ABSTRACT

Risk communication is crucial to building community resilience and reducing risk from extreme events.

True community resilience involves accurate and timely dissemination of risk information to stakeholders. This book examines the policy and science of risk communication in the digital era. Themes include public awareness of risk and public participation in risk communication and resilience building. The first half of the book focuses on conceptual frameworks, components, and the role of citizens in risk communication. The second half examines the role of risk communication in resilience building and provides an overview of some of its challenges in the era of social media. This book looks at the effectiveness of risk communication in socially and culturally diverse communities in the developed and developing world.

The interdisciplinary approach bridges academic research and applied policy action. Contributions from Latin America and Asia provide insight into global risk communication at a time when digital technologies have rapidly transformed conventional communication approaches. This book will be of critical interest to policy makers, academicians, and researchers, and will be a valuable reference source for university courses that focus on emergency management, risk communication, and resilience.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part 1|59 pages

Risk communication in the digital era

chapter 1|18 pages

Text-to-action

Understanding the interaction between accessibility of Wireless Emergency Alerts and behavioral response

chapter 2|19 pages

Bounded rationality and federal disaster recovery information

Understanding why access to information matters

part 2|70 pages

Citizen participation in risk communication and resilience

chapter 4|17 pages

River of difference

Using participatory risk mapping to assess perceived risks in Laredo, Texas, U.S.A., and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico

chapter 5|18 pages

Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs)

30 years as cross-sector forums for community risk communication

part 3|76 pages

Role of risk communication in resilience

chapter 10|19 pages

The Ports Resilience Index

A participatory approach to building resilience

chapter 11|13 pages

Advancing resilience post-disaster

Improving designer–user communication in the post-Lushan earthquake reconstruction and recovery

part 4|72 pages

Challenges and future direction of risk communication

chapter 13|14 pages

Waves of change

Coastal hazards, tourism development, and risk communication along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua

chapter 14|18 pages

Risk and crisis communication in schools

Understanding current challenges and opportunities