Disaster Management: Public Involvement in Disaster Risk Reduction

Disaster management has become a hot issue in urban development and human security since threats from hazards and vulnerability are increasing, and have caused the damage from natural disasters to become more severe, and it has become crucial to lower the socio-economic loss. “Disaster,” is defined as a serious disruption to the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and having an impact which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (UNISDR, 2009). “Hazards,” are defined as a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihood and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage (UNISDR, 2009). In 2005, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) established a model for disaster management called the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). This framework was determined to be the baseline of disaster management, and community involvement towards disaster management, thus it became a crucial aspect of tackling threats from disasters and hazards in the peaceful time of the non-disaster phase. The Hyogo Framework for Action stated that approaches such as increasing capacities of community members in disaster preparedness, adaptive behaviors to reducing risks, knowledge transfer from disaster stakeholders, and concern from the next generations are primary tasks to apply on the community level as Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM). To achieve successful disaster management on the local level, external organizations such as the government, non-profit organizations (NPOs)...

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...he response by remaining resources.

The effort of local community and municipality toward disaster risk reduction was found during the flood incident in 2011. Municipalities tried to cope during the flood incident by their own resources and encourage local community to participate in disaster response plan. Collaboration among stakeholders in municipalities happened since it was stated as an important component in comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management. Thus, study toward public involvement in disaster risk reduction is necessary to realize how people react towards threats of forthcoming hazard, what kind of decision that they made to minimize damage caused by floods and consequential hazards, and how do they decide to take action. These are also important to realize the current situation of disaster risk reduction effort in the community as well.