Abstract
Natural hazard preparation by communities reduces disaster-induced physical health problems and adverse experiences, lowers potential for post-traumatic stress disorders, and aids faster recovery. However, approaches to community engagement for preparedness vary widely leaving those responsible confused and often overwhelmed. This study builds on natural hazards behavior, community development, participatory, and codesign research to understand current community engagement approaches in an Australian context. Key principles for engaging communities were operationalized from document analysis and interviews with 30 community engagement practitioners from 25 Australian emergency management agencies. A thematic analysis of the agency documents and interviews led to a visualization of the pathway to community-led preparedness with the iterative community-centered engagement model for preparedness. The model reflects both current practice and aspirations. It contributes theoretically to a collaborative community-led engagement approach for risk personalization and protective action by highlighting the need to develop a deep understanding of the specific features of local communities. The model maps a pathway through different levels of community engagement toward the ultimate aim of a community-led approach to natural hazards preparation. It recognizes the changing circumstances and the situation of communities within their environment, and the barriers and enablers to support community-led preparedness. The model is significant in that it delivers a practical framework for engagement practitioners to build capacity in their communities and support their local communities to prepare for natural hazards and build relational capital for longer-term resilience.
Highlights
Research questions 1 and 2 investigated current approaches used in community engagement for natural hazards and help to identify the attributes of successful community engagement
The community-centered engagement model for preparedness is empirically built and supports a high-level commitment by emergency organizations to engaging with the community so that lives can be saved, and property damage mitigated through risk identification and action
The model provides a holistic approach to emergency management that has been missing from other approaches and is informed by the practitioners who work in the preparedness space
Summary
Natural hazard risk occurs in every community in every country. The quality and quantity of preparedness activities by individuals and households can be the difference between life and death. From 1967 to 2013, Australia experienced more than 310 natural hazard disasters with losses estimated at more than $171 billion (Handmer et al 2018). The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities (see http://australianbusinessroundtable.com.au/) has called for more investment in disaster resilience approaches, in community preparedness (Deloitte 2017). This type of investment has been shown to have tangible community-level effects in flood preparation (Grineski et al 2020) and infrastructure preparation across a range of hazards (Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council 2019). Increasing numbers and severity of disaster events has not resulted in an associated increase in community-led participation (Lindell and Perry 2012)
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