Background
Current climate change is generating increasingly visible and destructive impacts on exposed territories, depending on their physical and social characteristics. Promoting disaster risk reduction therefore requires coordinated strategies that engage multiple actors—scientists, decision-makers, institutions, and citizens—across different governance levels. Central to this effort is risk communication, understood as the exchange of information and opinions about risks and related factors among analysts, managers, and stakeholders. Effective risk communication supports risk management by informing decisions and actions aimed at reducing hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. However, communication effectiveness is closely linked to risk perception—the way individuals and communities interpret the likelihood and severity of hazards—shaped by knowledge, past experiences, and local adaptive capacity.
Aim
REFOCUSING (PRIN 2022) aims to strengthen local climate-change adaptation by improving risk governance through more effective, credible, and participatory risk communication. The project focuses on climate-related geo-hydrological hazards (floods and landslides) and, where relevant, coastal processes (coastal erosion and storm surges), adopting a comparative design in two pilot municipalities: Osimo (Marche Region) and Vibo Valentia (Calabria Region). Its core ambition is to move beyond an “alerts-only” logic and promote a preparedness-oriented communication model that is visible in ordinary time, actionable during emergencies, and capable of post-event learning. The main expected outcome is an operational, place-based participatory risk communication strategy, locally calibrated yet transferable to other territorial contexts and in different hazard scenarios.
Methods
The project activities were structured into four Work Packages.
- WP1 – Preliminary Analysis reconstructed hazard history, impacts, existing communication systems, and stakeholder networks in both municipalities, producing a validated baseline.
- WP2 – Stakeholder Consultation gathered empirical evidence through a citizens’ questionnaire (319 valid responses) and focus groups with institutional and intermediary actors. This phase explored risk perception, trust, communication practices, and preferred channels, and produced a reusable Consultation Toolbox.
- WP3 – Participatory Risk Communication Strategy translated evidence into an operational, locally calibrated strategy. The model emphasizes clear and action-oriented messages, strengthened institutional workflows, a digital-first but inclusive communication ecosystem, and preparedness as a routine practice across the disaster cycle.
- WP4 – Dissemination ensured continuous engagement with municipalities and Civil Protection actors, leading to formal institutional endorsement and long-term collaboration frameworks.
