**6. Integrating hazard and disaster risk into the SIA process**

According to the Centre for Good Governance (2006), a conventional SIA process comprises the following ten steps, which are set out below with comments about how hazards and related disaster risks can be incorporated into the process.

#### **Step 1. Develop public involvement programme**

The first step is to develop an effective plan to involve the public. This requires identifying and working with all potentially affected groups. It should explicitly include those who might be exposed to greater (or lesser) hazard risk as a result of the project. Stakeholder engagement is vital to SIA and should take place throughout the assessment. This should involve genuine participation in the process, not merely consultation.

#### **Step 2. Describe proposed action and alternatives**

The proposed action or policy change (and alternative approaches, if appropriate) is described in enough detail to begin to identify the data requirements for an SIA and design the frame‐ work for assessment. Potentially key types of social impact, including those related to disasters, should be identified and plans made to obtain relevant data. This step is equivalent to the screening stage in an EIA.

#### **Step 3. Describe relevant human environment and zones of influence**

Relevant data on the geographical and human environments related to the project are collected and reviewed through a baseline study or community profile. This study could cover rela‐ tionships between people and their biophysical environment (e.g., ecological setting, aspects of the environment seen as resources or problems, patterns of resource use) and culture, attitudes and social–psychological conditions (e.g., risk perception, psychological coping).

Hazards and vulnerability should be factored into the baseline analysis.
