Local community activities for disaster reduction in regard to the 2011 tsunami

Abstract

Disaster mitigation is among the most important issues the world is faced with. However, good governance at the time of mitigation needs to be combined with the presentation and analysis of scientific results with the real aim of making future activity more effective. In this study, we have analyzed factors included among the non-structural measures taken against the disaster. The differences between social activites are related to disaster mitigation in respect of the 2011 mega-tsunami. A questionnaire survey of social activities serving evacuation and disaster prevention in the southern part of the huge area of lowland in the Abukuma river basin was carried out, and differences were found between local community-level risk communication systems on each coastal landform and land use changes following the Great Eastern Japanese Earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The leadership of local community activities, presence of an evacuation system and repeated evacuation drill, knowledge sharing for prevention, good governance, hazard mapping in the local community and adequate risk communication were all found to play useful key roles in risk reduction as regards the tsunami. © Shigeko Haruyama.