Research on Cognition and Adaptation to Climate Risks among Inland Northwest Chinese Residents

Abstract

Global climate change poses a significant threat to the sustainable development of human society, highlighting the critical importance of developing effective adaptation strategies in response to climate-related disasters. Public awareness and adaptive behaviors towards climate risks serve as crucial indicators of community concerns regarding climate change, laying the foundation for effective adaptation strategy design. For this study, we selected inland northwest Chinese residents, represented by Xi’an City, as the research subjects, to investigate their climate risk cognition and adaptation levels. Based on randomly sampled survey data, descriptive statistical analysis and multiple logistic regression models were used to study the public’s climate change awareness, climate risk sensitivity, and climate risk adaptability, as well as evaluation of climate risk adaptation measures in the public sector, and we also analyzed the impact mechanisms of factors such as gender, age, income, and education level on the related indicators. The study found that with the increasing urban heat island effect, residents of Xi’an are more likely to reach a higher level of belief in climate change regarding long-lasting weather events. However, there is still no collective consensus on the reasons for climate change. Residents are overly optimistic about the future impact of climate disasters, and there is high uncertainty in their ability to adapt to climate change risks. Additionally, specific demands were obtained from different groups of urban residents regarding measures in the public sector for climate risk adaptation.