University of Tasmania, Australia

Encouraging people to prepare for infrequent, often suddenly occurring and potentially devastating natural hazards in ways that increase their capacity to anticipate, cope with, adapt to, and recover from hazard impacts is a significant risk management problem.

This paper discusses how community education programs that accommodate how people interpret hazards and the information available about them can influence preparedness. It discusses how personal and societal factors and people's interpretation of their relationship with government and civic risk management agencies interact to explain differences in levels of hazard preparedness. The paper discusses the all-hazards and cross-cultural utility of this approach using data for volcanic (New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia), earthquake (New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan) and bushfire (Australia and Portugal) hazards.

The implications for collaborative learning and research between countries are discussed, as is the potential for enhancing the effectiveness of risk communication by integrating it with community development strategies.

A light lunch will be provided.

UTAS staff and students, emergency management professionals, community development professionals and  members of the public are invited to attend.