Questionnaire on employee awareness of disaster mitigation measures in municipal governments

Abstract

In the event of a disaster, municipal governments are expected to fulfil several responsibilities. However, owing to organizational reforms, cost reductions, and workforce reductions experienced by Japanese municipal governments in the 1990s and 2000s, they have arguably become incapable of providing effective community-based administration. In this context, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the employees of municipal governments in coastal regions of Japan where earthquakes and tsunamis are commonly anticipated. An attempt was made to evaluate the current state of disaster awareness within organizations and among staff members based on the survey results and clarify organizational and individual issues. Those surveyed were 288 officials with significant disaster response roles. The questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate their understanding of various disaster response measures and their knowledge of their responsibilities. In the questionnaire, three disaster phases were considered: the predisaster, rescue, and reconstruction phases. The responses of each employee corresponding to each phase were recorded. The results indicate that, although various plans were well known to all participants to a certain extent, the level of understanding varied between departments. In addition, departmental employees who were often involved in disaster mitigation were concerned about the coherence and effectiveness of the operations undertaken in various plans. Thus, these issues should be considered in future reviews of disaster response plans. Despite considerable progress in the development and distribution of emergency plans, much remains to be done to raise awareness regarding specific action plans among the staff. This concerns the specificity, coherence, and effectiveness of each plan rather than the knowledge of the personnel.