How People Feel Endangered by Natural Hazards: Interpretation of Questionnaires in the Callejón de Huaylas

The objective of this study was to find out the opinion of a selected population at risk in the Cordillera Blanca. We distributed questionnaires among the local population, which revealed their perception of several natural hazards. These results were compared with known hazards both from literature and our own experience from fieldwork. An approach combining physical and human geography together with statistical methods was used to identify the most dangerous threats, namely global warming, and pollution. The social aspect of the investigation suggests that the population at risk does not trust the local authorities and obtains most of its information from television.