Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Education from Social Disciplinary Theoretical Perspectives

Disaster is a social phenomenon. The occurrence and impacts of disasters including the education sector can be studied through a social problem lens. This paper draws meaning and understanding of DRR education using the sociological disciplinary framework in a detailed qualitative case study of three schools as they responded to the devastating Gorakha earthquake in 2015 and other disasters in Nepal. This paper considers the three sub-disciplines of sociology: the sociology of disaster, the sociology of education and the sociology of education governance in a development context. These sub-disciplines are nested together to analyse social, political and historical factors and their relationships which are helpful to identify risks and vulnerabilities in the education sector in Nepal. These are the major areas to explore the disaster context and needs of context-specific education acts (hereafter DRR education) to minimise the potential risks of disasters. The article concludes that the social disciplinary framework is significantly useful to analyse DRR education provisions and implications of education governance to mobilise school in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

Study on Functions and Countermeasures of Disaster Prevention and Reduction of Urban Green Land

From the advanced experiences at home and abroad,according to the requirements of emergency evacuation at earthquake disaster,then strategies and methods to disaster prevention and reduction functions of urban green land construction were put forward.

Overview on Mangrove Forest Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Functions

This paper provides a comprehensive overview on coastal protection and hazard mitigation by mangroves.Previous stud-ies have made great strides to understand the mechanisms and influencing factors of mangroves’protection function,including wave energy dissipation,storm surge damping,tsunami mitigation,adjustment to sea level rise and wind speed reduction,which are sys-tematically summarized in this study.Moreover,the study analyzes the extensive physical models,based on indoor flume experi-ments and numerical models,that consider the interaction between mangroves and hydrodynamics,to help our understanding of mangrove-hydrodynamic interactions.Additionally,quantitative approaches for valuing coastal protection services provided by man-groves,including index-based and process-resolving approaches,are introduced in detail.Finally,we point out the limitations of previous studies,indicating that efforts are still required for obtaining more long-term field observations during extreme weather events,to create more real mangrove models for physical experiments,and to develop numerical models that consider the flexible properties of mangroves to better predict wave propagation in mangroves having complex morphology and structures.

Disaster Reduction Decision Support System Against Debris Flows and Landslides Along Highway in Mountainous Area

Highways in mountainous areas are easy to be damaged by such natural disasters as debris flows and landslides and disaster reduction decision support system (DRDSS) is one of the important means to mitigate these disasters. Guided by the theories and technologies of debris flow and landslide reduction and supported by geographical information system (GIS), remote sensing and database techniques, a DRDSS against debris flow and landslide along highways in mountainous areas has been established on the basis of such principles as pertinence, systematicness, effectiveness, easy to use, open and expandability. The system consists of database, disaster analysis models and decisions on reduction of debris flows and landslides, mainly functioning to zone disaster dangerous degree, analyze debris flow activity, simulate debris flow deposition and diffusion, analyze landslide stability, select optimal highway renovation scheme and plan disaster prevention and control engineering. This system has been applied successfully to the debris flow and landslide treatment works along Palongzangbu Section of Sichuan-Tibet Highway.

An international program on Silk Road Disaster Risk Reduction--a Belt and Road initiative (2016-2020)

Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) is a Chinese national strategy which calls for cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange at the global level along the ancient Silk Road. The overwhelming natural hazards located along the belt and road bring great challenges to the success of BRI. In this framework, a 5-year international program was launched to address issues related to hazards assessment and disaster risk reduction(DRR). The first workshop of this program was held in Beijing with international experts from over 15 countries. Risk conditions on Belt and Road Countries(BRCs) have been shared and science and technology advancements on DRR have been disseminated during the workshop. Under this program, six task forces have been setup to carry out collaborative research works and three prioritized study areas have been established. This workshop announced the launching of this program which involved partners from different countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Russia, Italy, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan. The program adopted the objectives of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and United Nation Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and was implemented to assess disaster risk in BRCs and to propose suitable measures for disaster control which can be appropriate both for an individual country and for specific sites. This paper deals with the outcomes of the workshop and points out opportunities for the near future international cooperation on this matter.

Disaster risk reduction in mountain areas: an initial overview on seeking pathways to global sustainability

As disasters cripple the world’s prospects for sustainable development, protecting the most vulnerable groups exposed to hazards is one of the main challenges facing humanity. Owing to the systemic nature of risk and the interactions and interdependencies between upland and lowland systems, healthy and productive mountain households and livelihoods are essential to global sustainability. This paper argues that, building on existing international frameworks, and integrated knowledge and praxis, the development of a global policy agenda should be established to build sustainable peace, sustainable security, and development.

Security of earthquake disaster reduction system

No matter whether a system is operated manually or automatically controlled by computer, the system’s vulnerability always exists. Earthquake Disaster Reduction System (EDRS) belongs to the category of information system. According to the features of security for EDRS, the steps and the methods on how to build the EDRS security were analyzed. The EDRS security features, security strategies and security measures were also given through a distributed EDRS skeleton that has been applied. Because there was still no appointed and authoritative agency or organization to certify and test EDRS security in China, a national information technology security certification center was introduced and suggested for the certification of the EDRS security. Finally, several discussions and tendencies for the EDRS development were presented.

Disaster Data Centre—An Innovative Educational Tool for Disaster Reduction through Education in Schools

During the last decades, mankind has suffered from devastation caused by natural disasters and technological accidents of increased frequency and children are among the most vulnerable population group, especially those attending school during times of disaster. The importance of education in promoting and enabling disaster risk reduction has already been identified by researchers. In this paper “Disaster Date Center (DDC)” is presented, a new, powerful and innovative tool for the study of and education on disasters. One noteworthy application of DDC is the educational and public awareness tool in the form of e-learning.

Redevelopment of Daqing Oil Field distributed earthquake disaster reduction system skeleton

Through investigation on the international development trend of earthquake disaster reduction system(EDRS)researches,a well finished Daqing Oilfield EDRS is introduced.Based on the PC System,redevelopment of the EDRS skeleton is well discussed,including the technical skeleton,function composition,structures of software and hardware,redevelopment languages,database,and remote linking and calling of analysis modules.Meanwhile,it is pointed out that extending and utilizing the function of remote sensing information on the basis of the current distributed EDRS skeleton will become another study direction of EDRS.

RESEARCH ON SYSTEM OF FLOOD DISASTER CONTROL AND REDUCTION SUPPORTED BY GIS IN MEDIUM AND SMALL BASINS

Southeast China coastal areas belong to subtropical monsoon climatic zone, thus easily affected by floods resulted from typhoons and rainstorms. Since the areas of river basins are small, rivers flood regulation capacities are low, and therefore flood hazard is grave. In this paper, taking the Yongjiang basin in southeast China as an example, the approaches and methods of geographic information system(GIS) applied to flood disaster control and reduction research on small basin are explored. On GIS help the rainfall runoff calculation model and the river channel flood routing model are developed. And the evaluating flood submerged area and the damage assessment models are built supported by digit elevation models. Lastly the decision support system on GIS supported for flood control in research basin has been set up. This greatly improves flood proofing decision making capacities in river basin, and provides valuable information and a mode for flood prevention and reduction in the medium and small basin. Meanwhile, the research indicates that technologies of GIS provide a powerful tool for flood disaster control.

Disaster risk reduction in mountain areas: a research overview

This paper gives an account of the diverse dimensions of research on disaster risk reduction in mountain regions derived from an open call of the Journal of Mountain Science that brought 21 contributions.This special issue includes topics as diverse as landslide dynamics and mechanisms,landslide inventories and landslide susceptibility models,insights to landslide hazards and disasters and mitigation measures,disaster response and disaster risk reduction.The overall structure of the paper takes the form of three sections.The first part begins by laying out the significance of disaster risk reduction in mountain areas,whereas the second one looks at the research insights on disaster risk reduction in mountains provided by the contributions comprised in the special volume.The final section identifies areas for further research.

Information system for emergence decision on the protection against earthquake and disaster reduction in Shanghai City──Application of GIS

For meeting the need of rapid development of economy in Shanghai and the protection against earthquake and disaster reduction in the mega city, it is necessary to build a information system for emergence decision on the protection against earthquake and disaster reduction in the city. In this paper, GIS is applied to 'the information system for emergence decision on the protection against earthquake and disaster reduction in Shanghai City (Baoshan experiment region)'. We introduce to the structure and effect of each functional module in this information system. This information system consists of 7 functional modules:background information of seismology and geology, subsystem for rapid evaluation of damage loss from earthquake, subsystem for the decisive information on earthquake emergence, information query, maintenance and management of system, help, quit. The key parts of this information system are the subsystem for rapid evaluation of damage loss from earthquake and the subsystem for the decisive information on earthquake emergence. Also, this paper introduces to the application of technology of color infra-red aerial photograph remote sensing to this information system.

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction into Housing Development in Keko Machungwa

In Tanzania 80% of the population live in informal settlements. Most of these settlements are built in areas that are susceptible to extreme weather conditions such as flooding. Such conditions have significantly contributed to the destruction of housing stock and other valuable properties. There is considerable awareness amongst people living in the informal settlements, government representatives and other key stakeholders about the various flood risks affecting informal settlements. Based on this understanding, several attempts to minimize flood risks have been initiated in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, yet these initiatives have largely failed to deliver the desired impacts. This article aims to investigate core reasons for this through a case study of Keko Machungwa Informal settlement in Dar es Salaam City. The study explores the extent to which mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in housing development in informal settlements has been considered and implemented, and recommends measures for improvement. Key methods employed for the research included physical observation, household interviews, mapping, photographing, and in-depth interviews. Overall, the study found that mainstreaming of DRR in housing development was hardly practiced at the household level, as houses were predominantly being built without resistant building materials and supervision of relevant professionals. In order to mainstream DRR in housing development in informal settlements, it is recommended that mainstreaming DRR be embedded in laws and policies, highly vulnerable parts of the settlement be declared protected wetland and that the government direct its efforts towards regulating, controlling and monitoring the housing development sector. That letter can be achieved by emphasizing the use of flood resistant building materials and establishing resilient infrastructures for flood mitigation in every flood prone informal settlement.

Utilization of Open Source Spatial Data for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping at Chittagong District of Bangladesh—An Appraisal for Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation Approach

Since creation of spatial data is a costly and time consuming process, researchers, in this domain, in most of the cases rely on open source spatial attributes for their specific purpose. Likewise, the present research aims at mapping landslide susceptibility at the metropolitan area of Chittagong district of Bangladesh utilizing obtainable open source spatial data from various web portals. In this regard, we targeted a study region where rainfall induced landslides reportedly causes causalities as well as property damage each year. In this study, however, we employed multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) technique i.e., heuristic, a knowledge driven approach based on expert opinions from various discipline for landslide susceptibility mapping combining nine causative factors—geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover (LULC), slope, aspect, plan curvature, drainage distance, relative relief and vegetation in geographic information system (GIS) environment. The final susceptibility map was devised into five hazard classes viz., very low, low, moderate, high, and very high, representing 22 km2 (13%), 90 km2 (53%);24 km2 (15%);22 km2 (13%) and 10 km2 (6%) areas respectively. This particular study might be beneficial to the local authorities and other stake-holders, concerned in disaster risk reduction and mitigation activities. Moreover this study can also be advantageous for risk sensitive land use planning in the study area.

Study on the Influence of Farmer Social Capital on Cooperative Supply Willingness of Agricultural Disaster Reduction Public Goods——Based on the Investigation on 515 Farmers

Based on social capital theory,related factors of three dimensions( structure dimension,cognition dimension and relation dimension) of farmer social capital are taken as independent variables,and famer's willingness to cooperatively supply agricultural disaster reduction public goods is taken as dependent variable. Taking 515 farmers in 27 villages of Hubei Province as investigation objects,the influence of farmer social capital on cooperative supply willingness of agricultural disaster reduction public goods is explored by Logistic regression model. Research results show that social solidarity,common value concept,social trust and reciprocal content have positive impact on farmer's willingness of cooperative supply,while annual household income,number of agricultural disaster reduction public goods and social network have negative impact on farmer's willingness of cooperative supply.

Study on Farmers' Satisfaction with the Supply of Public Goods for Disaster Reduction in Agriculture——Based on the Survey Data of Farmers in Two Counties and One District of Hubei Province

According to actual features of public goods for disaster reduction in agriculture,an evaluation indicator system of farmers' satisfaction with the supply of public goods for disaster reduction in agriculture composed of five first-grade indicators containing 18 second-grade indicators was established firstly,and then a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model of farmers' satisfaction was set up. Finally,farmers' satisfaction with the supply of public goods for disaster reduction in agriculture in two counties and one district of Hubei Province was evaluated by the model. The results show that farmers are satisfied with the supply of public goods for disaster reduction in agriculture on the whole,but farmers' satisfaction with openness about funds for disaster reduction,supply structure of public goods,work attitude and work efficiency is at a general level. Some suggestions about the four aspects were proposed,such as improving supervisory mechanisms to increase funding transparency,making information channels unblocked to improve the supply efficiency of public goods for disaster reduction,and improving the quality of government workers to increase their work efficiency.

Earthquake Science and Technology as Well as Preparedness and Reduction of Earthquake Disaster in China

This paper systematically presents the state-of-the-art of preparedness and reduction of earthquake disasters in China. It contains abundant information on the goal, policy, working links, administrative organizations, and main scientific and technological approaches for earthquake disaster reduction in this country. The focus is placed on "taking science and technology as the foundation" and "management based on legal system."

Ideas of establishing the information system for emergence decisions on the protection against earthquakes and disaster reduction in cities (application of GIS)

ith urban reformation and opening becoming deeper,the work of protection against earthquake and disaster reduction would be more important.In this paper,some ideas are suggested about establishing the information system for emergency decisions on protection against earthquake and disaster reduction in cities .The information system mainly includes a subsystem for rapid evaluation of damage loss from earthquake (which includes input of seismic information,distribution of earthquake intensity,evaluation of seismic fragility on all social factors and etc.) and a subsystem for the decisive information of seismic emergency(which mainly includes project of disaster relief,project of personnel evacuation,dangerous degree warning for the dangerous articlesstoring places and protection measures against them,assistant decision on fire due to earthquake,location of headquarter for providing disaster relief,and etc.). It is thought that the data investigation and collection about all kinds of buildings(including lifeline engineering)are the most important and difficult work as establishing this system.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: Recalling the Need for Paradigm Shift in Definition

The paper articulates the need for a paradigm shift in defining the basis of what constitutes a disaster. This new framework must be sensitive to the need for a more theoretical approach to inform disaster and hazard management. Central to this is that the resulting approach cannot be muddled in linear rational and procedural doctrines but appreciate the dynamics of complex nonlinearity of disaster events. By engaging in thought experiment and critical analysis of existing literature, the paper deconstructs the normative paradigm of defining disaster. The end is to inform disaster management and risk reduction intervention and mitigation programmes. The presented alternative approach is sensitive of the need to equally include;spatial, political, social, parameters. These are appreciated as being equally important as those dealing with ecological and economic. The resulting not only include other elements, but also expands the definition to the complex conditions inherent in the origin of phenomena to the interaction of the phenomena with multiple and complex socio-spatial and demographic dynamics, and then appreciating the complex results of this nonlinear interaction. The need for a more substantive definition of disaster underlines the pre-analysis that is necessary for implementation of mitigation and prevention strategies. That disasters are becoming more complex is synonymous with the complexities inherent in post-war development dynamics.

Integrated Disaster Prevention and Reduction for Areas along the Belt and Road during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period:Global Disaster Reduction and Key Issues for Major Areas

Disaster prevention and mitigation,as the greatest common divisor of people s interests in the construction of the Belt and Road,can not only guarantee the safety of Chinese enterprises going abroad and China s foreign investment but also promote the sustainable development in countries and regions along the route,which is conducive to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.On the eve of China s disaster prevention and reduction plan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period,this paper studies the key issues in integrated disaster prevention and reduction for major areas along the Belt and Road.First of all,it analyzes the importance and urgency of integrated disaster prevention and mitigation for areas along the Belt and Road.Secondly,from a global perspective,it analyzes the measures for the construction and innovation of disaster prevention and reduction technical system,the key issues in the disaster risk management and the focuses of disaster prevention and reduction international cooperation mechanism along the Belt and Road.At last,from the strategic level,it analyzes systematically the major areas and key fields for research and practice of integrated disaster prevention and reduction along the Belt and Road,including research and practice on disaster prevention and reduction of Silk Road Economic Belt,research and practice on disaster prevention and reduction of Maritime Silk Road,research and practice on disaster prevention and reduction in the construction of major protects,research and practice on disaster prevention and reduction in the construction of the six economic corridors,research and practice on the construction of disaster prevention and reduction information platform and research and practice on the building of cross-border and cross-regional rescue capability.