Investigating the flood risk perception of residents in informal settlements around the floodplains of river ravi in Lahore, Pakistan

With a rapid rate of urbanization in Lahore, Pakistan, many vulnerable residents of the city are forced to settle in katchi abadis or informal settlements at the outskirts along River Ravi. These people living within Ravi's embankments, are often slow to respond or heed flood disaster warnings and evacuation messages. This article studies the flood risk perception of River Ravi's residents to better understand their choices and evacuation behaviour during floods. Surveys were conducted with the sample population utilizing dominant worldviews of Douglas and Wildavsky's Cultural Theory and qualitative risk variables from Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein's Psychometric Paradigm to form major questionnaire items. This was further combined with Lindell and Perry's Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) for the analysis. An egalitarian worldview was found to dominate within the population where most residents were socially well bonded but had a weak authority subjection. Results further described the PADM outcome as mostly delayed or no evacuation based on the residents' worldview and result of their pre-decisional processes. Effect of threat, hazard adjustment, and stakeholders' perceptions on PADM's outcome was not definitive. For better flood risk management in Pakistan, policies need to shift towards improving stakeholders' perception as key to changing flood risk perception.