Supporting residents evacuation and safety inquiry in case of disaster

Abstract

Residents' Disaster Prevention Organization (or Self-protection Organization against Disaster) is defined as "voluntary disaster prevention organization based on mutual help of residents" in Basic Counter Disaster Act which was enacted in 1961 in Japan. Although the organizations have national average household coverage ratio of over 75 percent, residents often do not recognize they are registered as member of organization. Furthermore, activities such as safety inquiry, and registration and management at evacuation centers are paper based, making them unable to utilize the latest ICT technologies and resulting in ineffective and inefficient evacuation support activities. In this paper, based on a national web survey conducted in 2011, we will reveal residents' participation in Residents' Disaster Prevention Organization, as well as explore how ICT can support the organizations in times of disaster. In order to change personal data into social information, which is necessary when safety inquiry and registration at evacuation center are conducted under disaster, we propose a prototype information system utilizing QR code and GIS (Geographic Information System), which its effectiveness was validated by questionnaire responded by disaster drill participants. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.