## 5 Discussion  
Despite the relatively small number of participants compared to the overall population of the city, the previous sections appear to indicate that local residents have a good perception of the hazard risks in Chanaral. The mayor of Chanaral and his team believe that the town is safe against tsunamis and are more worried about floods, given that the frequency of these events has increased in recent years (which were rather infrequent in the past). The floods are thus perceived as a more imminent threat than tsunamis. However, the community mapping exercise indicates that it is likely that local residents (when acting as a group) understand well the risks about tsunamis and know how to evacuate, and the inundation simulations show that a tsunami could cause widespread damage in the lower reaches of the city. Hence, it would appear that groups of residents have a more accurate perception of the risks than local authorities. This shows that the community relies more on traditional knowledge than on the information which is provided to them by the authorities. With regards to the exercise itself, it was clear that through the use of conceptual maps participants were better prepared to afterwards tackle the identification of risk areas on the satellite map. It was interesting to note how many of those who participated had a distorted image about distances and the location of various roads and places within the town (as seen in the conceptual map), though they probably have an accurate knowledge of how long it takes to reach certain destinations in their own neighborhood. However, it is unclear what would happen if they were to be in a different part of the city when a disaster struck. Also, it is noteworthy that many people in the city work in areas close to the coastline, which are at high tsunami risk. Thus, this distorted perception of distance could influence potential casualties, and represents an interesting target for future research [51]. In term of group dynamics, during the group mapping exercise the research team could see how some of the participants were more active than others, becoming spontaneous leaders. This was to some extent counteracted by the authors, who attempted to make sure that the opinion of the quieter members was also heard. The researchers also inquired about the different experiences during recent disasters, and participants were actually eager to share their experiences during the 2015 and 2017 events. These stories are particularly important to detect uncovered problems, which might be more difficult to detect using other methodologies. Essentially, recalling a story and a continuous series of situations can enable a person to recognize difficulties or obstacles that they may encounter during a future disaster. Regarding intended evacuation behavior, there is a noticeable difference in the intended evacuation behavior of the two groups. The first group believed it was more important to reach the man-made safe points such as the school, playground, or hospital which are also identified as critical infrastructure in the community. In contrast, the second group focused on evacuating to the mountain areas--where the lighthouse is located--which is also considered to be a safe place. This difference in intended behavior should be further examined to identify the underlying factors that influence community evacuation. Existing agent-based evacuation simulations [18; 19; 52] could be a good tool to simulate community behavior based on different scenarios and conditions. Currently Chile has a tsunami alert system that is run by SHOA and ONEMI (National Office for Emergencies under the Ministry of the Interior, in its Spanish acronym), were the first institution identifies the risk of a tsunami and notifies it to ONEMI. This information is distributed to the population by policemen (carabineros), firefighters, and sometimes text messages sent to mobile phones.