Improving Risk Communication Strategies through Public Awareness and Engagement: Insights from South Tyrol and Carinthia

Abstract

This chapter presents experiences and results from the INTERREG Italy-Austria Project RiKoST-Risk communication strategies. The project is a collaboration between partners from research and public authorities and aims at improving target-group-oriented risk communication in South Tyrol (Italy) and Carinthia (Austria). Risk communication plays an essential role for risk governance and may address different aspects and fulfill various purposes, from informing about natural hazards, generating acceptance and awareness for structural and non-structural measures, to triggering participation, increasing resilience, and supporting the development of a risk-competent society. To be effective, risk communication needs, firstly, to acknowledge the needs of different target groups and, secondly, to develop approaches, tools and contents that are most suitable to reach and involve them. This chapter describes the results from different activities carried out in the project: a population survey to better understand people’s risk perception and their knowledge about natural hazards, the information channels they use and trust; awareness raising activities in different municipalities; interactive lessons and a workshop in schools; stakeholder workshops. Our results show that that existing non-structural protection and prevention measures, especially Hazard Zone Plans, are little known among the population, that trust in the responsible authorities is high and that there is a need for a risk dialog through different risk communication activities at different stages to provide targeted information on how individual citizens can contribute to risk management. The chapter concludes on how the presented results can be used by public authorities and policy makers to innovate risk communication strategies and to initiate a risk dialog with the overall aim to improve risk governance at local level.