Facilitating Community Risk Communication for Wide-Area Evacuation during Large-Scale Floods

Takeyasu Suzuki, Takanori Watanabe and Shin’ichiro Okuyama
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Takeyasu Suzuki: Disaster and Environmentally Sustainable Administration Research Center, University of Yamanashi, Kofu City, Yamanashi 400-8511, Japan
Takanori Watanabe: Sanpoh Co., Ltd., Kai City, Yamanashi 400-0111, Japan
Shin’ichiro Okuyama: Civil and Environmental Engineering Course, Integrated Graduate School of Medicine, Engineering and Agricultural Sciences, University of Yamanashi, Kofu City, Yamanashi 400-8511, Japan

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Large-scale floods have been occurring more frequently in Japan as a result of current global weather anomalies, yet evacuation procedures face several issues. These include low evacuation rates of citizens, wide-area evacuation by car, and residents who cannot evacuate on their own. For example, in the Kofu Basin, Yamanashi Prefecture, due to the size of the potential inundation area and a population that exceeds 300,000 people spread across 10 municipalities, a large number of residents would have to evacuate across municipal boundaries by car. The author proposed and applied a risk communication method to the Riverside District, Chuo City (with about 1400 households and a population of about 4000), assisting in developing a community disaster management plan for wide-area evacuation without a single victim in case of floods, which has been in place for three years. The next step was risk communication to key stakeholders, such as national, prefectural, and municipal governments. Finally, a public symposium on large-scale evacuation in the Kofu Basin was held. During the panel discussion with representatives of the Kofu River and National Road Office, prefectural government of Yamanashi, the municipality, community residents, and the author as panelists, the role of each stakeholder in area-wide evacuation was clarified and confirmed.

Keywords: risk communications; CAUSE model; BECAUSE model; wide-area evacuation; expected maximum rainfall; community disaster management plan; flood; role of stakeholders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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