No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Transdisciplinary Approach Toward Preparedness in a Mountainous Community in Central Taiwan and its Impact on Disaster Evacuation: A Case Study
Abstract
This study examined the main factor that helped residents of Xinshan Village—which is vulnerable to landslides and debris flow hazards—to react and respond to Typhoon Morakot in such a way that no casualties were reported during the severe event in 2009. When the typhoon hit, over 20 residential houses collapsed into a river and were washed away during the night. However, the locals were evacuated before the disaster struck, which was attributed to the timely actions and cooperation that had occurred between them with their village head and the local police. Apart from them, it was also found that the central government, local government, academics, and engineering firms had played a crucial role that contributed to the preparedness of the locals to respond to the natural disaster. Specifically, assistance and resources were provided to them according to the disaster mitigation act, detailed risk reduction plans were drawn up at the town and village levels, drills and evacuation practices were held, and an early warning system was established and its robustness was tested. Prior to the 2009 typhoon, the practice of a transdisciplinary approach (TDA) toward disaster risk reduction in Xinshan Village had fostered its disaster preparedness. Consequently, TDA was identified as a key factor that had contributed to the successful evacuation of its residents before the village was hit by the typhoon.
... Typhoon Morakot [1]- [3], which hit Taiwan in 2009, is known in meteorological history for having a lasting impact on the island and changing our perception of extreme weather. The aftermath of this powerful typhoon highlighted Taiwan's vulnerability to strong tropical systems and the importance of accurate rainfall data in disaster preparedness and response [4], [5]. According to meteorologists, radar image interpretation has made it possible to understand and predict weather phenomena in significant part. ...
... The final step is to correlate the dBZ value with the actual precipitation for each station after the entire process is complete. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It is important to note that the observed data distribution has minor variations due to influencing factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of mountains, and seasonal variations during the typhoon. ...
This paper examines the rainfall patterns associated with 2009 Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan and uses radar imagery to obtain dBZ values. The study focuses on correlating these dBZ values with actual rainfall data collected from Ruiyan and Hualien rainfall stations. The results show a positive correlation between the dBZ values and the observed rainfall during Typhoon Morakot. This research lays the foundation for future efforts to develop advanced precipitation forecasting models and contributes to a better understanding and prediction of precipitation events in similar contexts.
The fact that COVID-19 caused unprecedented challenges for the first time in the human race and eventually rose against all odds in such a short period is a testament to transdisciplinary capacity building. This study analyzes the approaches to disaster management during the pandemic by examining some cases in the Asian region. Managing disasters during a pandemic requires a transdisciplinary approach (TDA), including multi-sectoral coordination, and an interdisciplinary approach based on sound knowledge sharing. The session, in September 2021, in which nine presenters participated, discussed the role of TDA in managing disasters. Through this special session, it was found that the TDA contributed to managing disasters in complex situations, and three characteristics could be identified. First, as per institutional arrangements, case studies show how disaster risk reduction agencies, which had been responding to the expected scale of disasters, have started to respond to multiple different disasters and infectious diseases because of COVID-19. Second, public trust based on sound knowledge and information sharing is essential for promoting multi-stakeholder coordination. Third, information and communication technology utilization was found not only for information sharing and contact-base registration systems on disaster response to COVID-19 but also for monitoring the reconstruction process after a disaster in a remote manner. Further analysis and review will be conducted to develop these evolving practices to build disaster resilience.
Planning and flexibility are necessary elements of emergency management. However, balancing these two elements is not easy and requires empirical information to improve the means of maximizing the effectiveness of both elements. Defining standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a key tool for planning emergency responses. The determinants of elaborate SOPs and the benefits and side effects of exercising them were surveyed among Japanese and Taiwanese municipal governments, which are primarily responsible for dealing with natural and manmade hazards. Japanese municipalities can define a large part of SOPs themselves and are loosely linked to the upper-level government structure during emergency responses. Their Taiwanese counterparts use a nationally standardized template of SOPs and act as a part of a nationally unified emergency management system. The experiences of different types of emergency events have increased the elaboration levels within the basic set of SOPs among Japanese municipalities, validating the use of SOPs to adopt the multi-hazard approach. The additional time-related set of SOPs was typically used by municipalities that experienced floods or landslides. The benefits of using SOPs were widely recognized at both study sites. Although SOPs did not hamper optimal emergency responses in most situations, among the surveyed emergency management officials in Japan (41%) and Taiwan (61%), there was concern over the negative effect of defining detailed SOPs on the flexibility of contingent responses.
Landslide disaster risks increase worldwide, particularly in urban areas. To design and implement more effective and democratic risk reduction programs, calls for transdisciplinary approaches have recently increased. However, little attention has been paid to the actual articulation of transdisciplinary methods and their associated challenges. To fill this gap, we draw on the case of the 1993 Quebrada de Macul disaster, Chile, to propose what we label as the Geo-Social Model. This experimental methodology aims at integrating recursive interactions between geological and social factors configuring landslide for more robust and inclusive analyses and interventions. It builds upon three analytical blocks or site-specific environments in constant co-determination: (1) The geology and geomorphology of the study area; (2) the built environment, encompassing infrastructural, urban, and planning conditions; and (3) the sociocultural environment, which includes community memory, risk perceptions, and territorial organizing. Our results are summarized in a geo-social map that systematizes the complex interactions between the three environments that facilitated the Quebrada de Macul flow-type landslide. While our results are specific to this event, we argue that the Geo-Social Model can be applied to other territories. In our conclusions, we suggest, first, that landslides in urban contexts are often the result of anthropogenic disruptions of natural balances and systems, often related to the lack of place-sensitive urban planning. Second, that transdisciplinary approaches are critical for sustaining robust and politically effective landslide risk prevention plans. Finally, that inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches to landslide risk prevention need to be integrated into municipal-level planning for a better understanding of—and prevention of—socio-natural hazards.
This study aims at understanding the role of education in promoting disaster preparedness. Strengthening resilience to climate-related hazards is an urgent target of Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Preparing for a disaster such as stockpiling of emergency supplies or having a family evacuation plan can substantially minimize loss and damages from natural hazards. However, the levels of household disaster preparedness are often low even in disaster-prone areas. Focusing on determinants of personal disaster preparedness, this paper investigates: (1) pathways through which education enhances preparedness; and (2) the interplay between education and experience in shaping preparedness actions. Data analysis is based on face-to-face surveys of adults aged �15 years in Thailand (N = 1,310) and the Philippines (N = 889, female only). Controlling for socio-demographic and contextual characteristics, we find that formal education raises the propensity to prepare against disasters. Using the KHB method to further decompose the education effects, we find that the effect of education on disaster preparedness is mainly mediated through social capital and disaster risk perception in Thailand whereas there is no evidence that education is mediated through observable channels in the Philippines. This suggests that the underlying mechanisms explaining the education effects are highly context-specific. Controlling for the interplay between education and disaster experience, we show that education raises disaster preparedness only for those households that have not been affected by a disaster in the past. Education improves abstract reasoning and anticipation skills such that the better educated undertake preventive measures without needing to first experience the harmful event and then learn later. In line with recent efforts of various UN agencies´in promoting education for sustainable development, this study provides a solid empirical evidence showing positive externalities of education in disaster risk reduction.
The purpose of this paper is to provide information
on disasters caused by Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.
The torrential rainfall is regarded as the main
cause, so information on the torrential rainfall is explored
first. The maximum cumulative rainfall depth
observed during Typhoon Morakot approached the
world’s greatest point rainfall record, and isohyets of
cumulative rainfall depth are included, together with
storm centers. Storm centers are important to disasters
resulted from Typhoon Morakot, because these
disasters occurred around or downstream from storm
centers. Disasters triggered by Typhoon Morakot include
floods, landslides, landslide dams, driftwood accumulation,
and water supply disruption. Those occurring
simultaneously or consecutively at one location
are termed “compound hazards.” Current warning
systems for single disasters may not be sufficient
to handle compound hazards, suggesting that we must
develop new systems for issuing early warnings about
compound hazards.
Taiwan has disadvantageous conditions for sediment-related disasters such as debris flows. The construction of engineering structures is an effective strategy for reducing debris flow disasters. However, it is impossible to construct engineering structures in all debris flow areas in a short period. Therefore, the government aims to gradually develop non-structural preventive strategies, including evacuation planning, debris flow disaster emergency action system, disaster resistant community program, recruitment of debris flow professional volunteers, debris flow warning systems, and land management strategies, to mitigate disasters and secure the safety of residents. This review describes the processes and effects of recent debris flow non-structural preventive strategies in Taiwan. The average number of casualties prior to the year 2000 was far higher than the corresponding number after 2000 because debris flow evacuation drills have been promoted since 2000 and the debris flow disaster emergency action system has been progressively improved since 2002. Furthermore, the changes in risks caused by debris flow disasters before and after the implementation of non-structural preventive strategies were used to explain the effectiveness of these strategies at the community level. The results showed that software-based non-structural preventive strategies can effectively reduce the casualties caused by debris flows at both the national and community levels.
There is emerging agreement that sustainability challenges require new ways of knowledge production and decision-making. One key aspect of sustainability science, therefore, is the involvement of actors from outside academia into the research process in order to integrate the best available knowledge, reconcile values and preferences, as well as create ownership for problems and solution options. Transdisciplinary, community-based, interactive, or participatory research approaches are often suggested as appropriate means to meet both the requirements posed by real-world problems as well as the goals of sustainability science as a transformational scientific field. Dispersed literature on these approaches and a variety of empirical projects applying them make it difficult for interested researchers and practitioners to review and become familiar with key components and design principles of how to do transdisciplinary sustainability research. Starting from a conceptual model of an ideal–typical transdisciplinary research process, this article synthesizes and structures such a set of principles from various strands of the literature and empirical experiences. We then elaborate on them, looking at challenges and some coping strategies as experienced in transdisciplinary sustainability projects in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. The article concludes with future research needed in order to further enhance the practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research.
Taiwan has long made efforts to increase community emergency response capability, due to its vulnerability to earthquakes,
typhoons, landslides and debris flows. Not until recent major natural disasters, such as the 1999 Chi–Chi Earthquake, Typhoon
Toraji and Typhoon Nari, has the government reformed its policy toward empowering the community to take actions in hazard
mitigation, emergency preparedness and emergency response. A new initiatve, Integrated Community-Based Disaster Management
Program (ICBDM), was launched in 2001 by the Executive Yuan to achieve the goal of strengthening community resistance. The
paper, taking Shang-An Village as an example, describes Taiwan’s new community-based disaster management program. Through
a participatory process, community residents have learned how to analyze vulnerable conditions, discover problems, develop
solutions and establish an organization to implement disaster management tasks. Further, basic response training courses and
a disaster scenario were held in order to improve their emergency response capability. Based on the case study, a phased process,
including initiation, assessment, planning and practice, is generalized.
Past disasters may indicate that scientific knowledge is not necessarily incorporated in the decision-making process of disaster risk reduction (DRR). The 21st Technical Committee (TC21) of the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) was established in 2016 to promote transdisciplinary approach (TDA). The TDA seeks for systematic organizational structures and processes that make all disciplines and sectors work together to make scientific knowledge become integral part of the decision-making process. The TC21 performed a session at the 2019 World Bosai Forum held in Sendai city, Japan. The presentations commonly touched on the issues of how to create and transfer new knowledge of DRR through the TDA. As a follow-up, the authors reviewed the presentations and studied the processes of creating new knowledge in terms of “modes and cycles of knowledge.” Two novel cases are presented in this article, for which experts of natural and social sciences teamed up to engage with the local communities to recover and/or enhance resilience. This article gives two main takeaways. First, one of the important commonalities of these two cases is the processes of externalizing the tacit knowledge, which refers to unrecorded experiences, feelings, and insight. Externalization is the crucial process without which the combination with the contemporary explicit knowledge would be difficult. Second, the new knowledge itself does not implement DRR. We need the know-hows to turn the new knowledge into action of DRR. A broad range of know-hows are required, such as establishing the organizational structures, funding schemes, and training programs. The future challenge, therefore, is to design a TDA that will integrate and implement these know-hows.
This article intends to bring attention to the emerging specialty of disaster science (DS), as well as to introduce a newly created system of computer simulation to facilitate transdisciplinary integration that would allow for the interphase of computer simulation platforms developed by scientists in the different professions engaged in the study of disasters. The next section discusses the origins of DS and the characteristics of the scientists using the concept, then reviews of some of the DS interpretations, then presents systematicity, a new philosophy of science perspective that allows for the methodical comparison of the various disciplinary specialties interested in the study of disasters, and that can facilitate the creation of a transdisciplinary style of research. The article concludes with the description of the computer simulation program Simple Real-Time Infrastructure, which is designed to facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration.
This paper describes interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches inevitably necessary for effective disaster risk management, introducing examples involving the tsunami hazard map in Sendai, volcanic eruption in Iceland, and river flooding in Thailand. On the basis of the conversations conducted at the Global Forum on Science and Technology for Disaster Resilience 2017 held at the Science Council of Japan in Tokyo on November 23–25, 2017, this paper summarizes the results of the discussion for further development of these approaches. Some international initiatives are also briefly introduced.
As a result of the heavy rains that accompany typhoons, steep topography, young and weak geological formations, strong earthquakes, loose soils, and land development in mountainous terrain, many areas in Taiwan are susceptible to landslides and debris flows. For evacuation in case of emergency, it will be necessary to enhance public awareness of many debris-flow hazards and educate people on how to react to these hazards. A rainfall-based debris-flow warning model and system is needed for preventing or mitigating debris-flow hazards. A rainfall-based warning system for debris flows has been developed and applied by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB) in Taiwan. The rainfall-based warning model used to predict the occurrence potential of a debris flow and its applications in Taiwan are presented herein.
This paper analyzes the impact of disaster experience on household preparation of emergency supplies for natural disasters using originally collected Japanese data from 2013. The data cover more than 20,000 households from all parts Japan and include areas with recent disaster experiences as well as areas with low disaster risks. We generate indices for three categories of preparedness using data on household preparation of nine emergency items: Basic Preparedness (BP), Energy/Heat Preparedness (EHP), and Evacuation Preparedness (EP). We use regression analyses to measure the effect of disaster experiences on the preparation of categories of emergency supplies. The results show that experience with disaster damage increases preparedness, but the magnitude of the impact varies among the item categories. Additionally, evacuation experience has a positive impact on the preparation of items from the BP and EP categories. Moreover, the people who experienced damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) in 2011 are relatively more prepared, but evacuation experience in the GEJE does not have a significant impact on preparedness. Furthermore, we find that some regions with higher future risk of large-scale earthquakes are less prepared compared to other regions. This result suggests the importance of policy makers’ efforts to raise awareness of disaster risks and to combat insufficient preparedness to reduce future disaster damages.
Taiwan is vulnerable to many natural hazards that cause major economic losses. This paper examines the evolution of the natural disaster management system in Taiwan and finds that this system has progressed from an ad‐hoc agency to a full government agency and the evolution had very strong relationship with the occurrence of mass disasters at that time. The first fundamental disaster management law‐the Disaster Prevention & Response Act (DPRA) was promulgated in 2000. It especially encourages the application of hazard mitigation technologies to reduce disaster losses. However, the operation of the disaster management system has continued to experience many problems in the past five years. Much still remains to be done to develop a mature disaster management system in Taiwan.
Typhoon Morakot that struck on 8 August 2009 caused major traumas and serious landslides. Under the principle of the government’s land conservation and disaster prevention, reconstruction commenced in stages in accordance with the reconstruction plan. Additionally, the post-disaster reconstruction experience following the earthquake that hit on 21 September 1999 served as a reference for quickly determining reconstruction policies, setting up laws, allocating budgets, establishing organizations, and drafting reconstruction programs. By respectful, efficient, and innovative means, flexible methods were adopted for the reconstruction in order to face the complex and unpredictable natural disasters and post-disaster social responses. Two years after the reconstruction began, fruitful results have been accumulated. For example, before the Lunar New Year of 2012, 3045 permanent houses located in 30 areas were completed, with more than 10,000 beneficiaries. Based on the Morakot post-disaster experience, in order to effectively respond to disaster prevention, disaster relief, and reconstruction after major disasters, an efficient social management system should be developed to integrate the government, NGOs, and enterprises’ disaster prevention and relief and reconstruction capabilities as well as consolidate the idea that ‘disaster prevention is more important than disaster relief; moving away from disasters is more important than disaster prevention’ as an early response measure for disaster prevention and protection.
A high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) and field investigations are used to analyze the distribution and characteristics of rainfall-induced landslides in the Kaoping watershed of southwest Taiwan during Typhoon Morakot. The heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Morakot is characterized as high intensity and long duration, with a return period well over 200years. The landslide distribution correlates well with the heavy rainfall distribution. Heavy rainfall and flood triggered 12,697 landslides, including four giant landslides. The cumulative area of the landslides was 183.1 km2. The landslide ratio in four sub-watersheds of the Kaoping watershed exceeded 6.5%. Analysis results indicate that the percentage of the downslope landslide areas is approximately 3.2–10.5 times higher than that of upslope landslide areas owing to serious scour of the riverside. The power–law exponent β for rainfall-induced landslide distribution during Typhoon Morakot is lower (β=1.3–1.4) than that for earthquake-induced landslide distribution in the comparison of self-organized criticality, because the heavy rainfall induced many new landslides at different scales. The Hsiaolin landslide, one of four giant landslides, was a deep-seated, dip-slope landslide with an area of 2.5km2 and a volume of 2.7×107m3. A portion of the sediment slid into the original valley and dammed the Chishan River, while another portion buried Hsiaolin village. Based on the results, the extremely high intensity and long duration of rainfall caused numerous landslides with different scales near the downslope region. We recommend using the detailed topographic changes that occurred during the Hsiaolin landslide to identify and prevent similar deep-seated landslide disasters.
The composite hazard resulted from Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan
- C.-L Shieh
- C.-M Wang
- W.-C Lai
- Y.-C Tsang
- S.-P Lee
The reconstruction work of Provincial Highway T21 after Typhoon Morakot
- M.-W Huang