Education on landslides: assessing interventions in Rio de Janeiro

Risk reduction guidelines only based on structural actions have proven limited and it highlights the need for non-structural measures like creating a risk reduction culture linked to social actors’ participation to reach the established goals. The educational workshop “Someday the Slope Will Fall” was launched in 2017 to outspread participatory scientific communication on landslide disaster risk. This workshop has been held in schools, museums and communities in Rio de Janeiro State, which is often hit by such events. The workshop addresses physical and social factors linked to landslide risks by integrating interdisciplinary and interactive strategies. The present study is an analysis on this workshop’s implementation and impact on students’ learning, as well as on how it increased their awareness of this topic based on a 2024 experience lived in a public high school in Rio de Janeiro City. Students’ initial perceptions about the addressed topic were assessed through educational activities. The process was evaluated through questionnaire application and mediators’ observation. The conducted interactive activities triggered students’ interest in the workshop and encouraged their effective participation in it. Students showed significant knowledge and proficient debate skills on nearly all assessed topics two months after the workshop. The findings were a positive step forward in disaster risk reduction education because they provided a set of educational tools aimed at reducing risk for landslide hazardous events in combination to an evaluation process that could be extrapolated to other scenarios.