Melbourne Water Changing flood ready behaviours
Melbourne Water appointed Bastion to conduct research to provide better guidance on which elements of the communications campaign need to be addressed in order to enact behaviour change around flood readiness.
To complement a broader Flood Management and Drainage strategy, Melbourne Water appointed Bastion to conduct research to provide better guidance on which elements of the communications campaign need to be addressed more or less strongly in order to enact behaviour change around flood readiness.
A multi-phase study was conducted consisting of an exploratory qualitative phase comprising 9 focus groups across both ‘flood prone’ and ‘non-flood prone’ areas, followed by a quantitative study comprising n=3,000 online interviews with a complex sampling frame and a complementary cell of WATI interviewing. Theories relating to Behaviour Change were also applied during analysis and reporting phases for both the qualitative and quantitative fieldwork.
The findings from the research were used as direct input into a communications and education campaign developed to improve awareness and preparedness for a flooding event across Melbourne. This was followed with evaluation research 18 months later to measure the long term impact.
