An indicator based approach for assessing household’s perceptions of landslide risk in Murree hills of Pakistan

Abstract

The Murree region in Pakistan is frequently affected by landslides and causes damages to lands, houses, life lines and even loss of livestock and human life. We have attempted in this paper to compare the landslide risk perception of three selected sites of Murree based on selected indicators. A questionnaire survey was used to collect information from a sample of 200 households in a random manner. A Likert scale technique was used to assess the main indicators (awareness, likelihood, impact and fear) of risk perceptions. Results showed that the index values for the above-mentioned indicators were low for the rural fringe, medium for urban fringe and high for inner city. Results of the values of the overall perceived risk were higher for inner city as compared to urban fringe and rural fringe. The study has important implications for policy makers to arrange trainings and workshops particularly for the residents of rural and urban fringe to raise their awareness and perception levels about landslide risks. The proposed measures will increase their levels of preparedness and mitigation measures in the study area.