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Policy responses to disaster risk201• The multiple stakeholders with roles to play in shapingrisk. Stakeholders’ actions influence the degree towhich they, and others, are placed at risk. This can behard to pin down – for example, when such actions arepart of everyday development processes.• The multiple phases that disaster cycles pass through.Perceptions of risk and actions to build capacity andresilience may look very different before and after disasterand during periods of everyday development.It is precisely in urban centres where these overlappingaspects of risk are most challenging. Thus, urban risk assessmentmethodologies and programmes need to bemulti-sectoral, multidisciplinary and sensitive to differentiatedrisk, vulnerability and capacity. 22Additional challenges of risk assessment include thefollowing:• While innovations in information technology, includingthe use of satellite imagery, offer great potential assources of data for assessments, access to this technologyis not equally distributed globally and even withincountries. Inequality in the distribution of humanresources, as well as hardware, and the ability to buy indata from private sources comprise a challenge fordevelopment.• People are the true wealth of cities. However, manymeasurements of urban risk, particularly those operatingat the urban scale, focus on built assets at risk. Thismay be a reflection of the economic importance ofphysical assets. It might also reflect the background ofscientists who have led the field of urban risk modellingand assessment, an area dominated until recently by anengineering focus and an interest in earthquake risk. Italso reflects the difficulty of measuring human vulnerability,particularly at larger scales.• The fast pace of change in the physical fabric and sociallife of slums, and other low-income settlements, is achallenge for risk assessment. Local and participatorymethodologies have partly been adopted in response tothis challenge as they are easier to manage and lesscostly and therefore can be undertaken with greaterfrequency. More problematic, still, is the difficulty ofincluding highly vulnerable people dispersed across thecity, such as the homeless and illegal immigrants, inparticular. This challenge is proving hard to overcome ineven wealthier countries and cities.Perceptions of riskPerceptions of risk play an important part in disaster riskreduction. They influence the ways in which risk ismeasured and the willingness of citizens and authorities toundertake actions to manage risk. Planners and policymakersoften employ expert risk analysis to justify hazardmitigation policies; yet, expert and lay risk assessments donot always concur. This can undermine policy legitimizationand compliance.Perceptions are shaped by a number of factors, includingthe nature and availability of disaster-related information,past experiences of disaster events, cultural values and thesocio-economic status of concerned individuals or households.Perceptions influence the relative importance given tonatural or human-made hazards, compared to other competingneeds and opportunities. In turn, the importanceascribed to disaster risks determines subsequent efforts toavoid or limit the impacts of those hazards. For instance,research in the US has found that hurricane risk perceptionis a useful predictor of storm preparation, evacuation andhazard adjustment undertaken by households. 23The ability of a household or individual to act onperceived risk is also constrained by their coping andadaptive capacity and by urban governance institutions. Toooften, poverty and marginalization force the most vulnerableto accept risk from natural and human-made hazards as atrade-off for access to shelter and work. Risk assessmentscan help policy-makers understand the multiple risks facedby those in poverty by making perceptions more tangible.Once individuals have experienced a disaster event,they tend to have an elevated sense of future risk. 24 Withoutsupport, this can lead to stress and panic. A number ofrumours and false alarms followed in the wake of the IndianOcean Tsunami. In one instance, a rumour caused 1000people to flee from the beach area of Pangandaran(Indonesia). 25STRENGTHENING LOCALDISASTER RESILIENCELocal disaster resilience refers to the capacity of local actorsto minimize the incidence and impacts of disasters, and toundertake recovery and reconstruction activities once disastersoccur. In places where hazard and loss are tangible,disaster risk reduction or reconstruction can be opportunitiesfor improving the solidarity, inclusiveness, human skillsand confidence of local groups and their leaders. Box 8.6shows just how effective local capacity-building can be fordisaster risk reduction. This section reviews social, legislativeand economic pathways for building local resilience anddiscusses the challenges therein.Social pathwaysSocial capital offers a resource upon which to buildresilience to disaster shocks, even where economicresources are limited and political systems are exclusionary.Local stocks of social capital – norms and habits of behaviourthat support reciprocity and collective action – are resourcesthat can be used to build capacity in the face of multipledevelopment challenges, including disaster risk. Thisprovides a great opportunity for integrating disaster riskreduction and development at the local level.Building local networks of support and reciprocity canincrease self-reliance among households and neighbourhoodsand in this way enhance disaster resilience. Anexample of the benefits to be gained by communities withstrong social ties comes from Catuche, Caracas, inThe pace of changein the physical fabricand social life ofslums…is achallenge for riskassessmentPerceptions of risk…influence…thewillingness ofcitizens andauthorities toundertake actionsto manage risk…the mostvulnerable…acceptrisk from naturaland human-madehazard as a trade-offfor access to shelterand work