Hidehiko Kanegae

The Role of Islamic Teachings in Encouraging People to Take Tsunami Preparedness in Aceh and Yogyakarta Indonesia

The role of religion in post-disaster such as reducing psychological its impact, faith-based organizations (FBO) relief and assistance, have been widely acknowledged, yet studies on positive aspect of religion on pre-disaster have been limited although there is an indication that religious teachings have a positive aspect in preparedness. Given the fact that Indonesia is a tsunami prone country and its people is holding religions, study on the relationship between the role of religious teachings and natural disaster is urgently important. This study aims at comparing the effect of Islamic teaching belief on tsunami preparedness action in Aceh and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The concept of Tsunami Resilient Preparedness (TRP) consisting of Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS), Emergency Plan and Capacity based on social level/interaction such as individual, family, community and society is introduced. This study has involved 173 residents in Yogyakarta and 305 in Aceh Indonesia as a subject. Findings show that optimistic view significantly predicted most of TRP meaning that both communities have similar views that taking TRP was in accordance with the Islamic teachings and not against God’s will. Variables of believe in religious leader significantly predicted most TRP except for Capacity-society and TEWS-individual in Yogyakarta explaining that there is difference impact of residents’ interpretation of Islamic teachings. In Aceh, the role of neighbour is very important to influence people to take TRP mostly in TEWS and Emergency Plan but limited in Capacity. This study is very important to challenge the dominant view that natural disaster is caused by god’s punishment. Finally, Islamic teachings should be considered as one of the essential aspects to be included in the disaster management policy, especially in Indonesia where majority of the community is holding Islamic religion.

Tsunami-Resilient Preparedness Index (TRPI) as a Key Step for Effective Disaster Reduction Intervention

Recent efforts in disaster risk reduction focused on risk and vulnerability assessment rather than the capacity of community analysis based on cultural and social-psychology aspects. This study provides a new framework and approach for creating a culture of tsunami-resilient preparedness assessment/index (TRPI) to support decisionmakers and community in evaluating and preparing action to respond to the potential impact of a tsunami disaster. This research study involved households living in the tsunami-prone areas in Banda Aceh (n = 305) and Bantul Yogyakarta (n = 173), Indonesia, and Kushimoto, Japan (n = 117). To develop the TRPI, theoretical and practical references were used as the first draft of preparedness indicators consisting of 35 aspects of preparedness. Twenty-one disaster experts were asked to judge the content relevancy and urgency before tested to 33 residents. Three dimensions of tsunami preparedness covering TEWS, Emergency Plan, and Capacity consisting social level/interaction including individual, family, community, and society are introduced as TRPI. In general, Kushimoto community is better than Aceh and Yogyakarta, in three dimensions of TRPI. In terms of TEWS, using cutoff point of not prepared, prepared, and very prepared, communities in Aceh are only prepared in regard to TEWS-individual and in Aceh and Yogyakarta for TEWS-society. In Kushimoto the highest percentage of TRPI Emergency Plan is Plan-community followed by Plan-individual, Plan-family, and Plan-society. Aceh and Yogyakarta community shows a similar pattern with the highest of tsunami-resilient preparedness which is Plan-individual and the lowest which is Plan-community. Community in Kushimoto shows the higher percentage of tsunami-resilient preparedness in most of the elements except for Capacity-community. The maximum proportion of social-level preparedness in Kushimoto is Capacity-family. TRPI providing multidimensional behavior allows disaster managers to focus on specific weaknesses that the community needs to address to improve their level of readiness. Similar to other indices, it can be used to make a comparison of the relative overall preparedness in different regions and communities, yet it is more people-centered as suggested in literature of effective disaster risk reduction.

Tsunami Resilient Preparedness Indicators: The Effects of Integrating Religious Teaching and Roles of Religious Leaders

Many public education programs on disaster preparedness have been less effective due to a lack of considering communities’ social, cultural, religious and local contexts. Much disaster research associated with religious aspects focuses on the negative effect of religious teachings on preparedness behaviour. This chapter fills a gap by presenting a positive view of religious teachings that are capable of encouraging disaster preparedness .

A Study on Gaming Simulation as a Key of Meta-Frame of Planning for Neighborhood Immigrant Integration and Co-existing Diversity

We are living in an era of diversity. Globalization has made it easier for people to move not just across the border but rather across the world, thus there are many ongoing issues with social cohesion and immigrant integration in urban neighborhoods. Immigrant integration as suggested by the IOM (International organisation for Migration) is a two-way process, which includes both the immigrant and the host society. Research has pointed out that the promotion of diversity in local neighborhoods is one of the integral solutions for immigrant integration. However, past evidence suggests that Thai people have a terribly limited understanding of the notion of diversity, and many of them still have prejudice in regard to migrant workers. The objectives of this research are (1) To evaluate the residents’ perception of understanding and acceptance toward the concept of immigrant integration and neighborhood co-existing diversity (2) To find out the effect of a gaming simulation on the resident and the immigrant. We introduce the Diverse Arrival Game as a game to promote diversity and immigrant integration. We implemented the gaming simulation along with pre-test and post-test questionnaires in a diverse neighborhood in Chiang Mai. The results show that the game improved perceptions in both groups toward neighborhood diversity. The game has the ability to promote mutual understanding among the local stakeholders and prompt the acceptance of the diversity concept that stimulates a powerful dialogue and ultimately leads to a new local initiative for diverse neighborhood planning.

A Simulation of Economic Loss Impact and Recovery: A Case Study of Shima City Assuming Nankai Trough Earthquake

According to Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2015–2030, understanding disaster risk not only in hazards but also in impacts of economic growth is considered as an important process of DRR activities and disaster preventions. There are several previous researches on proposing estimation methods of disaster damage, and the models in these researches are of great value to predict the damage of Nankai Trough earthquake. However, they have not considered about the effects of population change on economic damage and recovery. This study expends previous estimation models of the abovementioned and develops a simulation model of economic recovery process that incorporates the population variation amount. Specifically, focusing on the damage of private sector enterprises and population outflow from the disaster-stricken areas, it proposes the time-series recovery process model of regional economy and applies to a coastal city Shima in Mie Prefecture, Japan, and examines the economic recovery process and the damage and losses by using the Nankai Trough earthquake in 2030 as a hypothesis.

Use of Gaming for Training Emergency Headquarters in Responding to Earthquake Damage: VEQRES/SAITAI—Virtual Earthquake RESponses—

This project is organized as a part of the special research project on “Mitigation of Damage in Mega-Cities Caused by a Large-Scale Earthquake,” funded by the Ministry of Education and Sciences. It will be completed in 5 years. The prototype of the model was supposed developed in 2003, and the experimental performance of the game will be conducted by the end of March, 2004.