Contributions of gaming simulation in building community-based disaster risk management applying Japanese case to flood prone communities in Thailand upstream area

Abstract

Thailand has a long history of flood disasters. The Great Flood in 2011, for example, affected many parts of the country, including Bangkok. This obviously revealed the limitations of disaster management by the government. Movements in responding and helping communities to manage against flood disasters are still ambiguous and rudimentary; while local communities still rely on external support. This study aims to strengthen community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) by using gaming simulation (GS) as a tool. This is participatory action research (PAR) using empirical data from applying GS, participatory observation and interviews in selected communities. Three flood prone communities in an upstream province in Thailand that represent successful case, on-going case and non-active case in building CBDRM used as case studies. The GS named ‘Community Cooperation Game’ (CCG) was designed as a prototype in a Japanese case study on flood management in Sonobe District, Kyoto Prefecture. The CCG was applied in the three flood prone communities in Thailand; that enabled these three communities to simulate flood situations and make mutual decisions on how to manage flood scenarios by following roles, rules and scenarios of the game. The main findings of this study are 1) a list of GS contributions in achieving CBDRM process indicators; and 2) evidence that suggest that GS can be used as a valuable tool to build CBDRM process by promoting social resilience through CCG in local communities in Thailand. The research concludes that the prototype of CCG on building CBDRM can be generalized in Thai local communities.