EERI is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Paper Award for Earthquake Spectra is “Behavioral responses to earthquake shaking: Video footage analysis of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand,” (Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 1636-1660), by Lauren Vinnell, Piata Inch, David M. Johnston (M. EERI 2013), and Nick Horspool.
Outstanding Paper Awards are awarded to authors of Earthquake Spectra papers judged to be outstanding contributions to earthquake hazard mitigation. The award citation notes, “Vinnell et al.'s. use of CCTV shows how detailed analysis of actual behavior during earthquakes may inform the community to reduce the risk of injuries and fatalities through behavior modifications.”
Lauren Vinnell is a Lecturer of Emergency Management at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. She completed her PhD degree in Psychology in 2020 specializing in applied social psychology, using experimental survey design and quantitative analysis. She is interested in applying psychological theories and concepts to understanding judgments and behavior around preparation for and response to natural hazards such as earthquakes. This includes exploring human behavior during earthquake shaking using multiple methods and evaluating the impacts of earthquake drill participation on knowledge and use of protective actions. Her other work examines the predictors of household preparedness for natural hazards as well as how people respond cognitively and behaviorally to multi-hazard risk communication. The aim of her research is to provide tangible recommendations for improvements to ongoing public education and communication efforts to reduce the impacts of natural hazards on communities.
The multidisciplinary authorship team includes Piata Inch, a research officer at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research and law student at the University of Canterbury, David M. Johnston, Director and Professor of Emergency Management at the Joint Centre of Disaster Research, and Nick Horspool, a risk specialist at GNS Science with expertise in geology and seismology.
