Communicational challenges in disaster risk management: Risk information sharing and stakeholder collaboration through risk and vulnerability assessments in Sweden

Summary, in English

Many countries have established disaster risk management systems. These systems involve various parties and aim to maximize resources and use their diverse expertise to manage disaster risks. In such systems, sharing risk and vulnerability assessments (RVAs) between stakeholders is the most common way to communicate risk-related information. This study investigates communication challenges linked to the preparation and use of RVAs in Sweden. The practices of five national authorities, five country administrative boards and 16 municipalities were studied in 36 semi-structured interviews. Questions concerned the sharing of risk-related information and stakeholder collaboration. An analysis of the perceived communication challenges showed that the major problems were the lack of a constructive vertical feedback mechanism (which resulted in one-way communication), and limited stakeholder partnerships and collaboration in the horizontal dimension.

• Author: Lexin Lin; Marcus Abrahamsson
• Department/s: Lund University Centre for Risk Assessment and Management (LUCRAM)
• Publishing year: 2015
• Language: English
• Pages: 165-178
• Publication/Series: Risk Management
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 3
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/rm.2015.11
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Topic: Communication Studies
• Keywords: disaster risk management (DRM); risk and vulnerability assessment (RVA); communicational challenge; stakeholders; risk information sharing; collaboration
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1460-3799