Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:07:59.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Developing an indicator of a community's disaster risk awareness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

Janos J. Bogardi
Affiliation:
Division of Water Sciences, UNESCO, Paris
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
Affiliation:
Research Centre of Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences
Get access

Summary

ABSTRACT

The primary objective of this chapter is the development of an appropriate social indicator which represents society's robustness against disaster risk. With a focus on the risk of drought, a sociopsychological approach based on the concept of social representation is presented. As the working hypothesis, the society's perceived level of readiness against drought (SPRD) is defined in terms of the social message of relevant newspaper articles by its article area. Using actual drought cases for the cities of Takamatsu and Fukuoka, this working hypothesis has been examined and reexamined from two different analytical viewpoints – that is, a contextual analysis and an analysis of the water-saving phenomenon. It is shown that the results are basically positive in support of our working hypothesis.

INTRODUCTION

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which struck the heart of the Kobe-centered metropolis on January 17, 1995, has demonstrated the often forgotten fact that the citizens of a large city are bound to coexist with the risks of an urban disaster. Though not so catastrophic as this earthquake, several metropolitan regions in Japan experienced a drought of unprecedented scale during the preceding summer. Among them are the cities of Fukuoka (on Kyushu Island) and Takamatsu (on Shikoku Island), which underwent the most serious socioeconomic damage. This must have strengthened the awareness that in society, large cities are bound to coexist with the risks of urban disaster. In both cases, citizens seemed to have learned that the community's disaster risk awareness makes a difference when examining the criticality of the disaster damage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×