Risk and disaster: arguments for a community-based planning approach

Abstract

Using recent natural disasters in the San Francisco Bay area as illustrative examples, this paper examines the general nature of disaster planning and traditional approaches that emphasize response and recovery aspects. For strategies focused on preparation, this process is for the most part centralized, and neglects the individual and neighborhood levels. The author argues that planners must go beyond a focus on the traditional land-use mitigation strategies in pre-disaster planning stages, and give equal attention to the value of a bottom-up planning process. A model for this type of planning, using community and neighborhood-level groups as the primary vehicle for disaster preparedness activity, is briefly described. Examples of this process emerging in the Bay Area are also identified. Finally, given the scant attention to community-based models of disaster preparedness, an agenda for further research is proposed. -from Author