Recent decades have seen an increasing recognition and consensus among researchers and planners in disaster management in the need to foster social learning through public participation, to promote deliberative interaction among stakeholders in order to work together build a relationship to attain a collective action. However, the current participatory methods in disaster management are limited to awareness building, when actual plan preparation is the prime concept yet to be looked at. Additionally, in most of the cases, the local government authorities initiate their disaster management program to community by inviting them to voice their opinions and concerns. The major impediments of such participatory programs are the community's over-dependence on donors and governments (stakeholders) thus will consequently fail to give the community the sense of ownership of the problem. The challenge therefore is, putting the community in the driver's seat instead of only inviting them for consultation on an existing plan about a predetermined issue. In this paper, a participatory workshop method called Yonmenkaigi System Method (YSM) has been employed as a method to integrate the community's concerns and perspectives in the disaster management processes and to develop a collaborative action plan. The method was tested in a flood-prone slum community in Mumbai, India. In the first phase of the workshop, a SWOT analysis was executed to provide an opportunity for the participants to acknowledge each other's prior concerns, perspectives, and views. In the succeeding phases, the method then provided a platform to carry out this awareness in order to create visions through the identification of critical elements of the plan called Yonmenkaigi Chart. Finally, the sharing and debating of each other's visions and perspectives to prepare an executable plan for improved disaster preparedness. This entire process helps the participant develop an action plan based on their prior abilities, strengths and capacities instead of depending heavily on supports from external sources.

A realistic and scientific risks communication system is inevitable for better risk awareness and improved disaster preparedness. Conventional disaster management studies paid much attention on the contents of the information, and ignored the importance of information source. Since natural disasters are uncertain and complex, individuals decisions on disaster issues depend much on their trust in risk information source. This study systematically examines the role of trust in risk awareness and preparedness. The study is based on field surveys conducted in two flood affected slum communities in Mumbai, India. The study has revealed that higher trust leads to higher risk awareness and better acceptance of perusing preventive action. To take decision on impending risk or early warning, individuals depend most on the local city authority because the community believes the city authority is having better flood management skill and knowledge. The degree of acceptance of flood preventive measure depends on how much risk communicating agency cares and concerns about community's interest. In this study, responded reported mass media is the one who cares most about community's interest. The role of local leaders is negligible in entire risk communication process, because the local community does not have much trust in local leaders. The study reestablished that trust in risk communication sources is inevitable for improved disaster risks communication.

During the 2005 Mumbai flood, it became apparent that the death toll and property damage could have been minimized by planned and organized evacuation. It became evident that it is not the information per se that determines whether people take actions to manage their risks, decision on evacuation reflect how people interpret and collate information to make it meaningful to them. Studies and research in pursuit of this line of knowledge are scanty in the risk management literature. In the context of mega city Mumbai flood risk management, this knowledge is non-existent. The objective of the present study is to investigate the cognitive perceptual process that households experience when faced with the decision to evacuate. The purpose of this study is to analyze integrated flood evacuation behaviour based on field evidence in order to manage the flood evacuation challenge for a Mumbai hotspot. The present study has developed and empirically examined an integrated cognitive evacuation approach, which includes Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and other cognitive theories. Results have shown that the intention to evacuate and avoid unacceptable loss was most pronounced with individuals when the level of critical awareness about 'outcome efficacy' and 'self-efficacy' was high. Apparently, no other factors matters as much. The present study revealed it is not always necessary that individuals' evacuation motive go through all cognitive phases or stages before it turns into genuine intention. This finding, in a way, does not run in line with the conventional cognitive theoretical approaches. Findings of the study further highlighted that emphasis needs to be made on the "how to" aspect of the diagnostic risk mitigation information rather than on the provision of information about possible risks and vulnerability. This study is particularly important in the context of improving public awareness and education programs on evacuation.

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