Preparing for natural hazard disasters during a climate crisis: the influence of culture on people's interaction with multi-hazard risk on the Commonw

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A natural hazard event such as an earthquake might cause a disaster in one community and not another. One reason for this is "social vulnerability" which refers to a person's capacity to cope with a hazard event and is influenced by various demographics, trust, experience of previous events, and risk perception - all of which are themselves influenced by culture. Climate change is altering the intensity and frequency of hazards meanwhile urbanisation is pushing people intohazard-prone areas. Consequently, there is a need for disaster risk reduction (DRR) research. In my research I aim to consider how different cultures interact with the concept of multi-hazard risk. There is a growing call for DRR researchersto consider social science in their studies. There is also a gap in the literature with respect to understanding how people perceive multi-hazard risk; that is risk from various hazard sources that may be interrelated. Through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, I propose to employ a mixed method design to improve our understanding of how people define their own culture(s), how people understand the relationship between hazard events, how meaningful the concept of "risk" is to people, and what factors influence people's preparedness. I aim to conduct my research on the Commonwealth of Dominica, a volcanic island in the Caribbean that has the goal of becoming the world's first climate-resilient nation and is susceptible to multiple physical hazards.