Place attachment and relocation, a difficult combination

Humans’ attachment to the place where they live is widely recognized. Nevertheless, landscapes can be characterized by aspects that make their communities prone to natural hazards. When a disaster occurs, the relocation of the people involved can be necessary. Such a relocation, however, can be opposed by interested communities, given the place attachment (PA) to the environment at risk. For this reason, a clear understanding of this aspect is mandatory to better calibrate risk adaptation measures involving relocation. In this work, a systematic review of the role of PA in the management of relocation measures was carried out. The review followed the PRISMA protocol (Preferred Re-porting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses). The findings indicate that generally, strong PA is associated with a low propensity for relocation, regardless of risk perception or awareness levels. This low propensity is related mainly to the fact that the place of relocation cannot satisfy the symbolic needs associated with the place of origin. On the other hand, PA is often linked to a greater propensity to take care of the place in which people live. Therefore, it can lead to the realization of adaptive behaviors. From this perspective, among scholars, there is consensus that PA needs to be considered in the construction of strategies for natural hazard management involving relocation. In addition, the literature shows that there have also been attempts to develop attachments to new relocation sites. These attempts have had mixed results. Therefore, it is even more important to further investigate the role of PA as a nonstructural measure to improve the resilience of populations affected by natural disasters.