Landslide risk perception, social vulnerability and community resilience: The case study of Maierato (Calabria, southern Italy)

Community resilience is the ability of people exposed to disasters, crises and underlying vulnerabilities, to anticipate, to prepare for, to reduce the impact of, to cope with and to recover from the effects of shocks and stresses without compromising their long-term prospects. In February 2010, the town of Maierato (Calabria, southern Italy) was hit by a large landslide, which radically changed the morphology of the territory and produced an important social and economic impact. The aim of this paper is to deal with the concepts of social vulnerability and community resilience, within the framework of the landslide risk governance and the perception of the risk. Survey was conducted by means of a structured questionnaire interviewing 200 adults. Results, analyzed by means of qualitative methods with the support of descriptive statistics, highlighted several important remarks. Globally, this case study indicates that urgent actions should be taken to reduce disaster-risk such as: improving citizens' understanding of disaster management, reinforcing risk governance to improve disaster management, investing in risk mitigation and programs fostering adaptation and resilience, improving emergency planning strategies.