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A Case Study of Social Behaviour in a Natural Disaster: The Olivares Landslide (Spain)
Author(s) -
LUIS JOSE,
GARCIA GONZALEZ,
VICTORIA MARIA,
PARRA SORIANO
Publication year - 1989
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/j.1467-7717.1989.tb00696.x
Subject(s) - natural disaster , harmony (color) , landslide , population , emergency management , poison control , civil defense , environmental planning , geography , engineering , sociology , political science , law , environmental health , demography , medicine , art , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , visual arts
The modern sociological literature on disasters highlights the fact that many of the ideas about human behaviour in disasters which were long considered as valid, are wrong. The main discovery is based on the fact that situations of crisis increase people's moral principles and capability of response. This paper illustrates some of these ideas, in a case study of a village which was struck by a natural disaster in the north of Granada (Spain) in 1986. The population's attitude revealed a huge potential of resources that were underestimated by professionals of disaster management. The analysis shows that it is necessary to bring civil protection systems and the population's capability of response into close harmony.