ALBERT

Description: The widespread lack of awareness of seismic hazard and the inadequate preparedness to protect people and property explains the high cost of damage caused by earthquakes worldwide to date. Efficient communication is of paramount importance as part of effective risk mitigation strategies. Over the past twenty years, efforts have been pursued at the local, regional, national, and international level to disseminate information on seismic hazard to populations at risk.Focusing on Europe, we analyze the main features of seismic risk communication from 2000 to 2022, and present here an overview of the results obtained based on a scoping review of the scientific literature. Our review was conducted on publications selected from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases and the information was gathered on the basis of the 5 ‘Ws questions’ (Who, What, When, Where, and Why). Overall, the selected publications document the relatively limited engagement of the scientific community in this risk field compared to other natural disasters. Nevertheless, the growing trend over time of publications dealing with seismic risk communication highlights the effort to attract selected targeted audiences (particularly children), using new contents, methods of implementation, and channels such as social networks and the Internet.

Description: In this chapter, we review a variety of methods and modelling approaches employed in Panta Rhei and detail how each approach highlights different aspects, and how they can be brought together to advance a more holistic understanding of a human-water system. Change in coupled human-water systems has been studied using a wide variety of methods, before and during the Panta Rhei decade. We engage with the literature on the methods that have been developed by the Panta Rhei community over recent years while placing them in the wider context of existing research approaches for exploring change in human-water systems and settings used by other social and natural science fields. Going deeper into the methods, we present an overview of qualitative and quantitative methods, including modeling approaches, upon which we highlight the potential of mixed methods in studying human-water systems.

Description: Risk communication has evolved significantly over the past two decades. In this study, we provide an overview of the timing, methods and tools we observed in a review study of earthquake risk communication in Europe. Our study shows that communication occurs predominantly in the pre-event phase and that communication during the earthquake crisis is often limited to seismological information. Only one-fifth of the publications reviewed explicitly rely on theories of risk communication. There is an increasing convergence toward a two- or three-way communication model, i.e., the adoption of frameworks in which seismic risk experts promote proactive citizen participation; moreover, the goals of communication become more proactive than informative. The goals of earthquake risk communication are to share information, raise awareness, change behaviors/beliefs, and increase preparedness. Students and citizens are the main target groups for communication activities. The involvement of schools is based on the idea of a 'domino effect," where students share and promote earthquake mitigation information and best practices within their families. In an effort to reach an age-, culturally-, and educationally-diverse audience, traditional education/communication methods such as handouts and lesson plans are gradually giving way to exercises and hands-on activities, as well as more advanced communication tools such as infographics, video scribing, serious (video) games, and augmented reality applications. The results also show the growing role of social media as an information and dissemination channel.

Description: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Disaster Risk Management (DRM), and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) involve a variety of stakeholders with different backgrounds, organizational frameworks, divergent concerns, and sometimes competing agendas. This requires forums where such groups can meet in order to enhance understanding, reconcile different views, and potentially assist each other in meeting their respective goals. One means of establishing such an exchange involves serious games. During the ESPREssO (Enhancing Synergies for disaster Prevention in the European Union) project, three such games, referred to as RAMSETE (Risk Assessment Model Simulation for Emergency Training Exercise), were developed. They were based on table-top, role-playing, scenario-based exercises, and their purpose was for stakeholder information elicitation about policy issues related to DRR, DRM, and CCA. Participants in the exercises were assigned roles where they interacted and negotiated in order to deal with the presented scenarios. The scenarios were primarily concerned with selecting an optimal set of policies to deal best with the issue in question. The games, while sometimes including an operational element, were meant to examine the motivations behind the decisions made, rather than to test or to train in response protocols. The participants in general found the games to be useful for framing discussions about complex issues, while their problem-solving character was appreciated and enjoyed. Such games allow stakeholders to openly discuss and challenge ideas, policies, and processes in a manner they would not normally do in their daily activities, with other professionals who they would not necessarily be in frequent contact with.