LAUSR

This paper investigates coping, adaptation and institutional perceptions related to hydrological risk at the local scale in Santarém city (Amazon, Brazil). Methods include secondary data, field observations and qualitative techniques (focus groups and in-depth interviews). The stakeholders from the affected neighborhoods describe their coping and adaptation strategies based on purposefulness, the types of initiative and investment, the risk timing, the temporal and spatial scope, and the performance. The results provide an inventory of sixteen strategies, mostly structural measures. The perception of six institutions to general responses are presented as opinions on actions that reduce flood effects, individual strategies in at-risk areas, the type of collective community actions in at-risk areas, and the actions of the public and private sectors to manage floods. Understanding action's strategies and the public institutional flood risk perception is beneficial to the implementation of risk and disaster reduction policies and practice. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.