In the province of Concepción (Chile), floods are considered one of the main natural hazards. One of the most important cities of this area is Talcahuano. During the last years, Talcahuano has been affected by a number of flood episodes, as a consequence of an increase in the frequency of extraordinary atmospheric events, along with a higher exposure to the flood risk caused by an intense urban development. On 27 February 2010, an 8.8°earthquake (Richter scale) occurred in central southern Chile and originated the tsunami which flooded a large percentage of the residential area and military base of the Talcahuano city. This flood event affected a population higher than 180,000 people (including 23 casualties and invaluable economic and environmental losses). The objective of this study is to investigate the social perception and knowledge of Talcahuano residents affected by different types of flood, including tsunami, emphasizing which are their risks, vulnerability, resilience and coping capacity concepts. In addition, the kind of measures that have been proposed to improve their capacity to face floods after having suffered the natural disaster will be determined. This social assessment has been carried out based on a survey to permanent residents. Research results reveal that their endogenous and exogenous characteristics have resulted determinant to explain their perception.

Chilean geography exposes the country to high-level risks such as earthquakes and tsunamis. The disasters of 1930, 1960, 2010, and 2014 testify to the continuous link between human survival and disasters. However, new hazards have appeared ever since –i.e. flood waterlogging, wildfires, and landslides–, highlighting the relationship between current land uses and space occupation with increasing levels of disaster risk. This research aims to determine relations and responsibilities of the Chilean developmental approach in urban planning and territorial governance processes that have created new territories prone to disaster risk. We resort to a longitudinal analysis from 1930 to 2018 at the Gran Concepción metropolitan area as a proxy of Chilean industrialization and economic development approaches. To do so, we developed mixed-approach descriptive research, for which we collected data from national development policies and documented land occupation processes during pre-dictatorship, dictatorship and post-dictatorship periods. Semi-structured interviews with decision-makers involved in current territorial policy were also carried out. The findings show how territorial governance resulted from political visions around different development paths, wherein the concept of risk is weakly perceived among decision-makers. This perception is linked to narrow economic goals and the understanding of land as a barely regulated marketable asset, profoundly affected by segregated urban planning.