Vulnerability and disaster response capability of women and...

Vulnerability and disaster response capability of women

and children at community level

Dr Shuai HE Lecturer

Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan

China

Acknowledgements

First of all, I am grateful for Professor Saini Yang introducing me to the

Community Based Disaster Management in Asia (Phase II). The collaborative

research grants introduced by ICCR-DRR support my research on community disaster

reduction. In my PhD study period, I had the opportunity to be involved in Phase I of

the project, which established the foundation of the following ICCR-DRR project by

providing me the related knowledge of Asian community based disaster reduction.

Various scholars and institutions help immensely in the process of field research.

Thanks for the support from Sichuan Disaster Reduction Center, Sichuan Bureau of

Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, IDMR colleagues, Sichuan University

students, and community residents committee and residents on relevant data

collection. In the perspective of model development, data analysis and book editing, I

appreciate the help from project team members, and the Chinese and Nepal research

group which involved in the latter part of the project. Sincerely thank government

departments, NGOs and research agencies which work at the related field to share

their experiences, and appreciate the help from Minister of Civil Affair, State Oceanic

Administration, China Earthquake Administration, Sichuan Emergency Management

Office and Chengdu Emergency Management office，One Foundation, Red Cross,

International Plan, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, Haihui and Oxfam.

Finally, I am particularly grateful to Beijing Normal University for giving me the

opportunity and funding support to conduct my community disaster reduction related

research works, and thank Yanjing Qin and Yaqiao for the guidance and help on

project schedule and management during implementation of project.

Table of contents

Acknowledgement

1. Introduction 4

1.1 Earthquake studies in China and Nepal 4

1.2 Vulnerability studies 10

2. Research objectives 12

3. Methods and materials 14

4. Results and discussions 17

4.1 Social vulnerability assessment 18

4.2 Design of questionnaires for community disaster response capability 26

4.3 Community disaster prevention capability building and disaster response

capability 29

4.4 Residents’ disaster response capability assessment 36

4.5 Experience exchange on community disaster response capability 39

5. Suggestion to improve community disaster response capability 41

1. Introduction

Affected by various kinds of natural disasters, disasters had caused serious

population and economic losses in China. Due to the mountainous terrain, vulnerable

ecological environment, frequently happened earthquake and geological disasters, and

successive catastrophic natural disaster such as the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, the

Lushan Earthquake in 2013, and the secondary disasters, the southwest China have

faced greater challenges in survival and development.

Nepal is an agricultural country, and about 80% of its population is engaged in

agricultural production. Nepal is exposed to a variety of natural hazards and human

induced disasters. Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world. The

economic condition severely restricts the improvement of community disaster

resilience and response capability. More than 80 percent of the total population of

Nepal is at risk of natural hazards; such as floods, landslides, windstorms, hailstorms,

fires, earthquakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods.

Promoting urbanization efficiency of the south China and improving

urbanization rate of population have been put forward in the 13th Five Year Plan. The

series of development measures carried out by China will affect the variation of

regional population distribution and structure. Women and children are extremely

vulnerable in face of natural hazards because of their limited adaptive capacity.

1.1 Earthquake studies in China and Nepal

Earthquake in China -Wenchuan Earthquake

The 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 8.3 had its

epicenter at the junction of Yingxiu town and the Xuankou town, Wenchuan county,

Sichuan province. The earthquake caused 69227 deaths, 17923 missing, 374643

injured, which is the most destructive earthquake since the founding of the People’s

Republic of China and the worst casualties earthquake since Tangshan earthquake.

Fig.1 Location and earthquake fault map of Wenchuan Earthquake, and two of the major

aftershocks (13 May and 25 May) (Tolga Gorum, et al.)

The 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake formed two surface fracture zones on the

Longmen Mountain nappe structure zone. One developed from Beichuan to Yinxiu

with a length of 240km, and the other one developed from Guan county to Jiangyou

with a length of 90km. The earthquake affected over a half of China and several

countries and regions in Asia. North to Liaoning Province, east to Shanghai, South to

Hong Kong, Ao Men, Thailand and Vietnam, west to Pakistan, all felt the earthquake.

The damages areas were more than 100 thousand square kilometer, 10 counties (or

cities) were severely affected areas, 41 counties (or cities) were the worst-hit areas

and 186 other affected counties (or cities).

Fig.2 Distribution of faults, aftershocks, major shock, and intensity of the Wenchuan

earthquake(Cui P, et al.)

Strong seismic surface rupture and dislocation caused devastating damages to

constructions along and beside surface fracture zone, and a mass of landslides, rock

slides, debris flow and other secondary geological disasters. It aggravated the severity

of disaster and caused serious construction damages and casualties. According to

statistics, 90% of casualties during Wenchuan Earthquake were caused by building

collapsing. Building damages are not only related to location but also have something

to do with the design and construction of buildings.

Earthquake in China -Lushan Earthquake

On 20th April 2013, a magnitude of Mw6.6 earthquake struck Lushan, Sichuan

province, China (Lushan earthquake), which caused 196 deaths, 21 missing, 11470

injured.

Fig.3 Location of the Lushan Earthquake (Wu Z, et al.)

The epicenter of Lushan Earthquake is located in Longmen village, Lushan

County. The earthquake caused 99% of buildings’ collapsing. Lushan county is 33km

from downtown Ya’an city, locates in the south part of tectonic zone in front of

Longmen Mountain. The Longmen Mountain fault zone locates on the east side of

Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Earthquakes had hit very often on Longmen Mountain fault

zone, and the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake occurred 69km from Dachuan town, north

of Lushan county. The fracture feature of Lushan Earthquake is similar to Wechuan

Earthquake, and some researchers believed that there should be some connection

between the two disaster events.

Lushan Earthquake and its secondary disasters had great impact on the landform

of disaster areas. A barrier lake was formed in Lushan county after earthquake, some

of the reservoirs were cracked, and ecosystem was greatly affected.

Fig.4 Damaged buildings and landsides resulting from the Lushan earthquake (Li Y, et al.)

Earthquake in Nepal - Nepal earthquake

At 14:11 on April 25, 2015, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Nepal

(28.2 degrees north latitude, 84.7 degrees east longitude) with epicenter located in

Pokhara. At least 8786 people were killed and 22303 injured in the earthquake, and

casualties were reported in Tibet of China, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Fig.5 CATEGORIES OF EARTHQUAKE-AFFECTED DISTRICTS (SOURCE:

GoNIMoHA as of 21 May 2015)

Near the epicenter of the earthquake, the risk of secondary disasters such as

landslide and landslide is extremely high. The buildings in affected areas were mainly

masonry structured soil brick house with poor ability to resist earthquake. Therefore,

residences were affected severely.

Earthquake caused about 517000 buildings partially damaged in Nepal, and

513400 buildings were completely destroyed, 16000 schools were damaged, 90% of

four regions’ medical facilities were severely damaged, destruction of cultural

monuments were also bad, and economic losses may exceeded $5 billion (RMB 31.05

billion Yuan).

The earthquake caused China's Tibet autonomous region 2511 houses collapsed

and 24797 houses damaged, 82 temples damaged (severe damage to 13, moderate

damage to 18), direct economic losses were totally 34.884 billion Yuan (RMB) and

indirect economic losses were 47.117 billion Yuan (RMB).

The earthquakes have brought serious economic losses and casualties to Nepal

and China. It seriously impedes the sustainable development of the regional economy.

Life is fragile in the front of disaster. However, successful disaster prevention and

reduction education and measures can effectively enhance the resilience of life,

making people stay calm when disaster comes. This project aimed to explore how to

reduce regional natural disaster risk and loss and promote a healthy and ordered

development through investigating internal causes of disaster-caused women and

children injuries and deaths from disaster response, defense and recovery; and how to

improve women and children resilience and adaptive capability for areas that facing

the threat of natural disasters, especially suffered continuous influence of earthquake

and secondary disasters and multi-hazards are currently the burning questions and hot

topics. Through this project, we aimed to improve people’s disaster response

capability and transfer the experience of China and Nepal to other developing

countries.

1.2 Vulnerability studies

Vulnerability refers to the amount of damage experienced by a system as

ultimate impacts of a hazard event. For regional disaster mitigation, successful

disaster prevention and reduction education and measures can effectively enhance the

resilience of life, making people stay calm when disaster comes. Vulnerability studies

can help us to better understand the regional vulnerable part.

Conception of vulnerability

During the interview, Vulnerability originates from natural disaster research. It

was put forward by American scholar White first. Currently this term is wildly used in

geosciences, ecology, disaster science, economics, and social science and other

interdisciplinary fields. It has become the hot issue and frontier domain of the

research on global environment changes and sustainable development (Huang Jianyi).

Vulnerability is a major concept in natural disaster research and its connotation is

extending. At the first stage, only the single structure of hazard-bearing body

vulnerability was taken into consideration, while it gradually developed into a

multi-structure considering hazard-bearing body exposure and system adaptive

capacity. Vulnerability is widely regarded as a potential damage caused by disasters

under to human social systems. The understanding of connotation of vulnerability

comes from two layers: 1) externality of a system, i.e. a system’s damages when

exposed to and shocked by natural disasters; 2) internality of a system, a system

internal structure’s capacity to resist disasters’ shock. The internal structure of human

society determines the capacity of systems to resist and cope with disasters. The

changes of internal elements of a system will influence and change system structure

and function through a complex feedback mechanism.

i. Vulnerability of women

When disaster takes place, its impacts may vary among different groups of people

and the most vulnerable groups that has been observed are women and children.

Generally, women suffered much more than men did because of their role in the

society, the cultural and biological differences comparing with men, discrimination

and the neglect of their capability that could be used in the disaster. The vulnerability

of women has been confirmed from the literature. The death rates of women were the

quadruple of the rates of men in the Indian Tsunami 2004 (UNEP, 2005) and

according to the report of OXFAM (2005). There was a village where only women

died. In the Bangladesh Flood 2005, the death rates of men only account one sixth

comparing with that of the women (Irshad et al. 2012). In the Kashmir Earthquake

2005, the analysis done by Mahmood (2006) reveals that the death casualties and

illness was much higher among women and girls. They suffered more than physical

injuries caused in the disaster. Sapir (2003) and Carballo (2005) found that women are

usually under the threat of sexual harassment which could impact them in long-term.

ii. Vulnerability of children

Child is another group of vulnerable population as children are physically

vulnerable to death, injury, illness, abuse and sometimes they may develop

post-traumatic stress disorder. According the research of Penrose and Takaki (2006),

disasters affected an estimated 66.5 million children each year at the end of the

twentieth century. This number is likely to triple over the second decade of the

twenty-first century, with up to 175 million children affected every year by disasters

triggered by climate change (Save the Children UK 2007).

Vulnerability assessment method

The current natural disaster vulnerability assessment mainly based on methods of

historical disaster situation, indicator system and disaster damage curve. The 3

methods have their own advantages and disadvantages and scope of application.

Table 1 Comparison of three methods for vulnerability research

Method Research content Application scope types Historical

disaster situation Focuses on intensity, rate and

spatial location of disaster-inducing factors;

exposure of human beings to risky areas; human damage and property loss caused by disaster,

focusing on consequences of disasters.

Global or nations Natural vulnerability

Disaster damage curve

Focuses on the relation between intensity of disaster-inducing factors and disaster damages, mainly considering building,

cannot measure the vulnerability of human society

Specific disaster-bearing body, like buildings, crops

Natural vulnerability

Indicator system Focuses on human social and economic elements influencing

vulnerability

Wide scope Social vulnerability

2. Research objectives

The final target is to find out the vulnerable area in southwest of China, to reduce

vulnerability and increase disaster resilience of community women and children in

China and Nepal’s earthquake disaster area via vulnerability assessment, and find out

the effective methods and measures to improve their disaster defense capability. This

project provides a theoretical basis for improving communities’ comprehensive

disaster prevention and mitigation capability, and share the successful mitigation

experience of Nepal and China to the disaster areas to significantly reduce casualties

and increase resilience during earthquakes and other disasters. The major approaches

to fulfill the goal shall follow the general framework, including:

Social vulnerability evaluation. From a disaster area perspective, it selects

relative indexes that affect social vulnerability and constructs suitable index

system for social vulnerability in county level through summarizing existing

index systems. Base on the vulnerability evaluation index system, the research

use Multiple Factor Analysis model (MFA) to investigate the structural

relationship between groups of variables and all variables in the index system.

Comprehensive regional study on the vulnerability and disaster response

capability of women and children at community level. The comprehensive

regional study involves literature review of vulnerability assessment and disaster

response capability of women and children, and field works with workshops,

interview and household questionnaire.

Comparative analysis of disaster response capability in communities. This part

involves field research and comparative analysis. Through field research, the

research group collected the data of disaster prevention knowledge of community

residents. According to the community women and children vulnerability

evaluation, the research conducts comparative analysis of the primary factors

that cause women and children’s vulnerability. Additionally, the research will

analyze effectiveness of different disaster mitigation measures, and search for

universal comprehensive disaster reduction mode.

Pilot community program with workshops and campaign. This part involves

more practice work by actually selecting several communities to understand how

the mitigation measures could help women and children to promote their

response capability, and to share successful experience to improve other regions.

The implementation phase involves the following activities.

Activity 1: Review of the current vulnerability assessment

Review of vulnerability evaluation index system. Review of the current vulnerability assessment model. Review of the mitigation practice for community women and children. Review of community disaster reduction mode. Activity 2： Basic data collection and processing

Basic geographic information database. The socioeconomic and population data of counties. Disaster affected data. The data of disaster prevention and mitigation measures. Activity 3：Vulnerability evaluation

Establish the evaluation indexes of county vulnerability. The related data of county vulnerability collection. Assessment of county vulnerability. Influence factors of county vulnerability analysis. Activity 4：Field research

The availability and reliability of the data. Investigation on the community post-earthquake recovery and

reconstruction mode. Questionnaire about adaptation and coping capability of community

women and children. Activity 5：Capacity training and field research of community disaster

prevention and mitigation capacity improvement

Establish a training standard for community women and children in the research areas.

Establish training plan and design training courses. Organize the community women and children training. Evaluate training effectiveness. Activity 6 ： Comparative analysis for communities’ women and

children’s vulnerability

Comparative analysis of community women and children’s susceptibility.

Comparative analysis of community women and children’ adaptive capacity.

Comparative analysis of community women and children’s coping capacity.

3. Methods and materials

In order to fulfill the objectives, the research studied the community and

residents’ disaster response capability with quantitative and qualitative method. At

first, the team used a statistical method to analyze social vulnerability at county level

in Sichuan province. This work helps the team to learn influence factors and

spatial-temporal pattern of vulnerability. Then, we designed a questionnaire based on

the result of social vulnerability assessment. At last, we compared the community

disaster response capability by case study method, and analyzed the resident’s disaster

response capability by quantitative method.

Data materials

The team collected basic geographical data of Sichuan province county level.

The position of research area shows as Figure 6.

Fig.6 The geographical location of Sichuan province

Besides the basic geographical data of Sichuan, the project also used historical

social-economic and demographic data (Table 5) from statistical yearbook. The team

had collected the social-economic and demographic data of year 1980, 1990, 2000

and 2010. These data were used to analyze spatial and temporal evolution features of

vulnerability in certain areas. Based on the existing indicator systems, we selected raw

variables from annual statistical data set with the consideration of real situations of

China. These raw variables were selected from the perspectives of social structure and

economic structure.

Table 2 Social economic and demographic data

System Level Target Level Indicator Level

Demographic Feature

Population change Population density (person/square km) Population increase %

Age structure Ratio of population under 14 % Ratio of population above 65 %

Gender equality Sex ratio %

Social Factor

Education status Illiteracy rate % Ratio of population received senior high school education or below %

Employment status Unemployment rate %

Medical service Number of beds per 10,000 persons （or bed/1,000 persons）

Rural situation Ratio of populations involved in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery （%）

Urbanization Ratio of populations involved in the secondary industries （%）

Economical factor Financial situation

GDP per capita (CNY /person) Per capita savings (CNY /person) Per capita fixed assets investment (CNY /person)

Grain guarantee Per capita agricultural acreage（ hectare/person） Per capita output of grain（ kg/person）

To understand the basic situation of regional community comprehensively, the

research team preliminarily designed the contents of questionnaire for the

investigation of community disaster reduction’s basic situation. Since the research

objects are women and children, the research team had designed the relevant

questionnaires focus on individuals and family level’s disaster response and recovery

capacity. The questionnaire is designed to include three aspects: basic information of

community disaster reduction measures, the disaster knowledge of women and

children, and their capacity to respond. The vulnerability of women and children

includes physical vulnerability and educational vulnerability. For the capacity to

respond, it refers to their contributions in the disaster preparedness, response and

recovery with their knowledge, creativity, energy and enthusiasm.

The team selected Ya’an in Lushan Earthquakes disaster area as the key

investigation area in China based on the analysis of disaster areas vulnerability, and

the Nepal Earthquake disaster areas as the key investigation area in Nepal. The

Shuijingfang community in Chengdu city of Sichuan province was chose to be the

comparative community to study disaster prevention and reduction capability’s

differences under the same policy environment and different economic foundation. At

the same time, to understand the differences among residents from different

backgrounds’ disaster response capabilities, the team selected some urban and rural

communities in Gansu province, Shanxi province and Hunan province that are at

different areas and with different cultures. The team did questionnaire during visiting

communities. So far, 789 questionnaires have been received in China, include Sichuan

province (190), Gansu province (140), Shanxi province (65), and Hunan province

(393).

For the comparative study, we invite the research team in Nepal to participate in

this project. They collect the communities’ data in Nepal. The investigation was

conducted 400 urban and rural residents in Nepal, including KHOKANA (54),

BUNGMATI (46), MIBACHHE (27), COCHE (27), DEKOCHA (54),

THULOPAKHAR (61), SANKHU (51), and GONGABU (80) respectively,

representing the general situation of community residents’ disaster prevention and

reduction in different regions of Nepal.

4. Results and discussions

Through the study of this project, we have some key findings. These findings can

provide theoretical basis for reducing regional vulnerability, enhancing community

disaster response capability, facilitating the community experience exchange between

Nepal and China, and promoting the community disaster prevention experience. This

project research has done the following exploration:

Social vulnerability assessment

Design of questionnaires for community disaster response capability

Community disaster prevention capability building and residents’ disaster

response capability

Residents’ disaster response capability assessment

Experience exchange on community disaster response capability

4.1 Social vulnerability assessment

Social vulnerability studies can help us to fully understand the potential disaster

factors, the degree of disaster and response capability of the social groups,

organizations or regions under the impact of hazards. In order to understand the

vulnerability of Wenchuan earthquake and Lushan earthquake disaster areas, this

study analyzed the social vulnerability of Sichuan province in county level. It can help

us to better study the women, children and community disaster response capability.

In recent decades, losses resulted from natural disasters have dramatically

increased and combined with a significant rise in the intensity and frequency of

natural hazards, and in exposure. China is prone to multiple hazards and has

experienced huge changes in its social fabric during the past two decades, especially

in its population density, development patterns, and other social characteristics. These

changes may have exposed the population and society to higher risks than ever before.

It is, therefore, important to identify and assess regional social vulnerability to natural

hazards to strengthen decision making in disaster risk reduction planning and risk

governance. To quantify regional social vulnerability to natural hazards and map its

temporal–spatial distribution in Sichuan, we carefully selected variables from an

extensive compilation of provincial socioeconomic and demographic data.

To quantify the social vulnerability and capture temporal–spatial patterns, we

used the annual socioeconomic and demographic data in county level from the past

decades (1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010).

Evaluation index

Vulnerability refers to the amount of damage experienced by a system as

ultimate impacts of a hazard event. The capability to withstand these impacts is partly

related to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of

cultural values and resides in susceptibilities and capacities to cognize, cope with, and

adapt to hazards.

Profoundly understanding the connotation of regional social vulnerability and

choosing rational and effective indicators are the basis and premise for correctly

assessing the social vulnerability of a region. While establishing accurately a social

vulnerability assessment indicator system is the prerequisite for effective analysis of

social vulnerability. Only by doing this can the evolving law of social vulnerability’s

spatio-temporal pattern is objectively reflected.

Building on the results of existing social vulnerability studies, and combining the

actual situation in our country and the accessibility of related data, this study, based

on China's social and economic development statistics database, selects representative

social vulnerability evaluation indicators from demographic features, social factors

and economic factors and other dimensions, and then endeavors to establish a social

vulnerability assessment indicator system from the perspectives of system level, target

level and indicator level. In view of the limitations of our country's statistic data, the

minimum scale of the indicator data involved in this research is the county level.

Therefore, this study uses county-level units in Sichuan Province as its basic research

units to analyze the characteristics of social vulnerability at the county level, and to

analyze in depth the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the

vulnerability of women and children.

Table 3 Vulnerability Assessment Indicators

System Level Target Level Indicator Level

Demographic Feature

Population change Population density (person/square km) Population increase %

Age structure Ratio of population under 14 % Ratio of population above 65 %

Gender equality Sex ratio %

Social Factor

Education status Illiteracy rate % Ratio of population received senior high school education or below %

Employment status Unemployment rate %

Medical service Number of beds per 10,000 persons （or bed/1,000 persons）

Rural situation Ratio of populations involved in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery （%）

Urbanization Ratio of populations involved in the secondary industries （%）

Economical factor Financial situation

GDP per capita (CNY /person) Per capita savings (CNY /person) Per capita fixed assets investment (CNY /person)

Grain guarantee Per capita agricultural acreage（ hectare/person） Per capita output of grain（ kg/person）

Evaluation model

The current researches of social vulnerability mainly focus on the sensitivity,

coping capacity, and resilience of a social society when impacted by natural disasters.

Indicator systems have been established to assess social vulnerability quantitatively.

Base on the vulnerability evaluation index system established, the research

team used Multiple Factor Analysis model (MFA) to investigate the structural

relationship between groups of variables and all variables in the index system.

Determine the significance of each index, calculate vulnerable index, and provide a

comprehensive measurement of Wenchuan and Lushan disaster areas’ vulnerability in

Sichuan province. The mathematical model as Figure 7 shows.

Fig.7 Multiple Factor Analysis

Temporal–spatial distribution of vulnerability

The team calculated social vulnerability index of Sichuan province for decades

(1980, 1990, 2000, 2010). As a result, the temporal–spatial distribution of

vulnerability in Sichuan shows that the vulnerability of western areas of Sichuan is

higher than eastern areas. The results show that the highest level vulnerability

counties are mainly in the western area of Sichuan province. The lowest level

vulnerability counties are mainly distributed in central and eastern areas of Sichuan

province.

a. Social vulnerability distribution of 2010 b. Social vulnerability distribution of 2000

c. Social vulnerability distribution of 1990 d. Social vulnerability distribution of 1980

Fig.8 Social vulnerability index distribution in Sichuan province

Based on the distribution of social vulnerability index, the team calculated Local

Moran index of Social vulnerability index. The results show as Figure 9.

a. Local Moran Index distribution of 2010 b. Local Moran Index distribution of 2000

c. Local Moran Index distribution of 1990 d. Local Moran Index distribution of 1980

Fig.9 Local Moran Index distribution in Sichuan province

The results show that the high level vulnerability counties with positive

correlation are mainly in the western area of Sichuan province. The low level

vulnerability counties with positive correlation are mainly distributed in central area

of Sichuan province.

The team analyzed the major factors (population, social, economy factors) that

have significant influence on social vulnerability of Sichuan province in 2010 (Figure

10).

a. Social vulnerability distribution of 2010 b. The distribution of population factors in 2010

c. The distribution of social factors in 2010 d. The distribution of economic factors in 2010

Fig.10 The distribution of social vulnerability and major factors of Sichuan province in

2010


have significant influence on social vulnerability of Sichuan province in 2000

(Figure 11).




2000


have significant influence on social vulnerability of Sichuan province in 1990

(Figure 12).




1990


have significant influence on social vulnerability of Sichuan province in 1980 (Figure

13).




1980

The distribution of social vulnerability in Sichuan province shows that the social

vulnerability is much higher in the western and southwestern of Sichuan, while the

social vulnerability in Wenchuan earthquake and Lushan earthquake areas are

relatively lower. The social vulnerability in Sichuan has a trending of decline from

1980 to 2010 year. After Wenchuan earthquake, some counties in the disaster area

have become much vulnerable. The counties in disaster area have a positive

correlation. Therefore, we need to further study about the vulnerability and

community disaster risk reduction mitigations in the disaster areas.

4.2 Design of questionnaires for community disaster response capability

Life is fragile in the front of disaster. However, successful disaster prevention

and reduction education and measures can effectively enhance the resilience of life,

making people stay calm when disaster comes. International experience shows that

the resilience of individual life is both the basis and the ultimate goal for effective

disaster prevention and reduction systems.

In view of the current lack of basic research among community residents on

disaster prevention and prevention, this project hopes to provide reference for the

enhancement of comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction capacity for

community residents, and to enlighten on the future work. In addition, this report

demonstrates the basic situation of the awareness and knowledge of disaster

prevention and reduction of residents in China and Nepal at this stage. This report

also summaries the existing shortcomings in the promotion and popularization of

disaster prevention and reduction measures, hoping to arouse the concern and

attention of the government, academia and the public to explore the improvement of

comprehensive disaster reduction measures and the enhancement of relative abilities.

There are many factors that would lead to the community vulnerability and

disaster response capability. First of all, based on the analysis result of social

vulnerability for Sichuan province in county level, we combined the characteristics of

community disaster prevention and reduction to design a questionnaire for community

disaster response capability assessment. Customized protection measures for

vulnerability groups such as women and children are not included in the

implementation of community disaster prevention and mitigation. In order to better

understand the disaster response capabilities of community women and children, we

analyzed the major factors affecting the vulnerability of women and children.

There are many factors that would lead to the vulnerability of women. The very

first reason indicated by Maleki (2010) is the financial dependency of illiterate or

low-literate women, especially in rural areas. Taking Pakistan as an example, women

usually spend their time doing indoor works including maternity services, taking care

of children and elderly person and cooking for the whole family (Irshad et al. 2012).

Therefore, they have little time and limited ability acquiring information from outside

about disasters and ways to reduce risks and evacuation. Similarly, when disaster

occurs, the first thing they want to do is to save their children and the elderly. The

physiological condition is another factor that makes women among one of the

vulnerable groups (Mothers Health Program in Crises 2003). During pregnancy and

lactation, they have specific needs for taking care of the children and themselves.

Although vulnerable, children can still contribute a lot in the disaster

preparedness, response and recovery with their knowledge, creativity, energy and

enthusiasm (Peek 2008). The team analyzed the factors which influence the

vulnerability of children. Psychological, physical and education vulnerability is the

main factors influencing children’s vulnerability experience in disaster.

Table 4 Factors influencing children’s vulnerability in disaster

Psychological vulnerability Physical vulnerability Educational vulnerability Life threat Family separation Death of a loved one Material loss Home/school damage Direct exposure or media

exposure to disaster Child characteristics(race, age,

gender, SES) Poor functioning pre-disaster Parental distress Low levels of social support Additional life stressors Negative coping skills Lack of coping assistance Displacement

Living in poor communities in hazard-prone regions

Living in/going to school in substandard structures

Loss of a parent Family separation Child characteristics(race,

age, gender, SES) Size, strength stage of

development Poor diet Parental distress Unsafe/unsanitary shelter

environments

Destruction of school buildings Displacement of students and

teachers Loss of vital records Delayed enrollment Multiple school changes Family instability Unwelcoming/unsupportive school

environments Poor academic performance

pre-disaster Loss of a parent Increased work demands

Based on these studies about the factors affecting social vulnerability and

community women and children, we designed questionnaires for communities and

residents. We continuously improved the questionnaires by field investigation. Finally,

we designed a questionnaire which can effectively learn the disaster response

capability of communities and residents. The purpose of questionnaire for

communities is to understand the basic situation and implementation process of

disaster prevention in community. The purpose of questionnaire for residents is to

understand the residents’ awareness of disaster prevention and reduction and

resilience against disaster. The designed questionnaires are attached to the appendix.

4.3 Community disaster prevention capability building and disaster response

capability

Based on the analysis of the temporal and spatial characteristics of social

vulnerability, we understand that regional demographic features, especially the

indicators related to children and women, have a large impact on the spatial and

temporal distribution of vulnerability. While in China, based on the analysis results of

social vulnerability of Sichuan’s counties, we have found that the social vulnerability

of the areas stricken by Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake is relatively

low. This reflects that the residents in the quake-hit areas are more capable of coping

with earthquake disaster than those in western Sichuan; however, the losses caused by

the disaster to the two regions vary greatly. Therefore, through field research, we have

tried to have an insight into the basic situation of disaster prevention and mitigation in

communities and residents in the areas hit by Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan

Earthquake.

Field work on community disaster prevention capability building in

China

To understand the situation of community disaster prevention and reduction，the

research team had some field researches in China for the urban and rural communities,

also team investigated some integrated national disaster reduction demonstration

communities during the study of this project.

On July 11~12 2017, the team investigated Shuijingfang community in Chengdu.

During this visit, we learned the workflow and implementation of community

neighborhood committee disaster reduction and prevention. Questionnaires had been

done to understand Chengdu community residents’ disaster response abilities.

As the “National Comprehensive Disaster-reduction Demonstration Community”,

“National Safe Community”, “Municipal Comprehensive Disaster-reduction

Standardization Construction Pilot Community”, Shuijingfang had improved their

disaster reduction and prevention software and hardware based on the demonstration

standards. The team visited the community and learned the implementation of its

disaster reduction and prevention.

Fig.14 Disaster publicity and education, and emergency evacuation routes

The team learned the construction of Shuijingfang’s emergency shelters, the

scale, functional areas and administration of emergency shelters. On the basis of

emergency shelter, the community had organized many emergency drills so far.

Fig.15 The construction of community emergency shelters

During the implementation of disaster reduction and prevention works, the

community considered the importance of social powers and strengthened the

communication and cooperation with social organizations. The community provides

offices for social organizations so that it has achieved a diverse system cooperation in

community disaster reduction and prevention.

Fig.16 Diverse system cooperation in community disaster reduction and prevention

To better interact with community residents, effectively carry out community’s

disaster prevention and mitigation work, and publicize the knowledge concerning

disaster prevention and mitigation, Shuijingfang Community Residents Committee

has shaped a community volunteer team with the community’s residents as its main

members.

In the same way, the team surveyed other communities in the research areas in

China. Through the survey, we have gained an insight into the basic situations of

disaster prevention and mitigation disaster-hit communities and non-disaster-affected

communities in urban and rural areas, the similarities and differences in the

implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in different communities, and

the experiences and lessons learned in the implementation of disaster prevention and

mitigation in communities.

Field work on community disaster prevention capability building in

Nepal

The project team invited a Nepalese research team to conduct investigations

within areas affected during 2015 earthquake in Nepal, aiming to look into the status

quo of the disaster recovery in the past 2 years, and to survey the residents' awareness

of disaster prevention and reduction.

The Nepalese team visited Sankhu village which is located at the hardest-hit

areas. There were about 20,000 people in Sankhu, most of which earn a living by

farming. Local villagers said that about 300 people were killed and more than 1000

were injured during the earthquake. The lack of communications services in large

mountainous areas lead to an unknown number of missing people.

Fig.17 Disaster investigation in Sankhu of Nepal

The Nepalese team also visited the Thulopakhar village in the

earthquake-stricken areas located at Barchok of Xindu, and conducted in-depth survey

on the status of post-disaster recovery.

Fig.18 Disaster investigation in Thulopakhar of Nepal

Team members and staff from Thulopakhar village conducted in-depth

interviews to understand the basic situation of community-based emergency

capacity-building, as well as the basic situation of the improvement of residents'

disaster response ability during recovery process.

Fig.19 Interviews and questionnaires in Thulopakhar of Nepal

Same interview and questionnaire survey were also conducted in villages

including Khokana, Bungmati, Mibachhe, Coche, Dekocha, and Gongabu.

Comparative study of community disaster reduction and emergency

management in Nepal and China

On the basis of the national framework for community-level disaster reduction

and emergency management, the building of community’s disaster reduction and

emergency response capabilities is affected by many factors, leading to the imbalance

of such capacity building among different communities in different regions. Due to

regional differences, there exist big differences in the progress of communities’

disaster prevention and mitigation work.

Driven by the state’s integrated disaster reduction demonstration communities,

some of Chinese urban communities lay more emphasis on community disaster

prevention and mitigation. Based on the national disaster reduction and emergency

management framework, these communities have set up a relatively mature

community-level organizational system for disaster reduction and emergency

response, have prepared a well-developed contingency plan, and have done well in

emergency response capacity building. Some urban communities, combing their own

situations, make full use of social resources available, have set up featured projects

for disaster reduction and emergency response, promoted the communication between

communities and residents, raised the residents’ disaster awareness, having thus

greatly enhanced the communities’ capability in disaster prevention and control, and

given full play to the advantages of the communities’ multiple subjects. In rural areas

of China and Nepal, due to remoteness, backward economic conditions and the lack

of professional knowledge, the communities’ disaster response capability is low. For

instance, in some rural areas of Nepal, priorities are placed on the prevention of

common risks such as waterlogging and landslides, instead of preparedness against

severe earthquakes. Before the occurrence of the earthquake, a guideline for preparing

disaster preparedness and response plans had been issued in 2011, but was never

implemented in rural areas.

This study used the interview form to understand the basic situation of

community disaster prevention work, and investigated the implementation of

community disaster prevention work through field work.

The research team had combed the community disaster reduction and

improvement of emergency response capability as a book. The title is “Disaster

reduction and emergency management in Nepal and China”. This book focuses on

comparative study of disaster reduction and emergency management between Nepal

and China, especially on the community women and children's disaster reduction

paradigm and disaster response capacity.

To make the study more representatives, the team had collected a great quantity

of materials about national community disaster prevention and capacity-building in

Nepal and China. Besides, the case study was used for comparative analysis between

different communities. This project, by comparing the disaster-hit areas and

non-disaster-affected communities in China's urban and rural areas with concrete

cases, analyzes the differences in disaster reduction and emergency response

capacities of the communities with different backgrounds and in different regions of

China. The earthquake-stricken areas in Nepal, the Wenchuan Earthquake-hit areas

and the Lushan Earthquake-hit areas in China were all affected by severe earthquake

disasters; but due to different community-based disaster reduction patterns, those

communities’ emergency response capabilities also vary. Under the guidance of

similar "top-down" policy regime, the institutional mechanisms for community-level

disaster reduction in Nepal and China are comparable. Through comparative research,

this study analyzes the differences between the disaster reduction and emergency

response capacity of Nepal’s communities and that of China’s communities.

In this book, the research team had deeply analyzed the community disaster

reduction mode, the community emergency management framework, the community

emergency response capacity development. Through the comparative study, the

experiences and shortages of community disaster reduction were analyzed. This book,

which was wrote in Chinese, aimed to improve disaster response capability in

community level in Nepal and China.

4.4 Residents’ disaster response capability assessment

Community is directly affected by disasters. It is not hard to find from the

Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquakes, before professional rescue team arrive, the self

and mutual aid is the main way to save people at the time right after a big earthquake.

Therefore, community residents should have the basic disaster knowledge and disaster

response skills.

Through the investigation, we collected 1189 valid questionnaires in total,

including 789 urban and rural questionnaires in China and 400 questionnaires in

Nepal. A balanced proportion of men and women were applied in this survey (male

54.63%, female 45.25%). Considering the fact that the survey covers different

communities in urban and rural areas, the sample contains urban and rural residents,

with proportion of agricultural residents as 25.98%, and the non-agricultural as 73.76%

(Figure 20).

Fig.20 Structure of gender and type of registered permanent residence

For example, we analyzed different age groups who will pay attention to disaster

related knowledge. From the results, we can learn that different age groups differ a

lot.

Fig.21 The impact of different age groups on the degree of disaster related knowledge

Respondents from the age group 25-34, paid higher attention (almost 92.42%) to

the Disaster Related Knowledge while only few of them didn’t pay attention to

Disaster Related Knowledge. So, this group doesn’t need large measure of DRR

trainings. Respondents with age group 55 and above, majority of them didn’t pay

attention to disaster related knowledge. So, this group needs effective measures for

DRR trainings.

At the same time, we analyzed the impact of different job type groups which

group will pay more attention to disaster related knowledge.

66.67% 74.36%

92.42%

57.00% 62.64%

15.25% 5.13%

33.33% 25.64%

7.58%

43.00% 37.36%

84.75% 94.87%

0-14years 15-24 years 25-34 years 35-44 years 45-54 years 55-64 years 65 years andabove

Do the respondent pay attention to Disaster Related Knowledge?

Yes No

Fig.22 The impact of different age groups on the degree of disaster related knowledge

The results show that the respondents such as farmer, local labour, migrant

labour, paid less attention to Disaster Related Knowledge while manager in public

and private department and the office worker paid much higher attention to Disaster

Related Knowledge. So, these two groups don’t need large measure of DRR trainings.

The group of farmer, local labour, migrant labour and student didn’t pay attention to

disaster related knowledge. These groups need effective measures for DRR trainings.

We did a similar analysis of the other contents for the questionnaire. Based on

the results of disaster response capability of residents, we have formed a research

report about the residents’ awareness of disaster prevention and reduction and

resilience against disaster. The investigation report focuses on the investigation and

analysis of individual awareness and knowledge of disaster prevention and reduction,

and the disaster prevention ability of individual family. This report can better

presented the study results to governments, social organizations and residents. The

report mainly introduced the situation of residents’ disaster response and the

shortcomings of disaster response, and pointed out some key points in the work of

disaster reduction.

30.54%

62.22%

46.15%

67.74% 80.95%

100.00%

76.92%

100.00%

69.46%

37.78%

53.85%

32.26% 19.05%

0.00%

23.08%

0.00%

Farmer Local Labour MigrantLabour

Student Self-employed Manager inpublic and

privatedepartment

worker inpublic and

privatedepartment

office worker

Do the respondent pay attention to Disaster Related Knowledge?

Yes Not Really

4.5 Experience exchange on community disaster response capability

In order to strengthen the cooperation with government departments, NGOs and

research agencies, the project team actively participated and organized various forms

of academic exchange activities to learn more relevant knowledge of community

disaster reduction, and promote our research results about community disaster

mitigation and disaster response capability.

Seminar of China community disaster prevention and reduction

On July 15th 2017, a small workshop “seminar of China community disaster

prevention and reduction”, hosted by Institution of Disaster Management and

Reconstruction, were held in the conference room of School of Public administration,

SCU (Figure 9). Take community disaster prevention and reduction as the theme, we

invited government departments, NGOs and research agencies which work at the

related field to share their experience.

Fig.23 Seminar of China community disaster prevention and reduction

Take community disaster prevention and reduction as the theme, we were

honored to invite government departments, NGOs and research agencies which work

at the related field to share their experience.

In the workshop, the experts shared their experiences on construction of the

“National Disaster-reduction Demonstration Community”, “Marine

Disaster-reduction Demonstration Community”, “Earthquake Disaster-reduction

Demonstration Community”, “Sichuan Province and Chengdu City Community

Emergency Response Capability”, and “Red Cross Resilient Community” (Bo Ai Jia

Yuan).

The workshop had in-depth discussions on how to implement community

disaster reduction and prevention in a better way, how to integrate the current related

projects, how to enhance the information and resources sharing between governments

and social organizations, and how to spread Chinese community disaster reduction

and prevention experiences to international society. All delegates expressed hope

there will be a fixed sharing and communication mechanism to improve community

disaster reduction and prevention capabilities, so that they can jointly contribute to

human disaster reduction and prevention.

Short-term academic exchange on comparative study of disaster response

capability of women and children in community level between Nepal and

China

To deeply analyze the vulnerability and disaster response capability of women

and children in community level, we invited one of the collaborators in Nepal to visit

Chengdu during November 5th to 15th, 2017. A small workshop held at Institute for

Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) of Sichuan University. Then, the

team discussed the difference of vulnerability and disaster response capability of

women and children between Nepal and China. The focus of the workshops aimed to

assess the current situation of disaster response capability of communities, and

exchange of community emergency capacity building experiences in Nepal and China

for further study.

In this workshop, we discussed how to effectively extend and promote the

capacity of community disaster response through international cooperation after the

end of this project. We will enhance our cooperation by applying for other projects,

and explore how to contribute to community disaster reduction in the future based on

the existing research results.

5. Suggestion to improve community disaster response capability

Improvement of community disaster response capability

As a basic unit of society management, community is a necessary place for

working and living, and is a forward position of emergency response. Devoting major

efforts to develop community disaster emergency capacity can enable timely response

to emergency events and reducing damages. Based on the research, community

disaster emergency capacity include not only legal system standard and emergency

financing, but also ability of disaster emergency perception, information processing,

monitoring and warning, emergency disposal, emergency supply, residents reaction,

society evacuation and emergency mobilization.

This research provided the following suggestions for community disaster

response deficiencies:

a) Strengthen emergency management team construction. Natural disasters are

sudden, complex, highly uncertain and catastrophic, which decide that

emergencies should be timely, accurately and decisively. It requires

community emergency management personnel are able to analyze and deal

with different information and make decisions in time.

b) Professional rescue team formation. Emergency management usually

involves multiple departments, or requires multiplayer. To correctly and

timely response and deal with emergencies, community can follow the

principles of “multiple purposes for one team, combining full-time and

part-time, army-civilian combination, and peace-war combination”. Taking

advantages of community and cooperating with local authorities and other

organizations, to build a responsive, high mobility, professional and great

shock action rescue team.

c) Professional talents and team cultivation. In consideration of the sudden and

complex feature of natural disaster events, community needs to actively train

talents with professional techniques and management methods, and

cooperate with emergency management agencies at all level to build

specialized team.

d) Multi-player participating and volunteer group development. NGOs and

volunteer groups are important force for emergency response. They are not

only having great effect in immediate response of public emergencies, but

also playing an important role in publicity, public training, and public self

and mutual saving ability development. There are many professionals within

some NGOs and volunteer groups, who possess certain experiences and

expertise in the field of crisis management. Enhancing NGO collaboration

and volunteer group building can not only improve community but also

residents’ disaster response capacities.

Improvement of resident’s disaster response capability

The subjective conditions of people understanding emergency mainly include

emergency awareness, emergency knowledge, danger and its possibilities, and

recognition of people and property’s vulnerability during crisis. Residents’ ability in

responding emergency mainly includes residents’ disaster defense ability and

self-mutual rescue skills, and home emergency preparedness. When disaster occurs,

residents’ disaster responding ability will directly affect their lives and properties

safety. Residents should try their best to avoid risk when emergency happens; if

disasters happened next to oneself or near people around, residents can conduct

prompt self and mutual rescue.

Based on the questionnaire analytic results, this research provided the following

suggestions for residents’ disaster response deficiencies:

a) Promotion, resident training, self-mutual rescuing skills improvement.

b) Strengthening drills, disaster response experiences and professional

knowledge of residents.

c) Governments or community should organize specific disaster knowledge

training. The research finding shows that residents’ gender, ages, occupation

category and incomes have relatively obvious influence on their disaster

response capability. Any disaster-related training provide for community

residents should be developed based on their characteristics.

d) As government or training organization, should strengthen the cultivation of

disaster experts and increase number of disaster experts, to promote the

development of community residents’ disaster awareness, perception and

related skills.

Future plan to improve community and residents’ disaster response

capability

In order to improve the community and residents’ disaster response capability,

the team is now working from three directions:

a) To improve disaster management levels of disaster related departments. We

have reached a preliminary agreement with Department of Civil Affairs of

Sichuan Province. We plan to train the member of this department on

disaster related knowledge from March 2018. In the long run, we will train

the city and county level member of disaster related department on disaster

related knowledge. So there will be more trained administrative personnel

with professional disaster skills.

b) To improve residents’ disaster response capability. We are planning to offer

specific training for community residents, students and women. Project team

will work with front-line governments and NGOs members, design specific

training materials and conduct resident disaster-related capacity training

based on the research findings.

c) Strengthening community disaster research. Have started cooperation with

one of the project team member from Nepal, and applied project about

community disaster response capacity improvement. We will gradually

transfer qualitative research to quantitative research.

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