Risk Perception in a Multi-Hazard Environment

Environmental disasters cause enormous losses of life and property every year, a threat that is recognized and addressed in both the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Organizations from both the risk reduction and development fields are working to design programs that build risk understanding and risk perception to encourage protective action in communities that are often at risk from multiple, overlapping threats. We know little, however, about how individuals perceive and prioritize multiple hazards at once and how this relates to their adoption of protective action strategies in the developing world. Our work addresses environmental hazard risk perception in a multi-hazard context in eastern Uganda, with particular attention paid to the role that risk reduction and development organizations (RDOs) play in shaping risk perceptions, as well as their potential to influence protective action. To better understand risk prioritization, we used survey data from farming households to generate four indices reflecting several components of risk perception and to predict holistic risk perception through multivariate regression analysis. Our study finds that the factors shaping smallholder risk perception vary among hazards within the study population and that characteristics of both hazards and individuals are important. The regression analysis also reveals a surprising relationship between risk perception, self-efficacy, and protective action. Our findings suggest that risk reduction and development programs can play an important role in affecting both risk perception and the capacity of smallholders to respond to environmental threats. Our work adds to the growing body of literature on how people perceive and respond to risk in a multi-hazard environment, a context increasingly common in a changing world. Improved understanding of how RDO programs in the developing world are engaging with and influencing risk mitigation in the multi-hazard environments is fundamental for reducing vulnerability.