Awareness and Preparedness In Chandigarh to Combat a Biological Disaster
Abstract
Disasters are the constant companions of mankind. Mostly, any talk of disasters centres only around natural disasters with anthropogenically caused disasters not being given adequate credence. Utilising an exploratory approach this study examines the community awareness and preparedness in Chandigarh to combat incidents of Biological Disasters.
Responses were collated from 263 respondents for a total of 16 questions covering 25 different variables related to the respondent’s knowledge/awareness about their perceptions about the cities level of preparedness for disaster management of a biological event. All responses less the demographic details were logged using a five-point Likert Scale.
The dataset was appraised using the PCA technique with Varimax Kaiser Normalisation as the rotation method whereby a total of eight Principle Components were extracted. Out of the 25 variables tested three were discarded and only 22 loaded individually on the eight extracted Factors. The specific details about the eight Principle Extracted components and the variables which loaded on to each of them were evaluated on a three-tier scale to arrive at a set of thoroughly deliberated deductions regarding the level of community awareness and preparedness in Chandigarh for combating a Biological Disaster.
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