Disaster Perception Research Articles

日本在住外国人に対する災害意識の調査 : 日本在住外国人に提供すべき災害情報に関する研究(1)

日本在住外国人に対する災害意識の調査 : 日本在住外国人に提供すべき災害情報に関する研究(1)

Rural Community Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception in Trujillo, Peru.

After designing a novel disaster preparedness and risk perception survey based on guidelines from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC; Geneva, Switzerland), investigators performed a cross-sectional survey of potentially vulnerable communities surrounding Trujillo, Peru. Data were entered and analyzed utilizing the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap; Harvard Catalyst; Boston, Massachusetts USA) database. A total of 230 study participants were surveyed, composed of 37% males, 63% females, with ages ranging from 18-85 years old. Those surveyed who had previously experienced a disaster (41%) had a higher perception of future disaster occurrence and potential disaster impact on their community. Overall, the study participants consistently perceived that earthquakes and infection had the highest potential impact of all disasters. Twenty-six percent of participants had an emergency supply of food, 24% had an emergency water plan, 24% had a first aid kit at home, and only 20% of the study participants had an established family evacuation plan. Natural and man-made disasters will remain a threat to the safety and health of communities in all parts of the world, especially within vulnerable communities in LMICs; however, little research has been done to identify disaster perception, vulnerability, and preparedness in LMIC communities. The current study established that selected communities near Trujillo, Peru recognize a high disaster impact from earthquakes and infection, but are not adequately prepared for potential future disasters. By identifying high-risk demographics, targeted public health interventions are needed to prepare vulnerable communities in the following areas: emergency food supplies, emergency water plan, medical supplies at home, and establishing evacuation plans. Stewart M , Grahmann B , Fillmore A , Benson LS . Rural community disaster preparedness and risk perception in Trujillo, Peru. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(4):387-392.

High school students’ perceptions of earthquake disaster: A comparative study of Lebanon and Turkey

Little is known about high school students’ perceptions of earthquake disasters in the Middle East region. It has been shown that individuals can possess various attitudes towards earthquakes based on gender, ethnicity, social class and disaster-related knowledge and experiences. This study explores the perceptions of two groups: 498 public high school students in Lebanon and 465 public high school students in Turkey. Both groups completed a survey investigating their perceptions of earthquake hazards. An independent t-test revealed significant statistical differences in schools’ roles in implementing needed disaster risk education on earthquakes, while both groups exhibit high adherence to fatalistic beliefs.

Social vulnerability, risk and disaster perceptions: concepts and approaches in/from the urban context

O meio ambiente urbano reflete um leque de problemas de ordem social e ambiental, que é resultado do processo de urbanização desordenado observado sobretudo nas grandes cidades, e implica em situações de risco e vulnerabilidade que podem se materializar com o desastre. Diante desse cenário, as preocupações de pesquisadores se voltam para estudos que possam contribuir na implementação de medidas que visem reduzir ou mitigar os riscos que fazem parte do cotidiano destas populações bem como suas vulnerabilidades. Assim, o presente texto oferece uma discussão sobre os aspectos conceituais referentes ao risco, vulnerabilidade social e desastre, e como estão interrelacionados, buscando também esclarecer as confusões conceituais que permeiam esta temática. E ainda destaca a importância da percepção do risco no contexto urbano como uma importante ferramenta na gestão da diminuição do risco, buscando assim contribuir com as questões teóricas que envolvem essa ciência emergente que trata dos riscos, em função de sua importância para nosso cotidiano e para a futura qualidade de vida das pessoas. A B S T R A C T The urban environment reflects an array of social and environmental problems, which are the result of the disorderly urbanization process observed mainly in larger cities, and imply risk and vulnerability situations that can materialize as disasters. In this scenario, researchers’ worries are turning to studies that contribute to the implementation of policies that aim to reduce or relieve the risks of these populations’ everyday lives, as well as their vulnerabilities. Hence, the present study proposes a discussion about the conceptual aspects concerning risk, social vulnerability and disaster, and how they are correlated, also aiming to clarify the misconceptions that permeate this theme. It also stresses the importance of risk perception in the urban context as an important tool in risk reduction, thus aiming to contribute with theoretical questions that involve this emerging science, risk studying, which is so important to our daily lives, as well as to people’s life quality in the future. Keywords: Risk; vulnerability; disaster and risk perception.

Socio-demographic Predictors for Urban Community Disaster Health Risk Perception and Household Based Preparedness in a Chinese Urban City.

Objectives: There is limited evidence on urban Asian communities' disaster risk perceptions and household level preparedness. Hong Kong is characterized by high population density, and is susceptible to large-scale natural disasters and health crises such as typhoons, fires and infectious disease outbreaks. This research paper investigates the rates and predictors of urban community disaster risk perception, awareness and preparedness, at individual and household levels.Methods: A randomized cross-sectional, population-based telephone survey study was conducted among the Cantonese-speaking population aged over 15 years in Hong Kong. Descriptive statistics were reported. A stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the independent associations between risk perceptions, socioeconomic factors, household characteristics, and personal background.Findings: Final study sample comprised of 1002 respondents with a 63% response rate. The majority of respondents (82.3%) did not perceive Hong Kong as a disaster-susceptible city. Half (54.6%) reported beliefs that the local population had lower disaster awareness than other global cities. Infectious disease outbreak (72.4%), typhoon (12.6%), and fire (7.1%) were ranked as the most-likely-to-occur population-based disasters. Although over 77% believed that basic first aid training was necessary for improving individual disaster preparedness, only a quarter (26.1%) of respondents reported participation in training.Conclusion: Despite Hong Kong’s high level of risk, general public perceptions of disaster in Hong Kong were low, and little preparedness has occurred at the individual or household levels. This report has potential to inform the development of related policies and risk communication strategies in Asian urban cities.

Percepciones sobre la salud en estudiantes que viven en áreas de riesgo de desastres de origen hidrometeorológico: el caso de Motozintla, Chiapas, México

Motozintla es una ciudad de alto riesgo histórico de desastres de origen hidrometeorológico como lluvias torrenciales y huracanes de grandes pérdidas materiales y de proyectos de vida en la población. El objetivo de este estudio es conocer las percepciones sobre la salud y desastres de los estudiantes que viven en este municipio del estado de Chiapas, México. <strong>Métodos:</strong> Se aplicaron 378 cuestionarios que contenían preguntas cerradas y abiertas a estudiantes del Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico Industrial y de Servicios No. 243 y de la Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas. Las preguntas se centraron en la salud y su relación con los desastres. <strong>Resultados:</strong> El 45.5% de los estudiantes percibieron la salud como un estado de bienestar en los aspectos físico, psicológico o social, el 26.7% lo percibieron como la ausencia de enfermedad, dolor o molestias. El 26.2% mencionaron diversos aspectos del bienestar individual relacionado con la alimentación, el sentirse bien o mal y otros satisfactores de la vida. En relación con el contexto de los desastres, el 36.8% percibieron el desastre como la presencia de los fenómenos naturales, otro grupo (29.4%) como un suceso que provoca destrucción y muerte. El resto (17.2%) mencionaron al desastre como algún problema físico o social, como algo imprevisto o como un peligro. <strong>Conclusión:</strong> La mayoría de los estudiantes percibieron la salud como el bienestar físico, psicológico y social. Los desastres los encuentran relacionados con los fenómenos naturales y, en general, subestiman el riesgo, la salud no es dependiente ni relacionada con los desastres.

Institutional framework for preparedness and response of disaster management institutions from national to local level in India with focus on Delhi

Delhi has experienced six major floods in the past with the most recent one being in June 2013. Flood related risks are compounded by increasing vulnerability due to rapid urbanisation and growing population. This increase is an indication of the need for enhancing the preparedness and response of institutions dealing with floods. The study is based on personal interviews and discussions with officials engaged in managing disasters from national to local level. Study attempts to identify the key issues and challenges faced by institutions engaged in disaster management in Delhi in order to reduce the potential impact from future disasters. Results reflect that a number of factors such as awareness and perception, financial resources, technical resources, policy, institutional arrangements, leadership and human resources prevent effective and timely institutional preparedness and response to disasters. Wide variations exist in awareness and perception of disasters among the officials engaged in managing disasters from national to local level. Thus, local institutions and the community being at the forefront, need to develop direct linkages with institutions at different levels by following a participatory approach for preparedness.

Cooperation dynamics of polycentric climate governance

Global coordination for the preservation of a common good, such as climate, is one of the most prominent challenges of modern societies. In this manuscript, we use the framework of evolutionary game theory to investigate whether a polycentric structure of multiple small-scale agreements provides a viable solution to solve global dilemmas as climate change governance. We review a stochastic model which incorporates a threshold game of collective action and the idea of risky goods, capturing essential features unveiled in recent experiments. We show how reducing uncertainty both in terms of the perception of disaster and in terms of goals induce a transition to cooperation. Taking into account wealth inequality, we explore the impact of the homophily, potentially present in the network of influence of the rich and the poor, in the different contributions of the players. Finally, we discuss the impact of polycentric sanctioning institutions, showing how such a scenario also proves to be more efficient than a single global institution.

From Healing to Protective Disaster Coping Efforts: An Evaluation of Building Inspection Approaches within the Disaster Policies Developed between 1924 and 2010 in Turkey

Turkey has long been suffered due to destructive impacts of earthquakes and has tried to develop pre and post disaster coping efforts by means of laws and policies since 1924. During this period, along with the developing national and international policy changes, a shift has occurred from traditional post-disaster (healing) to pre-disaster (protective) efforts in terms of disaster mitigation. During a brief historical evaluation of administrative advancements in terms of shifting understanding of disaster in Turkey a focus is given to development of ideas related to building inspection which was formally initiated as a risk-reduction approach after 1999. Knowledge gathered from interviews conducted among administrative and building professionals between 2008 and 2012 contribute to the critical evaluation of the administrative problems of the Building Inspection System (BIS) carried out today. It is revealed from this research that there is an urgent need for unifying the scattered and complex forms of legislations related to disaster issues in Turkey. It is revealed also that a risk-reduction approach has not been conducted in consistent with the practice of BIS in which the enforcement of the necessary knowledge and ordinances remain insufficient among its participants: building professionals, inspector firms and local authority. It is underlined, also that the legal and administrative advancements are not enough to achieve disaster resilient society if they are not digested by the community from a holistic perspective of disaster perception in the country.

의용소방대원들의 재난에 대한 인식과 만족이 자원봉사활동 지속성에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the disaster perception and satisfaction level of volunteer fire-fighters on the continuity of their volunteering. The 163 subjects in this study were selected from male and female volunteer fire-fighters who resided in urban and rural regions in Gangwon Province. After a this survey was conducted, the collected data were analyzed by a statistical package SPSS WIN 20.0, and frequency analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were made. The level of statistical significance was all set at p

Do wildfire experiences influence views on climate change?

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the influence of wildfire events on community perceptions of climate change and the risk of future wildfire disasters in southern Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The study was located around Beechworth in northeast Victoria, where wildfires occurred in 2003 and 2009. Semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus group interviews were conducted in 2010, involving 40 people from local businesses, government and property owners. Findings – The authors conclude that people’s experiences of recent consecutive wildfire events did not necessarily influence their views on climate change in general or as a causal agent of wildfire events. However, there was general agreement that weather conditions had been extreme in recent times. Some attributed the increase in wildfires to factors other than climate change that were more easily observed. Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed into the relationship between wildfire experiences, climate change views and adaptive behaviours across a wider range of social contexts. Research needs to determine if views and behaviours change over time or with frequency or severity of fires. Practical implications – Understanding the nature of potential wildfires, and being able to prepare and respond to such events, is more important than believing in climate change, as views may not change in response to fire events. Strategies need to focus on supporting people to prepare, respond and recover from wildfires, regardless of their climate change perceptions. Social implications – Paying attention to people’s local social context and how it influences their beliefs about climate change will allow sensitive and adaptive strategies to evolve over time. Originality/value – There is limited research into relationships between disaster experiences and perceptions of climate change, particularly the influence of wildfire experiences.

Human security: an analytical tool for disaster perception research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible benefits arising from the application of the human security concept to analysing the disaster impacts. Design/methodology/approach – A three-piece human security analytical tool is synthesized by combining the discoveries in human security studies over the last two decades with the perspective of disaster studies focusing on the resilience and securitabilities of the affected societies. To illustrate the merit of the proposed analytical framework a specifically tailored social survey is used to measure the resilience of Ogre’s (Latvia) society after it faces major floods in 2013. It foresees that community’s resilience is inversely proportional to the decreases along seven human security dimensions while directly proportional to the trust to different security providers. Findings – The illustrative case study proves a larger deterioration of security and a wider scope of “socially affected” victims than could be identified with the field observations or document analysis. It also proves that the people in crisis situations clearly trust to themselves, friends and family, while much less to the conventional security providers or the local municipality or government. While the security is to be perceived more multi-faceted than homogenous, the results prove that the environmental and food security concerns due to the hazard climbed the fear rankings replacing the usually feared health security. Originality/value – The paper provides several counterarguments to the critics of Human Security concept by proving its comprehensive application to any society despite its level of development, while also offering a new analytical approach to measure the security and resilience of people facing a sudden dangerous external impact, such as a natural hazard.

The evolution of stakeholders' perceptions of disaster: A model of information flow

This paper proposes a diffusion model to measure the evolution of stakeholders' disaster perceptions by integrating a disaster message model, a stakeholder model, and a stakeholder memory model, which collectively describe the process of information flow. Simulation results show that the rate of forgetting has a significantly negative effect on stakeholders' perceptions and the incremental increase in the number of affected individuals has a positive effect on the maximum level of stakeholders' perceptions, but negative effect on the duration of stakeholders' perceptions. Additionally, a delay effect, a stagnation effect, and a cumulative effect exist in the evolution of stakeholders' perceptions. There is a spike at the beginning of the profile of stakeholders' perceptions in the Damped Exponential Model. An empirical test supports the validity of this model of stakeholders' disaster perceptions.

Spatial Effect on Public Risk Perception of Natural Disaster: a Comparative Study in East Asia

This paper explores the effect of geographical location on public risk perception of natural disasters. By conducting an identical questionnaire survey across three East Asia countries (China, Japan and South Korea), the paper finds out that different country has its unique structure of risk perception. Generally, the risk perception of sample residents in Japan weakens as the distance from the risk source increases, which indicates Japanese people’s risk perception reflects the actual risk probability. On the other hand, Korean partially and Chinese hardly perceive the probability of existing risks. The findings of this paper imply that risk perception to certain extent relates with existing risk, however, the latter is not always correctly perceived. Economic development, socio-political system, historical and cultural backgrounds will affect public risk perceptions.

How communities' perceptions of disasters influence disaster response: managing landslides on Mount Elgon, Uganda.

The aim of this paper is to assess the role of people's perception in disaster management. It is based on a study carried out along the slopes of Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda. People living in the study area have experienced a number of landslides, but the landslide in 2010 had the most far-reaching effects on community livelihoods and resulted in a major setback to development efforts in the area. Experiences of landslides have enabled the local people to develop a number of interpretations of the causes and effects of the phenomena. The study revealed that community members did not share uniform perceptions. Whereas some members advanced technical or physical explanations for the 2010 disaster, others believed that some form of divine power was behind it. Strengthening social networks and integrating communities' perceptions in intervention mechanisms were identified as possible ways of managing future landslide disasters.

Can the vulnerable be resilient? Co-existence of vulnerability and disaster resilience: Informal settlements in the Philippines

This paper explores the relationship between vulnerability and resilience in the context of informal settlements, using a case study of two barangays in a rural province in the Philippines. Central to the discussion in this paper is whether and how vulnerability and resilience can exist simultaneously.The authors first identify community vulnerability, which is explored through geographical, economic, and physical vulnerability. Another element involves land-related vulnerability characterised by unsustainable land use, poor urban planning, non-existence of building codes and weak land administration. Approximately sixty per cent of all properties in the case study areas are held in informal land tenures. Many of these informal settlers have established houses on land with a high hazard risk – for example, adjacent to rivers, on disused railway reserves and along road corridors. The result is they face the threat of eviction, and may have difficulty returning to their land after disasters.Qualitative analysis of households in the case study areas revealed that the strength of social relationships helps to reduce the vulnerability of the communities. A paradoxical relationship between vulnerability and resilience is evident. Strong community perceptions of their level of resilience to the impacts of disasters are supported by the social domains of the community. They have inbuilt resilience resulting from the perception of disasters as part of life, strong social bonds and government awareness of the validity of the informal settlements.

The Role of Social Media in International Tourist’s Decision Making

Recent crises have highlighted the increasingly important role of social media in crisis communications. Attention has been given to residents’ use of social media during a crisis; however, there is a lack of research which focuses on factors that influence tourists’ use of social media during a crisis. Understanding these factors can have practical implications for destinations in crisis. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether internal, travel-related, and demographic factors affect the likelihood to use social media to seek information if a crisis were to occur while traveling. Linear regression revealed that the countries of origin of India, Brazil, Australia, and South Korea; the age group 31–40; past international travel experience; and perceptions of crime, natural disasters, disease, financial, equipment failure, weather, cultural barriers, and political risk were positively associated with the likelihood of using social media in the event of a crisis during travel.

Awareness of disaster reduction frameworks and risk perception of natural disaster: a questionnaire survey among Philippine and Indonesian health care personnel and public health students.

As the impacts of natural disasters have grown more severe, the importance of education for disaster medicine gains greater recognition. We launched a project to establish an international educational program for disaster medicine. In the present study, we surveyed medical personnel and medical/public health students in the Philippines (n = 45) and Indonesia (n = 67) for their awareness of the international frameworks related to disaster medicine: the Human Security (securing individual life and health), the Sphere Project (international humanitarian response), and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (international strategy for disaster reduction). In both countries, more than 50% responders were aware of human security, but only 2 to 12% were aware of the latter two. The survey also contained questions about the preferred subjects in prospective educational program, and risk perception on disaster and disaster-related infections. In the Philippines, significant disasters were geophysical (31.0%), hydrological (33.3%), or meteorological (24.8%), whereas in Indonesia, geophysical (63.0%) and hydrological (25.3%) were significant. Moreover, in the Philippines, leptospirosis (27.1%), dengue (18.6%), diarrhea (15.3%), and cholera (10.2%) were recognized common disaster-related infections. In Indonesia, diarrhea (22.0%) and respiratory infection (20.3%) are major disaster-related infections. Water-related infections were the major ones in both countries, but the profiles of risk perception were different (Pearson's chi-square test, p = 1.469e-05). The responders tended to overestimate the risk of low probability and high consequence such as geophysical disaster. These results are helpful for the development of a postgraduate course for disaster medicine in Asia Pacific countries.

A natureza do risco: paisagem e risco na análise dos desastres socioambientais

The present paper discusses the use of the concept of risk to rethink the notion of landscape, and employs it to study the history of socioenvironmental disasters. In this way, a discussion is produced about the emergence of landscape concept arising from the plastic arts and appropriated by historical studies. The importance of landscape “de-sacralization” is supported by the understanding of a constant exchange between perception and representation in order to define Nature. The Environmental History, in its turn, also considers human interference is important to the landscape construction and transformation. There is a strong anthropic element in the disaster definition because normally the extreme climatic events are featured as disaster when they affect human populations. Due to these issues, the risk perception of new disasters change the environment understanding people have. The Risk Society notion from Ulrich Beck offers a fruitful ground to environmental disasters and uncertainty’s sense discussion in contemporaneous societies.

Agricultural perspectives of climate change induced disasters in Doti, Nepal

Natural disasters are among the major risk factors in aggravating human and livestock lifes as well as agricultural production in most of the developing and poor countries. A community level survey was conducted in Doti district to assess the rural communities perception towards the disasters induced by climate change in agriculture and livestock production and productivity. Discussions with two focal groups, at village level and with district based stakeholders revealed that there is a conceptual difference between the perception of disasters at the government level and the farmers level. Most of the farmers have realized the major disasters of slow onset type (drought and famine) to be more common than the rapid onset type (landslides and floods). There has been a change in the cropping pattern with decreased winter rain and short monsoon rain. The local communities have suffered due to drought which has lead to fewer water holes for animals and less water for irrigation. Farmers have gradually decreased the number of larger ruminants like cattle and buffalo and are inclined towards smaller animals like sheep and goat. Animal diseases as well as insects-pests of crops are also on the rise.