A Study to Assess the Performance of Disaster Management During the 2017 Yongji County Flood in China

Abstract

In 2017, Yongji County, which is located in Jilin Province, China, was devastated by its worst floods for generations. Consequently, the people of Yongji County suffered losses due to both the natural disaster and the deficiencies of disaster management. The aim of this research was to evaluate the factors that influenced the experiences of victims to provide insights into the performance of disaster management. Statistical analysis was employed to describe the functions and role of disaster management in the 2017 Yongji County flood. The Logistic regression also was adopted to explore the association between the performance and outcomes of disaster management experienced by victims, and gender, age, profession, frequency of disasters, the efficiency of defense measures, the efficiency of rescue, the loss of property, the degree of normal life and productivity recovery, the satisfaction of governmental compensation, the degree of disaster information disclosure, the government attitudes, the mechanism of accountability, and public safety education. This paper is among the first studies to identify the factors that affect victims’ perceptions in assessing the performance of disaster management hosted by local government. Hence, this research makes an important contribution in assisting policymakers and officers in local government to improve performance in dealing with natural and environmental disasters.