●Research Trends and Results

Regional Disaster Prevention Capability
Improvement Countermeasures Focused on Social
CapitalYOSHIKAWA Tomohiro, Research Coordinator for Sediment-related Disaster Prevention
MIYATAKE Hiroaki, Senior Researcher
Research Center for Disaster Risk Management, Earthquake Disaster Prevention Division(Key words) Social capital, regional disaster prevention capability
1. Social capital and regional disaster preventioncapability
If knowledge and experience of disasters, supplies
stocked in preparation for a disaster, nurturingpersonnel and organizations, and the ability to respondby evacuating or rescuing people after a disaster arelikened to flowers or fruit, the soil in which theflowers grow is social capital, and administrative
organizations take action to raise plants by introducing
social capital in the form of watering and applying
fertilizer.
This survey focused on the actions of organizations
which mediate when administrators (facilitymanagers) approach residents etc. to have them
improve the disaster prevention capability of thefacilities under their authority.
Regional
disaster prevention capability
地域防災力
Evacuation
避難力
capability
Emergency
緊急response
対応力capability

Information
情報awareness
認知力
capabilityAdminist行政
rators

行政の働きかけ（地域防災力向上方策）

Approaches by administrators(regional disaster prevention capability
improvement policies)

Volunteer
自主防
disaster災組織
prevention

企業
Corporations
等etc.

Residents
住民

ＮＰＯ

Socialcapital is a
ソーシャルキャピタルとは、
characteristic of a regional「ネットワーク」・「社会的信societyconsisting of networks,頼」・「社会参加」からなる地
socialtrust, and social
participation.
域社会の特性である。

Social capital
ソーシャルキャピタル

2. Intermediate organizations in the improvementof regional disaster prevention capabilities
The intermediate organizations which weresurveyed were not organizations such as consultative
councils established to implement or promote projects,
rather they were cases where organizations originallyestablished to achieve other goals play the role of a
go-between and carry on continuous activities.
Nineteen advanced cases nationwide were surveyed toestablish typical models such as the following.
Model 1: Approaching a key person (ororganization) which performs town redevelopment
projects or educational activities etc., to encourage
efforts to improve disaster prevention capability as a
new field of activity.
Model 2: In cases where a scholar etc. withadvanced knowledge or expertise initiates activity in aregion, urging others to take initiatives in imitation ofor in cooperation with the scholar.
Model 3: In a region where a federation ofresidents’ associations or other regional groupfunctions actively, urging initiatives effectively using
existing networks.
Scenarios are hypothesized for the initial period,development period, and mature period of each ofthese models to list precautions.
In the case of Model 1 for example, during theinitial period, it is important to provide basic
information to a key person, and during thedevelopment period, to ensure the successors etc. andcontinuity when an official is transferred to anotherpost. In the case of Model 3, the roles of the city, town,
or village are important during the development andmature period of the organization, and it was learned
that in the case of a project spanning multiple cities,
towns, or villages, there is correlation with projectcharacteristics in that according to region, differences
often occur.
3. Summarization and future challenges
By systematically classifying earlier cases where anintermediate organization functions as social capital,
methods a facility manager uses to approach anintermediate organization in order to more efficiently
improve regional disaster prevention capability could
be organized with a certain degree of correlation with
regional properties by project type. There is a plan toprepare guidelines to improve regional disasterprevention capability using social capital, byincorporating expertise regarding the maintenance ofrelationships with intermediate organizations.