Questionnaire Study on the Relationship Between Disaster Awareness and the Recognition of Evacuation Points

Abstract

In Japan there has been a shift away from 'preventing disaster' towards disaster mitigation, or reducing the damage caused by disaster'. In order to reduce the damage caused by disasters it is important to maintain preparedness for disaster during non-disaster periods. Ota Ward, Tokyo, at both the local government and community level has made efforts towards disaster preparedness including the publication of hazard maps and evacuation plans as well as evacuation drills. The purpose of this research is twofold; firstly to understand the relationship between personal attributes and awareness of evacuation points, and secondly to understand the relationship between personal daily activity spaces, or Daily Living Environments, and the selection of evacuation points. A questionnaire survey was carried out in two areas of Ota Ward, Tokyo, selected for their varying degrees of risk caused by disaster. The survey yielded 714 valid responses. Concerning the awareness of local evacuation points, results showed that approximately 70% of respondents showed some knowledge of their evacuation points and that having walked the route to an evacuation point is the most correlated factor in the recognition of evacuation points (26.7%). Further, those who had no awareness of Ota Ward's disaster prevention activities also tended to be unaware of the location of evacuation points while those who had seen a hazard map were aware of the evacuation points. Regarding personal attributes, respondents aged 70 or above were typically aware of their evacuation points while single-person households were found to be largely unaware of their evacuation points. Despite differences in the degree of damage risk, these have been found to show no relation to the recognition of evacuation points. As well as the questionnaire survey respondents were also asked to plot their local evacuation points and the places they had visit in their daily life, from which a 'zone' method was proposed to understand the spatial relationship between daily living environments and selection of evacuation points. The analysis found that household structure, property ownership, and experience of actually walking the route from home to evacuation point as having a significant relationship to the selection of evacuation points. This research has identified sectors of the community that tend to select evacuation points closer to their daily activity areas which could help to better prepare disaster preparedness activities in the future.