Kei NOZAWA

Development and Evaluation of Risk Communication Tools to Prepare for Flood Damage

Yoko MATSUDA

In order to prepare for flood disasters, not only hard measures, but also measures such as evacuation drills conducted by residents and administration are important. In order to build a society that is strong against disasters residents and administration share mutual trust,  awareness about the risks and issues related to disaster risk in the region, It is essential that so-called risk communication, in which agreement is formed while taking measures, is indispensable.(Katada, 2007) Materials such as hazard maps used to facilitate risk communication are called risk communication tools.
In this research, several tools related to flood damage were created in Higashi Kawaguchi, and were provided as exhibits to residents who participated in evacuation drills assuming flood damage. We compared the five risk communication tools used in Higashi Kawaguchi, and discussed the characteristics and problems of each. We also discussed the operation method of tools suitable to the stage of risk communication using the CAUSE model of risk communication proposed by Rowan.K.E (1992).
We conducted a questionnaire survey on five tools: " Higashi Kawaguchi disaster prevention quiz", "video of a drive recorder", "previous questionnaire results", "guidance on obtaining weather information", and "Uono River inundation area map". In the questionnaire, we asked whether a respondent was able to understand three issues, "awareness of flood risk", "understanding of flood risk ", "understanding of action to take" through the respective tools, which is the 2nd to the 4th stages of CAUSE model. From this result, it was found that the "video of a drive recorder" got high evaluation in "awareness of the flood risk", and since there was a significant difference in the independent t-test. For other tools as well, from the questionnaire results, we examined the effective operation method and problems of the risk communication tools.