Making sense of natural hazard mitigation: Personal, social and cultural influences

Paton, Douglas; Sagala, Saut; Okada, Naosuke; Jang, Li-Ju; Buergelt, Petra; Gregg, Chris E.

doi:10.3763/ehaz.2010.0039

Cited by 70 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, populations in the vicinity of active volcanoes vary in their perception of risk (e.g. Gregg et al 2004Gregg et al , 2008Dominey-Howes and Minos-Minopoulos 2004;Haynes et al 2007Haynes et al , 2008Bird et al 2009Bird et al , 2010Paton et al 2008Paton et al , 2010. Volcanologists working at volcano observatories thus have an important role in both the assessment and the communication of risk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ views about lay perceptions of volcanic hazard and risk

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present data from a survey of scientists from volcano observatories and monitoring institutions around the world. The scientists were asked about the hazards from the volcanoes that they work on, their perception of the likely magnitude and impacts of eruptions, and their views about local people's awareness of the risk. They were also asked about how well different groups are trusted by local people, and about their views concerning the need to warn people about changes in the volcanic risk. We show that scientists were generally concerned about risk from the volcanoes that they worked on, and also that many scientists felt that their own view of the risk was different from that of locals. Perceived trust in scientists depended upon both social factors and volcanic risk. We discuss the implications of these results for precautionary decision-making on active volcanoes.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ views about lay perceptions of volcanic hazard and risk

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Different people and cultures respond to disaster risk differently (Gaillard 2008;Heijmans 2001;Paton et al 2001;Paton et al 2010), and in the context of volcanic hazards, proximity to the hazard (Gregg et al 2004), living memory of an eruption and level of impact (Paton et al 2001) all shape risk perceptions amongst individuals and groups. Even if risk perception is high, people may still put concerns about convenience and living costs ahead of their desire to lessen their exposure (Gaillard 2008).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the volcanic crisis: co-governance of risk in Montserrat

Wilkinson

2015

J Appl. Volcanol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Disaster risk governance is concerned with how institutions change in response to perturbations or, conversely, are able to remain static for long periods of time. In Montserrat, the volcanic eruption in 1995 produced unprecedented challenges for both local government authorities and the UK Government. The sharp and sustained rise in the level of volcanic risk combined with an inadequate response from UK and local authorities prompted a shift in governance arrangements, and when levels of risk declined these new configurations did not go back to their pre-crisis state. This paper focuses on one aspect of this governance transition: the relationship between the local Montserratian government and the UK government. Before the eruption Montserrat enjoyed high levels of political and fiscal independence from the UK in disaster risk management and other investment decisions, but the volcanic crisis highlighted low levels of capacity and the inherent instability in this system. A new co-governance regime was established after the crisis, characterised by greater UK intervention in local investment decisions and some loss of political sovereignty. On the other hand, Montserrat has become more integrated in regional and international disaster risk governance systems, and today the division of local and central responsibilities for different aspects of disaster risk management is much clearer than before the volcanic crisis. This paper demonstrates how disasters can create spaces for existing risk governance systems to be questioned and modified. The volcanic crisis led to a reconsideration of responsibilities and risk management practices by both Montserratian and UK authorities, and initiated a process of transformation in land-use and development planning that has substantially reduced levels of volcanic risk on the island. However, these benefits have to be weighed against loss of livelihoods for a significant proportion of the population and considerable social upheaval. Critical to the success of this new development model is the need for vertical coherence and dialogue between different stakeholders. Montserrat and UK risk governance systems are more integrated now, but unless communities are engaged in risk management decisions, Montserrat's low-risk development model could come unstuck. Small islands with large risks can learn a lot from the Montserrat experience.

show abstract

“…Indeed, disaster preparedness is an important element of disaster risk reduction that can contribute to and gain from the implementation of sustainable development policies [5]. Building people's disaster preparedness is also critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular goal 11, which explicitly calls for holistic disaster risk management [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given projections of future climate-related disasters, understanding the conditions that facilitate disaster preparedness is critical to achieving sustainable development. Here, we studied communities within the Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia to explore whether people's perceived preparedness for a future cyclone relates to their: (1) perceived individual adaptive capacity (in terms of flexibility and capacity to plan and learn); and (2) structural and cognitive social capital. We found that people's perceived cyclone preparedness was only related to their perceived individual flexibility in the face of change. Given that people's perceived cyclone preparedness was related to individualistic factors, it is plausible that individualism-collectivism orientations influence people's perceptions at an individual level. These results suggest that in the Wet Tropics region, enhancing people's psychological flexibility may be an important step when preparing for future cyclones. Our study highlights the need to tailor disaster preparedness initiatives to the region in question, and thus our results may inform disaster risk management and sustainable development policies.

show abstract

Making sense of natural hazard mitigation: Personal, social and cultural influences

Cited by 70 publications

References 24 publications

Scientists’ views about lay perceptions of volcanic hazard and risk

Scientists’ views about lay perceptions of volcanic hazard and risk

Beyond the volcanic crisis: co-governance of risk in Montserrat

Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About