Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management 2011 3 2

doi: 10.3850/S1793924011000745

Disaster Education System in Yunlin County, Taiwan

Qiru Gwee^1,a, Yukiko Takeuchi^1,b, Jet-Chau Wen² and Rajib Shaw^{1,c 1}Kyoto University, Graduate School Global Environmental Studies, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. ^aqiru.gwee@kt2.ecs.kyoto-u.ac.jp ^by.takeuchi@fw7.ecs.kyoto-u.ac.jp ^cshaw@global.mbox.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp ²Research Center for Soil & Water Resources and Natural Disaster Prevention, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, Taiwan, 123 University Road, Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan, R.O.C. wenjc@yuntech.edu.tw

ABSTRACT

Education has been widely acknowledged to have a critical role in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and this research aims to develop a holistic implementation of disaster education by applying the five priorities of actions mentioned in the Hyogo Framework for Action in the education sector. Yunlin county was selected as the field study area. Disaster education should not only focus on curricula but should also include structural, non-structural considerations, legislative basis and other supporting elements. A questionnaire survey targeting the public elementary and secondary schools was conducted, and actions and/or guidelines by the national government were studied so as to understand the overall disaster education in Taiwan. Data from 114 out of 184 schools was collected. Schools were classified into coastal, mountainous, rural plain land and urban to observe possible variations due to difference in location. However, observations were similar. Based on the findings, improvements are required in areas such as funding allocation, early warning, dissemination of DRR information, disaster recovery planning and preparation for emergency response are necessary.

Keywords: Disaster risk reduction education; Disaster prevention awareness; Yunlin County.

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