Evacuation decisions in response to natural disasters: Insights from a large-scale social media survey

Abstract: Evacuation in response to natural disasters is a complex process involving multiple decision-makers at the personal, household, community, and government levels. Consequently, many disparate factors influence who evacuates, when, and how to respond to a nearby disaster. In this paper, we leverage a novel method of data collection through social media to explore the evacuation response decisions of people in areas affected by the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires. We explore the validity of this data collection method for generating plausible estimates of evacuation and its ability to supplement cell phone location data using survey responses. Ultimately, we identify several key factors influencing household decisions on evacuation, specifically focusing on the phenomenon of household members evacuating or returning from evacuation at different times.