Understanding Community-Level Flooding Awareness in Remote Coastal Towns in Northern Chile through Community Mapping

The influence of risk awareness and government trust on risk perception and preparedness for natural hazards

Risk perception is considered the primary motivator for taking preparedness actions. But people with prior experience and a high-risk perception are not necessarily more prepared. This relationship is even more complex when assessing preparedness levels for hazards with different characteristics. These inconsistent findings can be explained by how preparedness has been measured and the influence of other factors, such as trust and risk awareness. Thus, the main goal of this study was to analyze the role of risk awareness and trust in authorities on risk perception and intention to prepare for natural hazards in a coastal city in Chile. A representative sample of the city of Concepción, located in the center-south zone of Chile (n = 585), completed a survey. We measured risk awareness, risk perception, trust in authorities, and intention to prepare for two hazards: earthquakes/tsunamis and floods. Through structural equation models, we tested five hypotheses. We found that the perception of risk maintained a direct and positive influence on the intention to prepare for both hazards. The results showed that awareness and risk perception influence the intention to prepare and should be considered different concepts. Finally, trust did not significantly influence risk perception when faced with known hazards for the population. Implications for understanding the relationship between risk perception and direct experience are discussed.

Recording Historical Variations in Agricultural Areas Caused by Landslides and River Floods between 1977 and 2012 through Participatory Mapping in the Foothills of the Atacama Desert, Chile

In arid areas, rural communities can be affected by erosive phenomena caused by intense rainfall. By involving such communities in participatory mapping over the last few decades, our ability to analyse the effects of these phenomena has been enhanced. The aim of this study was to evaluate participatory mapping as a tool for spatially analysing agricultural variations caused by erosive phenomena, using local people to identify chronologies of physical events so we could analyse their effects on agriculture. The study was conducted in Laonzana, Tarapacá Valley, in northern Chile. We selected the participants for the participatory mapping using specific criteria, and carried out field activities in different phases, which allowed the identification, georeferencing and registration (through participatory mapping) of the information collected in the field and from the collective memories of the participants. Three periods were studied. This provided evidence for a decrease in the number of productive sites, these being limited to the vicinity of the village. The participatory mapping technique has become a useful tool in desert and mountainous areas with low population densities for recovering experiential information from communities.