Six Steps to a Quick Hazards Assessment at Village Level: A Participatory Assessment Approach Applied in Nawalparasi District, Nepal

Abstract

AbstractThe use of participatory approaches in devising disaster risk reduction strategies has increased. With the emergence of this new risk management approach, the concepts of vulnerability assessment and hazards analysis have been put into practice. This paper introduces an efficient, empirically tested, and user‐friendly hazards assessment tool (HAT). HAT follows six steps for a quick hazards assessment. They are i) identification of hazards, ii) historical overview of disasters, iii) severity and frequency analyses, iv) hazard ranking of communities, v) vulnerability scenario building, and vi) summary of hazards analysis. This paper describes each step in a very detailed way demonstrating its application in three village development committees of Nawalparasi District in Nepal. The applicability of HAT is reviewed in terms of promoting learning, fostering local empowerment and building participation, which are the basis of participatory methods of assessment. HAT bears generic criticism of participatory approaches which can be resolved with proper preparation and facilitation. HAT is an attempt to analyze people's perception of vulnerability and suffering from hazards by fostering their active participation in the process that pave the way to holistic disaster risk reduction strategies.