Developing community disaster resilience through preparedness

Abstract

Disasters have the potential to cause great devastation, such as significant human, material and environmental loss. Due to the increase in disaster frequency and impacts, there has been a shift in focus from disaster recovery and response to disaster prevention. Preventative disaster management is essential in reducing and eliminating community disaster risk exposure. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of three past events including the 2011 Queensland floods, the Harrietville Community Emergency Management Plan and the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes. By combining the existing literature, secondary qualitative data analysis, a conceptual model of disaster management has been developed. The findings of this research include; the development of a conceptual model that present new concepts to improve the community resilience capabilities; identification of effective methodologies for developing community resilience; the potential implementation of social media as a preparedness strategy; and discussion on community empowerment and a shared responsibility amongst all agencies.