Disaster Prevention Awareness Research Articles

Practical report on the Influence of public lectures on disaster prevention consciousness, measures and healthcare behaviour

Practical report on the Influence of public lectures on disaster prevention consciousness, measures and healthcare behaviour

Comparative Study of Literacy Enhancement on Volcanic Disaster Reduction for the Residents and Visitors in Mt. Ontakesan and Other Volcanic Areas

After the eruption of Mt. Ontakesan Volcano in 2014, Ontakesan Volcano Laboratory, Nagoya University was established in 2017 to keep and develop the face-to-face relationship between the local community and volcano experts. In 2018, the Ontakesan Volcano Meister System also started to undertake activities for volcanic disaster management and promotion of the regional economy. Additionally, two visitor centers opened in Kiso Town (at the foot of Mt. Ontakesan) and Otaki Village (at the entrance of the trail to the summit) in 2022. We compared these activities in the Ontakesan area with other volcanic areas (Usuzan, Bandaisan, Hakoneyama, Fujisan, Asosan, Unzendake, and Sakurajima) from the perspective of literacy enhancement on volcanic disaster management. We made an interview survey of the organizations/facilities responsible for volcanic disaster prevention education in these volcano areas to evaluate the activity of the Ontakesan Voclano Meisters. We considered common and specific issues among them to clarify the characteristics of literacy enhancement for volcanic disaster reduction in the Ontakesan area. In all the organizations that we surveyed, there is a common emphasis on the education for children to transfer disaster memories to the next generation and to raise their awareness of disaster prevention. Though the Ontakesan Volcano Meisters have less interaction with the local residents than other areas, they exceed in the enlightenment for climbers and have made efforts to raise the safety awareness of climbers on site since their establishment.

Reconstructing Historical Terrain to Elucidate the Causes of Disaster Occurrence and Improve Disaster Prevention Literacy

This research collects and interprets historical information about topography from old maps and pictures, and constructs a method to reconstruct past topography on 3D graphics. Furthermore, from the restored historical topography, we will elucidate how the historical changes in the topography are related to today’s disaster situation, and visualize the disaster risk in the target area. We hope that the results of this research will contribute to the cultivation of disaster prevention awareness and the improvement of disaster prevention literacy.

Mining and analysis of public sentiment during disaster events: The extreme rainstorm disaster in megacities of China in 2021

Cities are concentrated areas of population that are vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. Owing to the impact of climate change and extreme weather incidents in recent years, many cities worldwide have been affected by sudden disasters, especially floods, causing many casualties. Social media plays an important role in the communication and sharing of information when physical communication is limited in emergency situations. However, obtaining and using public sentiment during major disasters to provide support for emergency disaster relief is a popular research topic. In the summer of 2021, China's inland plains experienced extremely serious rainstorms. The rainfall on July 20 in the capital city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the most population province in China, reached 201.9 mm/h, causing extremely serious consequences. This case study examines people's sentiment about this event through datamining of Chinese Weibo social media during the extreme rainfall period. The six most concerned types of public response topics and 14 subcategory topics were determined from 2,124,162 Weibo messages. “Asking for help” and “public sentiment” dominated the main topics, reaching almost 66%, with a relatively even distribution of secondary categories, but with “appeal for assistance” taking the top spot. Topics changed cyclically with work and rest, but these areas seemed to lag behind coastal areas in their responses to the storm in the same time. The topics were centred around Zhengzhou and distributed in China's major city clusters, such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agglomerations, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta regions. Community-level disaster relief information was also discovered, which showed that high building power outages, basement flooding, tunnel trapping, and drinking water shortages were common topics in specific inner urban regions. This detailed information will contribute to accurate location-based relief in the future. Based on this lesson, a series of measures for urban flood reduction are proposed, including disaster prevention awareness, infrastructure building, regulation mechanisms, social inclusivity, and media dissemination.

Resident Questionnaire Analysis on Disaster Preparedness Awareness for Strategic Resilience Using the Resilience Analysis and Assessment Grid the RAG

The purpose of this research is to understand the urban characteristics of Tama New Town and develop a disaster-resistant community that aligns with those characteristics. This paper reports on the implementation of a “resident questionnaire on disaster prevention consciousness” among residents around Tama University, based on the Resilience Assessment Grid (RAG) concept used in Resilience Engineering. The RAG defines the four capabilities of a resilient organization as “Resilient Local residents = Anticipating + Watch over (Monitoring) + Preparation (Responding) + Learning.” We quantified the resilience potential of the community and found that Preparation (Responding) scored lower than the other items. Our findings can inform the design and management of a disaster-resistant community that is better prepared to anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from disasters.

Questionnaire Survey on Residents’ Awareness of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Prevention against Seismic Activity in the Northeastern Noto Peninsula

Questionnaire Survey on Residents’ Awareness of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Prevention against Seismic Activity in the Northeastern Noto Peninsula

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Resilient Community Construction Driven by Government Regulation and Market

As the basic unit of residents’ activities and social management, communities are the disaster bearers of various public security emergencies. To improve the ability and level of community governance, as well as to strengthen the construction of resilient communities, a tripartite evolutionary game model of local government, developers, and home buyers is built, and numerical simulation is carried out using Matlab to analyze the impact mechanism of main parameters on the evolutionary stability strategy. The results show that: (1) The three parties’ different initial intentions will lead to different evolutionary stability strategies of the system, and the system’s final evolution result will reach the ideal state only when the initial willingness of developers and buyers is high. (2) The greater the government’s subsidy coefficient and the greater the regulatory intensity, the more likely it is that developers will choose to build resilient communities. (3) Public awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation is an important determinant of the purchase of resilient community housing strategies. To achieve rapid development of resilient communities, the intensity of regulation must be continuously improved, the public’s awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation must be strengthened, and the government’s regulatory costs must be reduced.

Study on the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and fire safety management of commercial facilities

For the real estate industry in Japan, the significance of facility management has been on the rise in recent years. Especially, the importance of fire safety management for facilities has grown as part of preparations for potential large-scale earthquakes. Fire safety management is regulated by the Fire Service Act and is established based on analyses of past facility fire incidents. However, in fact, facilities with inappropriate fire safety management can often be observed. The purpose of this research is, to target commercial facilities, investigate and analyze the causes of inappropriate fire safety management from the perspective of human error, and implement effective fire safety management. The hypothesis was constructed that the reality of fire safety management in commercial facilities is related to the disaster prevention awareness of managers and employees in commercial facilities. The hypothesis was examined through field surveys in commercial facilities and interviews with facility managers and is substantiated. With the aim of reducing human errors in fire safety management, the "Fire Safety Management Checklist" has been proposed, and its effectiveness has been confirmed.

Current Situation of Disaster Preparedness for Effective Response in Japanese Special Needs Schools.

Schools may serve as shelters in the event of a disaster, but little is known about the requirements of children with disabilities in such situations. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate disaster preparedness in Japanese special needs schools depending on the designation of welfare shelters. A questionnaire was distributed to schools nationwide. The respondents (authorities from 531 schools) answered questions about their jobs, disaster experiences, the school type, its students' disabilities, its designation as a welfare shelter, its evacuation readiness, and the items of a disaster prevention awareness scale. Differences in preparedness among schools and the relationship between preparedness and designation as a welfare shelter were determined. Most respondents had never experienced a natural disaster. Schools had insufficient resources to cope with disasters. While the majority (68.2%) had resources for children to stay overnight, a substantial minority of schools (31.8%) did not. No differences were found in preparedness among schools with different types of children with disabilities. Schools designated as welfare shelters were significantly better prepared than others. Special needs schools in Japan have limited disaster preparedness. The designation of schools as welfare shelters may increase their preparedness for disasters.

Does the eight-factor "power to live" in disaster exist since childhood?

Studies on the survivors of the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami have revealed eight factors, called power to live, which are closely related to resilience and effective coping after intense and prolonged stress. However, whether the eight factors, which were examined in adults, are applicable to children is unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the eight-factor structure of power to live was present since late childhood. A 34-item power to live questionnaire was filled by middle- to upper-grade elementary (n = 378) and junior high school students (n = 456). Moreover, because elementary school students may lack introspective ability, their power to live was evaluated through a parental assessment (n = 358). Additionally, we examined the relationship between each power to live factor and questions regarding disaster prevention awareness among 25 elementary school students. The results from confirmatory factor analysis for factor structure revealed generally acceptable fit indices. The reports from elementary school students and their parents significantly positively correlated with each power to live factor. Although reliability indices for factors such as stubbornness, etiquette, self-transcendence, and active well-being were not good for elementary school students, the reliability indices for all factors, excluding stubbornness, increased in junior high school students. Moreover, we identified a correlation between problem-solving, altruism, and emotional regulation and questionnaire items regarding awareness of disaster prevention in elementary school students. Our results suggest that although factors common to adults, such as leadership, problem-solving, altruism, and emotional regulation, were identified at the elementary school stage, some factors, such as stubbornness, are in the process of being formed. Future studies should examine the developmental changes assumed to underlie these factors and their relationship to experience and neurodevelopmental basis.

Public–Private Partnerships and Their Limitations in Sustainable Public Sewerage Industry: A Comparative Analysis of Three Municipal Cases in Japan

Since the mid-1980s, many public water and sewerage business reforms have been carried out in countries around the world in the form of privatization and the introduction of market systems. In Japan, municipalities operate sewerage businesses as a public service, and their revenues are expected to decline in future due to a decrease in population and the deterioration of existing facilities and equipment. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the administrative reform of the public sewerage businesses in Japan as a means of increasing business efficiency and achieving sustainable management. For our research method, we conducted a case study of three advanced municipal sewerage business reforms, which were aimed at introducing outsourcing through long-term concessions, but two were abandoned by the local councils in the middle of the process. The research shows that the limiting factors for these sewerage business reforms include the uncertainty regarding the required investment for heavy rain and earthquake countermeasures. With growing awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation, municipalities are expected to mobilize maximum resources in an emergency. Furthermore, facilities that were constructed in the 1960s to meet the needs of a growing urban population have deteriorated and become an "unmeasurable risk." The second point is the uncertainty about the amount and duration of the central government subsidies provided to municipalities. Due to growing interest in environmental changes caused by global warming, severe weather events attract greater public attention. New capital investment is required to strengthen the capacity of sewerage systems, especially in densely populated urban areas. Under the principle that rainwater treatment is a public expense, about half of the construction cost of sewerage facilities for rainwater is subsidized by the central government. This is a customary yet unstable fiscal policy, making it an uncertain factor in implementing long-term public–private partnership projects.

Conducting an adaptive evaluation framework of importance and performance for community-based earthquake disaster management

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters have been increasing in recent decades; especially earthquakes are one of the causes of major natural disasters. Improving community adaptive response to disasters based on community capacity has gradually become an effective means of coping with disaster risks, as well as improving residents' well-being and community participation in disaster planning and management. We integrate community resilience and disaster management to establish an evaluation framework for community-based earthquake disaster management (CEDM) based on community perspectives under importance performance analysis method, and identify the factors affecting community adaptive behavior. Features that affect the differentiation of community residents' adaptive behavior in CEDM program are classified into risk perception, learning earthquake knowledge, the ability on earthquake prevention, and creating a platform on CEDM. The results identify that the CEDM has to integrate the higher community education plan, the stronger flexible to disaster preparedness, the higher the residents' awareness of disaster prevention, the stronger the ability to adapt to disasters; the higher the ability of the government and non-profit organizations to cooperate with the community to deal with disasters, and the stronger the community's ability to manage disasters. These findings provide valuable insights into the construction of CEDM systems and related policymaking.

Relationship between Teachers’ Awareness of Disaster Prevention and Concerns about Disaster Preparedness

Disaster preparedness in schools is critical for the health and well-being of students and staff. To enhance disaster preparedness, awareness of disaster prevention should be raised among teachers. The aim of the current study was to assess disaster prevention awareness among teachers and to clarify the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness. Teachers from special needs schools, for which disaster preparedness is particularly important, were selected. Study questionnaires were sent to 1310 schools for children with special health care needs across 47 Japanese prefectures. Five-hundred-and-thirty-one complete responses were obtained. The disaster preparedness in the schools was insufficient. Teachers were concerned about child management, life saving, life maintenance, evacuation shelter management, and school management. There was a positive correlation between disaster prevention awareness and concern about disaster (r = 0.217, p-value = 0.000). The disaster awareness scale items “A sense of crisis about disaster” and “Anxiety” were positively correlated with concern about disaster, whereas “Imagining the disaster situation” was negatively correlated with concern about disaster. The current study analyzed the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness, which is relevant for the practice and indicates the importance of imagination strengthening.

Once bitten, twice shy? Does the public adopt more disaster preparedness practices after experiencing more disasters?

Pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness have been recommended as effective methods for reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience in the face of disasters. This study used representative data collected in China Taiwan to examine the factors that influence disaster preparedness. This research location is ideal to examine disaster-related topics because of the frequency of disasters and the higher disaster prevention awareness of the public. This study revealed the following results: (1) Disaster damage, rather than disaster experiences, significantly affects the public's disaster preparedness behaviors; (2) Risk perception is a significant mediating variable in the relationship between disaster damage and disaster preparedness; (3) The factors influencing disaster preparedness differ across binary and interval dimensions, where the former refers to whether the public adopts disaster preparedness behaviors, and the latter refers to the degree of the disaster preparedness behaviors. Specifically, trust in government significantly affects whether the public adopts disaster preparedness behaviors, while it does not impact the degree of those behaviors; (4) Younger, more educated respondents with higher family income, religious beliefs, and higher social capital are more likely to prepare for disasters. Future interventions may best be focused on older people, respondents with a child or elderly people in the family, and people with lower family income. These people are more vulnerable to disasters, and society would benefit from improving their willingness to prepare for them.

Relationship between disaster prevention awareness and preparedness among residents living in mountainous areas of Japan

Relationship between disaster prevention awareness and preparedness among residents living in mountainous areas of Japan

Drought risk assessment of farmers considering their planting behaviors and awareness: A case study of a County from China

The increase in the frequency, scale, and intensity of drought disasters due to climate change will have a substantial impact on agricultural production activities. Farmers are some of the main victims of drought disasters, and their planting behavior and awareness will affect the regional drought risk level to varying extents. In this study, crop sensitivity under the influence of planting behavior and the subjective adaptability of farmers under the influence of disaster prevention awareness were analyzed. The aim was to assess the vulnerability of farmers to drought and build a risk assessment framework. The results suggested that (1) drought intensity in the southern towns of Xinghe County was relatively high, especially in Dianzi (DZZ), Zhanggao (ZGZ), and the eastern regions of Datongyao (DTY) and Chengguan (CGZ); (2) among the common crops in Xinghe County, the average water demand of naked oats had the highest correlation with precipitation (r, 0.74), suggesting that naked oats would help ensure relatively stable crop yields under drought conditions; (3) the drought vulnerability of Xinghe County tended to decrease from southeast to northwest, with Datongyao (DTY) and Dianzi (DZZ) suffering from the highest drought vulnerability; (4) the drought risk for Xinghe County showed a pattern of high in the South and low in the North. Among them, Saiwusu (SWS) and Datongyao (DTY) were the towns with the lowest and highest drought risk at 60.98% and 52.10%, respectively. With the impact of climate change, the SPI in most areas of Xinghe County indicated a downward trend (MK trend test, p < 0.05). The results suggest that drought risk and farmer vulnerability in this area will increase in the future.

Posttraumatic growth after the Fukushima nuclear disaster: Examination of free descriptions among Fukushima residents

Objectives Posttraumatic growth (PTG) refers to a positive psychological transformation experienced as a result of struggling with a major life crisis or traumatic event. In recent times, PTG has been used as a form of psychological support for those who have experienced trauma. In this study, we classified the free descriptions of PTG in Fukushima residents who experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). We examined the relationship between basic characteristics and PTG clusters, and between "recovery from radiation anxiety" and PTG clusters.Methods A mail survey was conducted in August 2016 among 2,000 Fukushima residents, aged 20-79 years. We asked the participants for a free description of the specific content of their PTG. We also asked about their age, gender, and education, as well as about radiation anxiety immediately after the GEJE and at the time of the survey. Participants were divided into the following groups: "no anxiety," "recovered from anxiety," and "unrecovered from anxiety". The PTG free descriptions were classified into eight categories, including five dimensions based on the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996) ("relating to others," "new possibilities," "personal strength," "spiritual change," and "appreciation of life") and three categories created according to Nishino et al. (2013) ("increased awareness of disaster prevention," "renewed recognition of nuclear-related issues," and "critical examination of information from authorities").Results Of the 916 collected responses, data from 786 responses with no missing values were analyzed. Among women and young people, the proportion of those who answered "relating to others" and "appreciation of life" was high. For those with higher education, the proportion of those who answered "relating to others," "renewed recognition of nuclear issues," "critical examination of information from authorities," "personal strength," "spiritual change," and "appreciation of life" was high. In the "recovered from anxiety" group, the proportion of those who answered "renewed recognition of nuclear issues" was high.Conclusion In assessing PTG, women and young people were more likely to report that they felt closely connected to family or friends, as well as to the community, and that they were grateful for their daily lives. Those with higher education tended to recognize that they have come to critically examine information provided by the national government, electric power companies, and national newspapers; they felt mental strength and growth after the earthquake. Those who recovered from radiation anxiety were more likely to report forming a heightened awareness of issues relating to nuclear power plants and energy.

Trend Analysis of Global Disaster Education Research Based on Scientific Knowledge Graphs

Disaster reduction and prevention have become urgent issues worldwide. Disaster education is an effective way to deal with frequent global disaster risks, carry out disaster prevention and relief measures in a timely manner, and reduce disaster losses. Based on the Web of Science database, using bibliometrics and network analysis methods based on scientific knowledge graphs, we conducted a visual analysis of global disaster education research trends from the perspectives of national cooperation spatial distribution, research hotspot mining, hybrid network analysis, and institutional cooperation spatial distribution of disaster education. The following conclusions were drawn. (1) The spatial distribution of disaster education research is uneven: it is clustered in Europe, evenly distributed in Asia and Africa, and scattered in North America and Oceania. Moreover, the United States in North America, China and Japan in Asia, and Australia in Oceania have the largest number of articles. (2) The field of disaster education focuses mainly on the themes of education, disaster nursing, disaster risk and reduction, disaster awareness, and earthquakes. The general trend of research hotspots is disaster risk &gt;&gt; disaster preparedness &gt;&gt; disaster nurse &gt;&gt; disaster awareness &gt;&gt; disaster risk and reduction, realizing the great transformation from disaster rescue to disaster preparedness and then to disaster prevention awareness. (3) A hybrid network of keywords and countries revealed the research focus of various countries in the field of disaster education, and a hybrid network of keywords and categories showed that the research on disaster education primarily focuses on the disciplines of environment, nursing, geography, geology, atmosphere, ecology, and psychology. On this basis, the breadth and depth of the disaster education system should be further improved. (4) The spatial layout of disaster education research institutions showed a clustered distribution of research institutions in North America and Europe, even distribution in some regions in Asia, and sporadic distribution in Africa and Oceania. In-depth cooperation among institutions should be strengthened, the degree of attention paid to disaster education should be increased, and external cooperation should be actively carried out to improve the level of disaster education, particularly in Africa and Asia.

Posttraumatic Growth after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Examination of Free Descriptions among Fukushima Residents Who Lived in the Evacuation Area.

We examined the differences in the posttraumatic growth (PTG) free descriptions from clusters of Fukushima residents (evacuation and non-evacuation zones) who experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the relationship between “recovery from radiation anxiety” and the PTG-free description classification in these regions. A mail survey was conducted in August 2016 among Fukushima residents aged 20–79 years for free descriptions of their PTG. Participants were then divided into the “no anxiety,” “recovered from anxiety,” and “unrecovered from anxiety” groups based on their “recovery from radiation anxiety.” Data from 786 responses were analyzed. The PTG-free descriptions were classified into eight categories. Among those who lived in the evacuation zone versus those in the non-evacuation zone, “relating to others” (non-evacuation zone: 11.9% vs. evacuation zone: 18.4%) and “appreciation of life” (non-evacuation zone: 2.7% vs. evacuation zone: 9.8%) were significantly higher, and “increased awareness of disaster prevention” (non-evacuation zone: 20.4% vs. evacuation zone: 8.0%) was significantly lower. In the evacuation zone, “renewed recognition of nuclear issues” was significantly lower than the expected value in the no anxiety group (3.1%) and significantly higher than the expected value in the recovered group (22.9%). Further studies are needed to build support measures and potentially aid in preparing for future disasters.

STEM in Disaster Learning Media: A Literature Review

What is a natural disaster? How much do we know about it? Modern technology undoubtedly helped people learn about natural phenomena that sometimes can be misdirected into disaster. Natural disasters can cause quite an enormous impact, such as property damage and the number of injured or dead victims. Disaster education that applied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics could be a potential strategy to prepare the local community in managing the risk of natural disasters. This study is part of literature research on the integration of STEM in disaster education focused on disaster learning media to increase students’ awareness of disaster prevention, impacts, and mitigation. This study aims to identify national and international journals related to STEM, disasters, and learning media; and evaluate the effectiveness of implementing STEM integrated learning media. In 2011-2021 there are 305 publications and 15 articles reviewed in this study. The results indicate that STEM-based disaster learning media can develop students’ ability to solve problems related to disaster mitigation and disaster knowledge. The development of learning media to teach disaster education need to be reviewed and adapted to the geographical conditions of Indonesia, several topics about disaster as recommendation for learning is disaster that often afflict Indonesia.