A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

5Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativeschallengesFuture challenges and prioritiesLand use management and planning are practisedin many countries. However, as wasmentioned at the beginning of this section,well-considered land use planning carriedthrough to the successful accomplishment ofreducing risks remains extremely challengingfor a number of reasons. Competing interestsor values associated with the various possibleuses of land almost always become an overridingissue that can only be resolved from somecommon understanding being reached, eitherunder law, official instruction, or through acommon appreciation of relative risks.There are an additional number of practicallimitations to address to enhance land useplanning as a tool for risk reduction, whichinclude the following:• The lack of current information aboutpotential hazards affecting a specific location,and the nature and relative magnitudesof their possible impacts within aspecific area.• The high costs and protracted nature ofmultidisciplinary involvement associatedwith the technical aspects of hazard mappingor vulnerability and risk assessmentactivities.• An inability to predict hazard events or forthe community concerned to fully appreciatethe possibility of risk.• Hesitancy to commit funds for seeminglyintangible benefits at a possible unspecifiedtime in the future, overshadowed byclear and immediate opportunities forshort-term gains.• Local political or community resistance toaccept the rationale for land controls, oftencompounded by weak or marginal interestin their enforcement. Licensing proceduresare noticeably corrupt in many countries.There are many links to the challenges describedin chapter two related to risk assessments.230