Abstract
In Monsoon Asia, home to more than half of the world’s population, extreme climatic events are expected to become more frequent and intense due to climate change. Modern disaster management to date has focused on assessing the risks of natural hazards based on historical data, responding to disasters through prevention and mitigation techniques, and information campaigns, instead of vernacular knowledge cultivated in the local environment. This has led the public to a dangerous complacency about the power of technology over nature, and neglecting the possibility of “unforeseen” events. Climate change has not only made it more difficult to assess the risks of natural hazards, but has also diminished local resilience to them. However, since the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action in 2005, Monsoon Asia has begun multi-sectoral efforts to build local resilience to natural hazards by integrating vernacular knowledge into modern disaster management. Whereas in the past, experts and government agencies regarded the public as mere recipients of their services, they have now become acutely aware of the need to build partnerships with local communities to compensate for current technological limitations in disaster management, and to imaginatively prepare for the increasing risks of climatic contingencies. To achieve these goals, vernacular knowledge can be a useful resource, and a number of efforts have been initiated in the region to preserve such knowledge in imaginative forms to pass it on to future generations.
Highlights
Enter Monsoon Asia onsoon Asia is a cradle of ancient civilisations and is still home to 52.9% of the world’s population (Kyuma, 2009, p.1)
Largescale disasters have occurred in the region that have exceeded the estimations of scientists, raising concerns about the effects of climate change
People living in Monsoon Asia have become dangerously complacent about their own safety: they abandoned the local wisdom that has long protected them from natural hazards, and have instead come to rely on science and technology introduced by outside experts
Summary
Enter Monsoon Asia onsoon Asia is a cradle of ancient civilisations and is still home to 52.9% of the world’s population (Kyuma, 2009, p.1). It is important to remember that just less than a century ago, the peoples of Monsoon Asia still protected their lives and property from natural hazards without relying on modern science and technology They had effectively and imaginatively sublimated their experiences of natural disasters into vernacular knowledge with reference to local culture through collective memories, beliefs, artefacts, and customs (Sasamoto, 1994). Monsoon Asia is a vast region spanning countries in South, Southeast, and East Asia, this article will focus on case studies from Japan, Thailand and Indonesia, along with supplementary examples from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea These countries, which have all experienced devastating natural disasters over the past two decades, aptly illustrate a renewed interest in vernacular knowledge to improve local resilience to natural disasters. To identify common problems in modern disaster management, this article will examine incidents of earthquakes and tsunamis that have struck the region, and present recent research on the potential impacts of climate change on earthquakes and tsunamis
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