Incorporating Public Participation into Landslide Risk Information and Response: Disaster Response Switch in the Taisho District of Shimanto-cho, Kochi, Japan

Abstract

A disaster response switch is a tool for incorporating public participation into disaster risk information and response and is considered by communities themselves in determining the timing of disaster response actions through the combination of local information in the community and public information from local government and professional organizations. In this study, a trial on disaster response switch for landslide risk was conducted in the Taisho District, Shimanto-cho, Kochi, Japan, and a method for implementing the switch as well as the effects of this public participation was verified. The results showed that the communities highly considered switches based mostly on local information. In addition, they improved their understanding of the relationships between subjective local information and objective public disaster risk information through bosai (disaster prevention) recording, where communities take pictures of places around the disaster response switches as community records. This trial showed the importance of taking into consideration communities’ participation when they evacuate. The public participation of the disaster response switch moved the focus of risk information from the contents or accuracy of the information to the social system of evacuation action in the community, based on the acceptance of uncertainty in the information.