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

Abstract

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.