Anxiety and demand for living conditions in the aftermath of disaster

Abstract

In the aftermath of a disaster, due to disrupted traffic and communication systems, survivors have to endure severe conditions for a certain period, address multiple issues in affected areas, and overcome the situations by themselves. This study aims to depict the relationship between residents' anxiety about post-disaster living conditions and demand for measures to improve living conditions. In this study, the anxiety about post-disaster living conditions is treated as the concern and fear of the difficult situations until external resources are adequately provided and temporal living conditions are sufficiently improved. Then, this study deals with the demand for measures as the intention and attitude of responding to these problems and taking measures in isolated and difficult situations. The target area in this study is the districts of Kirime area in Inami Town, Wakayama, Japan, including the tsunami inundation area estimated by the Nankai Trough Megathrust Earthquake assessment. To illustrate the relationship between residents’ anxiety and demand, a questionnaire survey was conducted with residents in the research area between September 12 and October 17, 2022. The number of valid responses in this study was 724. In the analyses, after individual perceptions of the anxiety and demands were measured, we identify factors of the anxiety and demand and their relationships. Results indicated seven factors of living space problems, physical health, mental stress, changes of daily life, living problems caused by facility damage, maintaining privacy, and cooperation within the area in the anxiety, and five factors of support for medical and health care activities, consideration for women, common space management, responding to individual needs, and community disaster response activities in the demand. The main factors for the perception of post-disaster living conditions were mental stress, changes of daily life, living problems caused by facility damage, and cooperation within the area in the anxiety.