is often too costly for a local government and in areas that are both high-risk and highly
urbanized, avoidance of all hazardous locations is not a realistic option (Olshansky 2001).
2.2.3 Awareness projects
Natural hazard awareness projects aim to increase public knowledge on natural hazards that
pose a threat to a community. It is believed that the provision of public information will
encourage citizens to take individual actions to reduce their vulnerability (Olshansky 2001,
Pearce 2003). Raising awareness is a rather new aspect of hazard mitigation since officials
have long feared panic among citizens when disaster risks would be revealed to the public.
However, both scientists and many authorities now agree that community members have the
right to know what risks they are exposed to (Pearce 2003). By not only pointing out the risks,
but also explaining possible actions community members can take to decrease their
vulnerability, panic is avoided and both community participation in the mitigation process and
the number of individual risk reduction actions are increased (Godschalk e.a. 2003). According
to Burby e.a. (1999), community members that are educated in hazard risks through awareness
projects are likely to use their knowledge to encourage local government to undertake
mitigation actions.
Without hazard awareness projects, community members often do not realize the risks of
natural hazards in their area. Quarantelli (2003) and Cutter (2005) point out that without
personal experience, people usually do not think they are at risk. Experiencing a disaster is
therefore the trigger that invokes hazard mitigation actions. With awareness programs, people
who have never experienced a disaster will gain a better perception of the risks they are
exposed to and are then more likely to undertake action to reduce their vulnerability, whether
individually or through participation in the local hazard mitigation process. Sometimes people
know that they are threatened by a natural hazard, but because the occurrence of hazard events
is uncertain and many societal problems such as crime appear to be quite urgent on a short-
term basis, they choose to focus their attention on the last category. Awareness programs can
educate the public and help to balance short-term issues with long-term threats (Palm &
Carroll 1998).
Natural hazard awareness projects do not necessarily aim at community members. At all levels
of government, these projects can increase government officials’ knowledge and willingness to
actively promote hazard mitigation (Godschalk 1999). As with community members,