The Challenges of Earthquake Risk Communication to Public

Abstract

Earthquake is a natural phenomenon, which, through human intervention, acquires dimensions detrimental to the very existence of the mankind. The common hazards associated with this phenomenon, namely ground failures, subsidence, liquefaction, lateral spreading, landslides or tsunami become life threatening if not addressed scientifically. A lot of progress has been made to understand earthquake source and processes, but predicting this phenomenon to safeguard the lives of people has remained a distant dream. Any claims of successful predictions, whatsoever, have fallen short of scientific scrutiny. The advancement of knowledge in the field of earthquake engineering and its application in the real world has helped in mitigating earthquake hazards to a great extent, but still people die in large numbers when moderate to large earthquakes strike. It is observed that in the countries adhering to strict practices of earthquake-engineered structures the causalities are much less in numbers compared to others—for example, magnitude (M) 7.9 Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008 killed more than 80,000 people in comparison to M 8.0 Hokkaido earthquake in Japan in 2003 where there was no loss of life in spite of the higher magnitude. There are several reasons for such a high number of deaths in the developing countries. One of the reasons, which is emerging, is the lack of proper awareness and communication of earthquake risk to the general public. Because earthquakes are low-probability high-risk phenomena, there is greater challenge to effectively connect with people to reduce the impact. This chapter presents earthquake-hazard scenario in the country and the challenges to effectively communicate earthquake risk to public.