Assessing the state of the art in community engagement for participatory decision-making in disaster risk-sensitive urban development

Hemba Geekiyanage, MD; Fernando, TP; Keraminiyage, KP

Abstract

Vulnerable communities are often marginalized in the decision-making process in urban development due to barriers to community entry and challenges for community engagement. The state-of-the-art on these constraints' limits to a specific region, state, or a context; thus, the knowledge is scattered and not forming a global perspective on how and why communities' engagement in urban development has been hindered. Having a sound understanding of the existing barriers and challenges to community inclusive decision-making process is paramount for finding solutions for transforming current practices towards equitable urban development. Accordingly, this comprehensive, structured literature review aims to consolidate literature of the current challenges and barriers to community-driven decision-making in urban development and of the potential solutions to overcome them. A structured literature review covering indexed publications from 2010 to 2020 was carried out to identify and classify barriers/challenges and solutions that exist at present. Following a systematic filtering process, a total of 63 out of 1324 research contributions have been considered for an in-depth analysis. The study found 48 barriers and challenges regarding the current context, available infrastructure for community engagement, and current decision-making processes. Of all, the lack of communities' knowledge and awareness, absence of meaningful community engagement, and ill-defined aims and purpose of community engagement were identified as the topmost constraints. By synthesising the current research, the study found that these barriers can potentially be overcome through attitude transformation and capacity building of both community and professionals, investment in community engagement, and changes to present stakeholder engagement processes and policies.

Citation

Hemba Geekiyanage, M., Fernando, T., & Keraminiyage, K. (2020). Assessing the state of the art in community engagement for participatory decision-making in disaster risk-sensitive urban development. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 51, 101847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101847

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 2, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 16, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 16, 2021
• Journal: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
• Print ISSN: 2212-4209
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 51
• Pages: 101847
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101847
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101847
• Related Public URLs: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/
• Additional Information: Additional Information : ** From Europe PMC via Jisc Publications Router **Journal IDs: issn 2212-4209; nlmid 101613236; essn 2212-4209 **Article IDs: pmid: 32959013; pmcid: PMC7493740 **History: published_online 16-09-2020; published 01-09-2020; Funders : Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC);Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF); Projects : Technology Enhanced Stakeholder Collaboration for Supporting Risk-Sensitive Sustainable Urban Development; Grant Number: ES/T003219/1