Disaster Tales as Communication Tool for Increasing Risk Resilience

Paola Mazzoglio; Stefano Macchia; Enrico Gallo; Julia Winter; Pierluigi Claps

doi:10.1007/s13753-021-00341-x

Volume 12 Issue 3

Dec. 2021

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Article Navigation > International Journal of Disaster Risk Science > 2021 > 12(3): 341-354

Paola Mazzoglio, Stefano Macchia, Enrico Gallo, Julia Winter, Pierluigi Claps. Disaster Tales as Communication Tool for Increasing Risk Resilience[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2021, 12(3): 341-354. doi: 10.1007/s13753-021-00341-x

Citation:

Paola Mazzoglio, Stefano Macchia, Enrico Gallo, Julia Winter, Pierluigi Claps. Disaster Tales as Communication Tool for Increasing Risk Resilience[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2021, 12(3): 341-354. doi: 10.1007/s13753-021-00341-x

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Disaster Tales as Communication Tool for Increasing Risk Resilience

doi: 10.1007/s13753-021-00341-x

1 Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering(DIATI-Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Ambiente, del Territorio e delle Infrastrutture), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy;
2 Comune di Torino, 10152 Torino, Italy;
3 PwC(PricewaterhouseCoopers) Italy, 10122 Torino, Italy

Funds:

The authors acknowledge Politecnico di Torino, Italy, for providing the funding that contributed to the research results reported in this article.

Available Online: 2021-12-25
Publish Date: 2021-12-25

Abstract

Abstract

Agencies in charge of flood management use disaster reports (DRs) as the preferred source of information on past flooding events. A systematic survey of DRs prepared by Italian agencies suggests that DRs could be widely enhanced in view of targeting more effective communication to citizens, reinforcing the communication pillar in civil protection planning and management, and improving the resilience of the population to extreme events. Without loss of the rigor and details required for all the usual technical uses of DRs, we suggest recompiling them in the form of “disaster tales” (DTs), as tools that offer wider knowledge of the events to improve people’s preparedness and self-protection behavior. Recent major flooding events have demonstrated the communication potential that videos and pictures taken by citizens have for risk perception and disaster preparedness. By watching and listening to what has happened the communication recipient can better understand the feelings of the people experiencing an emergency. The structure of the improved reports, we suggest, will finally integrate data, graphs, and maps with interactive tools and be able to present handier multimedia views of the events. Application to three case studies of flooding in Italy illustrates how to concretely implement the suggested disaster reports to create more readily accessible disaster tales.
- Disaster communication,
- Disaster narratives,
- Flood risk perception,
- Italy,
- Storytelling

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References(37)

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