6. Facilitating Community Participation in Disaster Risk Management: Risk Perception and Preparedness Behaviours in Turkey

This chapter aims to present a brief review of disasters and the disaster management system in Turkey, followed by a presentation and evaluation of some psychological models developed for explaining individual disaster preparedness behaviours. The models all stress the importance of facilitating awareness of risks, having information about methods to combat hazard (i.e. what to do) and the role of resources in predicting preparedness behaviours. Also highlighted are the significance of evaluations of coping choices, the perceived efficacy and cost of these choices and the availability of personal (e.g. education; self-efficacy), social (e.g. availability of social networks; civil society organisations dealing with particular hazards) and economic (e.g. financial resources; availability of long term credits) resources. Additionally, some factors that hinder preparedness behaviours, such as helplessness, fatalism, denial and externalisation of responsibility (i.e. belief that mitigation and preparedness is the responsibility of local or central government institutions) are presented. The chapter reports findings from studies on individual and community training and involvement in disaster risk management and predictors of hazard adjustment behaviours in Turkey (mostly conducted in Istanbul). It offers suggestions for community training programmes that aim to facilitate mitigation and preparedness behaviours in individuals and communities.