About this Research Topic

Background

In the field of natural hazards, communicating science with the public and stakeholders involves entering the challenging and complex world of hazard and risk communication, the ultimate purpose of which is to reduce the impact of impending hazards on people at risk. According to the Sendai Framework 2015-2030, it is important to “strengthen the utilization of media, including social media, traditional media, big data and mobile phone networks, to support national measures for successful disaster risk communication.” Sometimes risk communication has collateral and unexpected side effects that may lead to the adoption of inadequate behaviors. In some instances, this can even result in legal actions being taken against scientists and/or emergency managers.

The role of the media should be to facilitate the accurate communication of hazard and risk information, but such communication is often hampered by the fact that journalists have different agendas and priorities than scientists, risk communicators, and emergency managers. This does not always support people in their decision making. Accurate communication of hazard and risk is especially important when decisions have to be made within contexts where uncertainty is very high. This is often the case with geohazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.

We welcome articles that address topics including, but not limited to, the following:

● the role of public contributions—citizen science and crowdsourcing, big data, community engagement, privacy and geoethics—and how such contributions can be effectively integrated with technical monitoring data
● the slippery spectrum of hazard, impact, risk, and action advice; i.e., interagency coordination, legalities, and the integration of risk modelling in the forecasting process
● the development of a common language; i.e., understanding user needs and perceptions, the role of media, the communication of uncertainty, innovating visualization tools, and producing the right information at the right time
● monitoring and evaluation; i.e., rumor control, monitoring perceptions and responses, evaluation of communication, and implementing improvements.

We encourage the submission of case studies, Review articles, Original Research articles, as well as the sharing of experiences and descriptions of outreach programs in the form of Perspective, Policy Brief, or Opinion articles. Comparative articles with other fields, such as extreme weather and hydrogeological phenomena, will also be considered.

Our aim is for this Research Topic to advance the global understanding of good practices in risk communication for geohazards and explore new and emerging topics. We hope that the articles will highlight practical considerations and ideas for agencies issuing probabilistic forecasts, providing scientific advice to decision-makers in charge of emergency response.

Image credit: Tom Podmore

Keywords: risk communication, geohazards, georisks, citizen science, disaster communications

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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