Risk perception in socio-hydrological disasters: from field research to scoping review
risk perception; environmental hazards; floods; Natural Hazard; hydrologic disaster.
Climate change has been a constant focus on the agenda of public managers, due to the catastrophic potential generated by extreme weather events, with floods being the focus of this work. Approximately 1 billion people live in flood-prone areas around the world. Sociohydrological disasters are among the most devastating and are responsible for significant economic damage and irreparable loss of human life. The perception of risk arising from these disasters is a topic of great relevance to society, as it is directly linked to the ability to understand prevention and response measures. For a better understanding of this phenomenon, this work was divided into 2 parts, where the first is a field research in the municipalities of Ilhéus, Itabuna, Itamaraju, Teixeira de Freitas and Ubaitaba, where 250 individuals were interviewed, door to door. door, through a pre-structured questionnaire using a Likert scale. The results indicated that although the sampled population perceived the risk, the feeling of attachment to the place, even after having experienced repeated episodes of hydrological disasters, and the lack of educational campaigns to prevent these risks, seem to compromise the adoption of preventive behaviors. The second part is a scoping review with the objective of identifying in the academic literature, which are the main factors that affect the perception of risk in socio-hydrological disasters. To search for studies, 4 databases and a virtual library were used. After applying the eligibility criteria, 32 studies were reviewed. The results point to four main factors: socioeconomic and demographic profiles of the affected population, preventive behavior; direct experience; and information. It is concluded that individuals perceive and respond to risk differently. Considering the behavioral trends of affected populations is extremely necessary to face sociohydrological disasters.