Environment Agency And Risk Communication Strategies : Cultural competence in flood risk communication

This book examines the importance of delivering culturally appropriate preparedness messages in a multicultural society. The discussion focuses on how cultural sensitivity / policies can help improve the quality of risk communication among ethnic minority groups and investigates ways to integrate this into the existing structure of the Environment Agency. This study is built on a collection of documented information from regional, national and international sources. In order to provide the necessary information to enable the author to construct arguments that support his proposal, content analysis was prepared in the following areas; risk communication, cultural sensitivity and the effects of culture on risk perception, hazard mitigation and warning response. The author is of the view that western culture, with its logical, pragmatic and quantitative scientific analysis is often weak at understanding the correlation between beliefs, human vulnerability, hazards and community perspectives (Padayachee, 2005). As a result, the study identifies that for contemporary risk communication to be successful among ethnic or minority communities, the agency staffs need to understand