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Disaster risk communication requires dissemination, dialogue and participation

Disaster risk communication traditionally focuses on authorities conveying hazard and risk information to at-risk populations, with little consideration of local community knowledge. To enable risk reduction and resilience, disaster management must forge partnerships with local communities and empower citizen-led initiatives.

Disasters triggered by natural and human-induced shocks are hugely complex societal incidents, often striking with little warning. Such societal shocks reveal deep historical roots by invariably burdening those most vulnerable with additional loss and damage. But this complexity tends to be glossed over in traditional approaches of disaster risk communication. Such approaches have primarily focused on one-way dissemination of information from risk experts and managers to local communities, with little consideration or planning for a return flow of local knowledge and cultural understanding of risk1. However, those living in at-risk areas have valuable lived experience and local insight into the drivers of risk and so need to be integrated into conventional risk management approaches2.

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Fig. 1: The disaster risk communication continuum.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from UKRI GCRF under grant NE/S009000/1, Tomorrow’s Cities Hub.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Scientific Society, Amman, Jordan

    I. S. Stewart

  2. College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador

    E. Sevilla & K. Barragán

  3. Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

    E. Yahya Menteşe

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  1. I. S. Stewart
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I.S.S. prepared an initial draft manuscript and all authors contributed equally to its revision. All authors contributed to and approved the submitted version. I.S.S. conceived and K.B. designed and drafted the artwork.

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Stewart, I.S., Sevilla, E., Barragán, K. et al. Disaster risk communication requires dissemination, dialogue and participation.
Nat Rev Earth Environ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00506-w

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  • Published: 24 November 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00506-w

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