Local knowledge, early warning and coastal hazards: Participatory inquiry among fishworkers in Kerala, India

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that local knowledge systems are inherent elements of people's capacity to forecast natural hazards and thereby reduce disaster risk. It describes the local knowledge systems prevalent among traditional fishworkers in Kerala to predict and forecast coastal hazards. Apart from diverse techniques of participatory inquiry, in-depth interviews were carried out with 400 fishing households across 20 marine fishing villages of the state. The socially constructed nature of coastal hazards is demonstrated as a holistic phenomenon namely kolu. The empirical knowledge related to forecasting and prediction of kolu is thus explained in terms of biotic, oceanic, atmospheric and celestial spheres. This paper asserts the need for effective community-based early warning systems that are deeply embedded in the livelihood struggles and lifeworld of marginalised resource-dependent communities.

“What is a Sociologist Doing Here?” An Unconventional People-Centered Approach to Improve Warning Implementation in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

“…People are included as receivers of alerts sent via short message services (SMS), apps, TV, and so on. This top-down approach ignores that societies have a long history of coping with calamities (Hewitt 1983), that people have created their own traditional warning systems (Santha et al 2014).…”

Mental models of sea-level change: A mixed methods analysis on the Severn Estuary, UK

“…For example, lay people in the Philippines include an increase in the intensity and frequency of storm events in their perceptions of climate change (Combest-Friedman et al, 2012), and lay representations of stressors on marginal African coasts include storm surges, waves and high tides (Bunce et al, 2010). Indeed, local knowledge of such factors has been shown to be important for forecasting coastal hazards in India (Santha et al, 2014). Other research however highlights differences between expert and public perceptions.…”

“…Ignoring lay perspectives is incompatible with democratic ideals, and lay participation can increase legitimacy and improve confidence in risk institutions (Fiorino, 1990). Some aspects of lay risk judgments are as sound (or more so) than expert risk judgments, and local knowledge can add a valuable layer to risk understandings (Fiorino, 1990;Irwin and Wynne, 1996;Lebel, 2013;Santha et al, 2014). Furthermore, without feedback from the target audience, scientists do not know how their well-intended communications are received and understood by the public: this 'strategic listening' (Pidgeon and Fischhoff, 2011, 38) is the purpose of this study.…”

“…To do this, we use the mental models approach developed by Morgan et al (2002). Previous research into SLC perceptions has tended to rely heavily on survey approaches (Evans et al, 2012;Ryan et al, 2012), while some have used interviews (Harvatt et al, 2011;Barnett et al, 2013;Santha et al, 2014), or surveys prior to deliberative workshops . None has used a mental models approach, despite its successful application to other risks including climate change Morgan et al, 2002;Cox et al, 2003;Lowe and Lorenzoni, 2007).…”

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

“…As argued in the literature, there is a need to develop an understanding of and to create an evidence base for LK before it can be effectively used in decision-making processes and policy levels (e.g., [7,33]). Unlike many Asian countries [37,[57][58][59][60], this evidence base is virtually non-existent for much of Africa [11,28,61,62], with previous studies in Malawi [41,[45][46][47][63][64][65][66] merely acknowledging the existence and importance of LK, without any deeper understanding of what constitutes LK. Given that African countries are experiencing the impacts of global changes, it is important to take a step further from mere documentation of LK and critically assess its reality and potential role for DRR.…”