Modern flood risk management strategies have evolved from flood resistance to a holistic approach incorporating prevention, protection and preparedness with the aim of reducing the likelihood and/or impact of flooding. This evolution has been driven by a trend of increasingly damaging and...

The eruptions of El Chichón volcano on March–April 1982 impacted at least 51 communities located in the surroundings of the volcano causing the death of about 2,000 people in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In this work, we evaluate the risk perception in five of these communities: Juárez,...

Central to contemporary emergency management is the use of risk management principles to promote community resilience to a range of potential hazard effects. Realising this goal requires that the community and personal characteristics that facilitate the ability to `bounce back' from adversity...

The Yangtze River Delta region is an area highly vulnerable to flooding. As the population density is rising concomitantly with high economic growth, this region is becoming more vulnerable to natural hazards. We conducted a survey to investigate the individual risk perception of both the local...

This paper presents a case study about the perception of landslide risk. Following a major set of landslides in the eastern part of Austria in June 2009, we surveyed local experts, residents who had suffered losses from the landslides, and others living in the affected communities. Overall, the...

Evacuations represent an integral aspect of protecting public safety in locations where intense, fast-spreading forest fires co-occur with human populations. Most Canadian fire management agencies have as their primary objective the protection of people and property, and all fire management...

Several coastal communities on the North Island of New Zealand were evacuated during the 2009 Samoan Tsunami warning. This study aimed to explore the risk perception and preparedness levels of a small cohort of people living in an at-risk area. Qualitative data were collected using...

China has suffered from severe earthquake disasters in recent years. In order to explore the impact of severe earthquakes on public risk perception on different time scales, four surveys were conducted twice each after the severe Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes. t tests were performed between two...

During Typhoon Morakot which hit Taiwan from 6 to 9 August, 2009, Kaohsiung City was highly affected by devastating debris-flows and flooding. Recorded casualties were 699 deaths and 1,766 damaged homes, mostly in the mountainous areas of Kaohsiung City. Due to a largely malfunctioning or absent...

In 2014, China will pilot its first earthquake insurance program, and the inhabitants’ perception of earthquake risk in the pilot area is significant for the implementation of this plan. In this study, the authors conducted a field survey in four districts in the insurance pilot area to...