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Coping and adaptation strategies and institutional perceptions of hydrological risk in an urban Amazonian city
Author(s) -
Andrade Milena Marília Nogueira,
Szlafsztein Claudio Fabian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/disa.12414
Subject(s) - coping (psychology) , flood myth , risk perception , focus group , poison control , perception , collective efficacy , environmental planning , flooding (psychology) , disaster risk reduction , geography , environmental resource management , business , psychology , environmental health , social psychology , medicine , marketing , economics , archaeology , neuroscience , psychotherapist , psychiatry
This paper investigates coping and adaptation strategies and institutional perceptions of hydrological risk at the local scale in Santarém, an Amazonian city in the state of Pará, Brazil. Methods and tools of analysis encompassed secondary data, field observations, and qualitative techniques (focus‐group discussions and in‐depth interviews). Stakeholders from affected neighbourhoods describe their means of coping with and adapting to flooding, focusing on purposefulness, type of initiative and investment, risk timing, temporal and spatial scope, and performance. The results comprise an inventory of 16 mostly structural measures. The perceptions of six institutions of general responses to flooding are presented as opinions on actions that reduce the effects of such events, individual strategies and collective community endeavours in at‐risk areas, and the activities of the public and private sectors to manage floods. Understanding of coping and adaptation strategies and knowledge of institutional flood risk perceptions can benefit the implementation of risk and disaster reduction policies and practices.