Toshiyuki KON and Daisuke HIGAKI
A questionnaire survey was conducted at the municipal disaster management sectors in northern Tohoku district, Japan, in order to understand the actual state of warning and evacuation systems for sediment disasters and the issues faced in their establishment. Though information on disaster]prone areas and disaster alerts has been properly disseminated, most municipalities suffer from insufficient knowledge on sediment]related disasters and have inadequate staff numbers to respond to such disasters. Moreover, disaster alerts have not been well utilized by the municipalities because of the low ratio of disaster occurrence. Areas prone to sediment disaster have not been understood well because of the difficulty in conducting disaster drills using the distributed maps that indicate disaster]prone areas. Information on the extent to which each area is susceptible to disasters is perceived as a requirement. Topographical and geological information on areas, which often indicate potential sediment hazards and are regarded as important by national and prefectural governments, were evaluated as sufficient. However, such regional information is of great importance in establishing collaborative warning and evacuation systems for municipalities and local communities and it is most effective when it is disseminated in an easily understandable manner.
Key wordsFmunicipality disaster management sector, local community, sediment disaster, warning and evacuation, questionnaire