Preparedness against floods in nearly pristine socio-hydrological systems

The relations between preparedness and psycho-social attributes of people and communities exposed to river floods in a nearly pristine socio-hydrological system were investigated, applying a hydrological-hydraulic analysis of flood risk in combination with results from a survey, social cartography, semi-structured non-participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Results show that preparedness in nearly pristine systems is noticeably different to that reported for altered systems. People adopt innovative and simple but efficient measures against floods, conditioned by (1) damage suffered during past floods, (2) perceived exposure to floods, and (3) the number of dependent people in the household. The studied system proved to be well adapted to floods but not resilient. Studying attributes that explain preparedness as part of flood risk management plans would contribute towards uncertainty reduction in risk calculations and increase the safety of goods and people from floods.