During the last three decades, natural disasters increased in terms of occurrence, number of
affected people and estimated damages (CRED, 2009). Local communities have to cope with
this new reality of raised natural hazard risk (NHR), but at the same time face the challenge of
developing in a sustainable way. The field of natural hazard risks governance (NHRG) has
advanced in the past two decades. The 1990–1999 International Decade for Natural Disaster
Risk Reduction helped consolidate international sustainable strategies to face natural hazards,
mainly through the concepts of vulnerability and resilience. To decrease vulnerability and
increase resilience, the notion of participation, ultimately to empower local communities, is a fundamental
dimension of sustainable development, as expressed in the Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development (United Nations, 1992).