Literacy for Disaster Resilience from “Downstream”: A Case Study of the Nankai Trough Earthquake Countermeasures in Kochi City

Abstract

Disaster resilience is an interdisciplinary area of study. Collaboration between humanities and sciences is im-portant to approach issues in this area. However, science and engineering consider disaster resilience as minimizing the scientifically estimated damage in-duced by natural hazards. In contrast, disaster resilience studies in the social sciences tend to focus on societal vulnerability. The views between the two disci-plines can lead to inconsistency or contradiction. This paper discussed this issue. To do so, the author uses the case study focusing on the effects of predictions on Nankai Trough Earthquake countermeasures in Kochi City, Japan. First, this study revealed that not only the revision of hazard prediction but the historical back-ground of land use development affected the large-scale earthquake damage estimation in Kochi City. Second, the upward revision of hazard prediction re-sulted in strengthening of community disaster manage-ment. However, it also accelerated residential relocation associated with class disparities. As a result, ironi-cally, marginalized social groups were unevenly located in predicted tsunami inundation areas. However, such issues are not considered in the existing disaster resilience scheme and policy. Based on this analysis, it is argued that communicating scientific knowledge on hazards to society alone is not enough. Considering the local context, the perspective of literacy for disaster resilience from downstream’ is also important.