Landslide risk perception: a case study in Southern Italy

Abstract

Perceptions of risk are a key issue when seeking to develop systems, practices and policies to protect local populations. This is particularly evident when risk mitigation strategies involve non-structural measures such as relocation and warning systems which presuppose the active involvement of the communities in question. This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to studying the perceptions, knowledge and opinions on landslide risk amongst residents in Sarno, a small town in Southern Italy which was hit by disastrous landslides on 5–6 May 1998. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted in the months of March, April and May 2013 using a purpose-designed questionnaire. The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 100 residents, 60 of whom live inside the so-called “red zone”, a territory declared at high residual risk soon after the events of 1998. The questionnaire included questions relating to perceived risk exposure, trust in institutions responsible for risk management, evaluations of risk mitigation measures and the early-warning strategy. The results of the study clearly emerges, amongst other issues, that the organisms which are responsible for risk management in Sarno need to develop more effective communication strategies in order to transmit knowledge about the actions implemented to reduce landslide risk in the area

Influences of Risk Perception and Sense of Place on Landslide Disaster Preparedness in Southwestern China

“…Most studies that have focused on landslides in recent years were conducted in urban regions. Few studies have dealt with rural populations located in landslide-threatened areas (Butler and DeChano 2012;Calvello et al 2016), especially areas exposed to disasters as well as poverty in developing countries (Xu et al 2017a).…”

An integrated methodology to develop a standard for landslide early warning systems

“…The application of appropriate SOP for commands and communication is key to the whole management system (Calvello et al, 2016). The process of determining the hazard level and delivery of warning information can be explained simply through a series of mechanisms and decisions as follows.…”

“…The team is then responsible for disseminating all information mentioned in the evacuation map and training the local community regularly to increase their awareness on how to implement the standard operating procedures for evacuation. This process of continued education is essential because even in a community exposed to landslide risk, many people are not aware of the risks they have (Calvello et al, 2016). It is emphasized that the community actively participate because one of the indicators of preparedness of the community will be their own activism that will have a direct impact on the mortality rate after the disaster (Chen and Wu, 2014).…”

Historical Storminess and Hydro-Geological Hazard Temporal Evolution in the Solofrana River Basin—Southern Italy

“…Among these, only four municipalities, Forino, Solofra, Montoro, and Mercato San Severino, highlighted as red polygons in Figure 1, have been severely affected by MDHEs during the period of observation. The remaining were not affected at all or in just one occasion, on 05/05/1998, when an extremely severe rainfall event caused floods and landslides that hit numerous locations in the studied river basin, also causing losses of lives [30]. As the frequency of occurrences is the target point of the current analysis, they were not included in the database.…”