Reconstruction, validation and establishment of Environmental Distress Scale due to sudden changes in the environment following hazards, case study; the 2003 Bam earthquake

Occurrence of the 2003 earthquake caused a wide range of injuries, deaths, physical damages and extensive destruction of the garden-city fabric and, as a result, sudden changes in the social-physical environment of Bam. To date, there has been no quantitative measurement tool to assess the impacts of sudden environmental changes following an earthquake in Iran. The aim of this study is to rebuild, validate and establish a scale for measuring environmental distress following the earthquake. This scale includes 79 items and 6 factors of place attachment, frequency of environmental issue, observations of environmental issue, threats, felt impacts and solastalgia. The questionnaire was parallel translation into Persian, group-based judgment assessment, back translation, adjustment, pilot and field survey. The research method is descriptive-survey with exploratory factor analysis approach. In the pilot phase, 44 residents of Bam completed the questionnaire and scale variance, corrected item-total correlation and mean were calculated. The statistical population of the field survey is 295 residents of Bam who completed the online questionnaire in a non-random and accessible method. Findings indicate that in the Bam Earthquake Environmental Distress Scale, the content of the main scale has been preserved with appropriate adaptation and adjustment for contextual differences. According to the analysis, 9 factors including place attachment, solastalgia, severity and extent of pollution and environmental issues caused by the earthquake and reconstruction operations, changes in the topology and shape of the earth after the earthquake, pollution or disruption of water resources, environmental issues caused by debris and reconstruction, changes in the natural landscape of the city, assessment and perceived impacs of reconstruction, development and benefits and the consequences of the earthquake on the survivors health were identified. This scale is a reliable tool for assessing the psychological impacts of sudden changes in the environment following the earthquake in Iran.