Understanding Risks and Building Enhanced Capabilities in Latin American Cities: Vulnerability and Risk Perception Data - El Pacifico Case Study, 2019-2021

This dataset includes information about the physical vulnerability and risk perception in the self-constructed neighbourhood El Pacífico in Medellín, URBE Latam's case study neighbourhood in Colombia. The GIS data results were created through participatory data collection with the local community, where participants used printed maps and the questionnaire to indicate their views on physical vulnerability and risk, drawing on the expertise of project team members from the British Geological Survey.

The community risk perception data includes the community’s perceptions regarding several types of geohazards and memories of past hazard events in their neighbourhood.

Guided by the community’s priorities for data collection, the GIS data contains occupants’ perceptions of the building conditions, as well as memories of past disaster events and damages to the buildings. These datasets result from multiple interactions between the local project team and the community leaders.

The co-production of the physical vulnerability and risk perception data led to two outcomes:

1) Fine-grained and richer data on factors of vulnerability and risk in the neighbourhood. Prior to the project, the neighbourhood had been unmapped. The project produced detailed and geospatial risk data.
2) The co-productive activity further strengthened the community’s ability for self-empowerment for risk reduction. Due to the co-productive nature of the data creation process, the data was directly relevant for community initiatives, such as the community’s own training curriculum for disaster risk reduction. It also enabled the community to proactively engage with the municipal government to negotiate policy interventions for risk reduction and post-disaster recovery. The data deposited here are thus a result of a novel collection protocol to generate trusted data for municipal disaster risk reduction policy-making and community self-organisation.