Abstract
This chapter includes some of the author’s previously published original research. The opportunity to present this research in a different format to a new audience is welcomed, particularly given the urgent need to provide people with new preparedness tools. Given the extent and frequency of extreme weather events occurring almost as a global continuum, the more that can be done to mitigate risk and build resilience, the better. The need to equip people and communities with the confidence and ability to prepare and protect themselves and the people and places they hold dear, requires a suite of achievable, practical, and inexpensive options from which they can choose. Therefore, this chapter draws upon this author’s previously published and cited work that outlines preparedness and risk reduction strategies that have the potential not only to save physical lives, but as well reduce the psychological trauma, anguish and heartache that can destroy people years after the ravages of a disaster. The reference list below contains the original source of earlier publications.
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Notes
- 1.
Pragmatic qualitative research in this study is the “intersection set” of description and interpretation: where description presents the experiences of the participants, interpreted by the researcher.
- 2.
Ontology is concerned with the nature of reality. Critical realism sits partway between realism and relativism, and holds that reality can only be partially known.
- 3.
Epistemology is concerned with the nature of knowledge. Contextualism sits partway between positivism and constructionism, holding that knowledge will be valid in certain contexts. It is experiential because it prioritizes participants’ perspectives and meanings within an interpretative framework.
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Westcott, R. (2023). Where There Is Smoke: Normalizing Community Preparedness and Geohazard Resilience: A Wildfire Perspective. In: D'Amico, S., De Pascale, F. (eds) Geohazards and Disaster Risk Reduction. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24541-1_19
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