Vulnerability of transients and freedom campers in uncontrolled camping grounds: Coes and Chamberlains Fords

Transient communities throughout the country are faced with the same risks as other fixed communities. However, how are these risks communicated and how vulnerable are these communities? Many families in New Zealand travel to locations their families have been visiting for generations. Within Canterbury, there are many locations where this phenonemon occurs. This research investigated Coes Ford and Chamberlains Ford, which are located along the Selwyn River in Canterbury, New Zealand. This research has three aims: first, to understand the hazards and risks that are present at both Coes Ford and Chamberlains Ford; secondly, to understand how these hazards and risks are communicated through various means; and, thirdly, based on the research, to develop a framework that improves the assessment and communication of risk to transients at Coes Ford and Chamberlains Ford and similar sites. In order to achieve these aims a review of the current hazard management literature defining risk, resilience, preparedness and vulnerability of transients, helped assist and develop the transient community vulnerability assessment framework. Along with a review of the literature, questionnaires, field observations and interviews were used to understand the hazards present and the community at each sites. The transient framework developed helped in understanding each site in regard to the makeup of each location, the hazards present and the potential impact of an adverse event. The results indicated that there were substantive differences between the Coes Ford and Chamberlains Ford communities. These were that there was a number of international visitors at both sites, with both sites having the majority of visitors from Europe. The majority of these visitors were aged between 18 and 34. The ethnic makeup of both the Coes Ford and Chamberlains Fords communities, when comparing their awareness of water quality and flooding issues, saw the Europeans the least aware of the potential of adverse events occurring, but they had the most awareness of and knew where to check if such an event was likely which could be due to the number of responders. This study concluded that the awareness of hazards in transient communities’ changes and there was a need to be aware that not all communities were homogeneous, as each transient community was different and this has been reflected in the findings of this research.