The general public generally ignores hurricane storm surge risk indicated on maps. Immersive virtual reality allows for people to experience realistic, true-scale (compared to their body size) simulations of storm surge flooding, but it is unknown if such an experience has an effect on risk perception, and if it is different from a non-true scale simulation displayed using a desktop monitor.

Therefore, we propose that an immersive simulation of storm surge flooding might be a useful tool for communicating storm surge risk since it can show the actual size simulated storm surge flooding compared to a viewer’s body.

Team

Mark Simpson

Alexander Klippel

Pennsylvania State University

Lace Padilla

Northwestern University