Issues of Disaster Recovery Management and Application of GIS and UAV for Resilience in Agricultural Land and Infrastructure

抄録

Natural disasters have caused enormous impacts on rural societies in both developed and developing countries for the recent years. Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather have increased and it is predicted to be more rampant for the coming decades. As rural societies are mainly dependent on agriculture, the rapid recovery and reconstruction of damaged agricultural lands and infrastructure is crucial to enhance their resilience. The rapid measures and actions in the post-disaster can reduce the impacts and can help farmers save their livelihoods as well as consumers ensure their provisions. This paper focuses on administrative issues in the recovery management in the post-disaster period in Japan. Especially, it takes up the underlying issues that impede the disaster recovery process and the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in case of earthquake and flood disasters including storms and heavy rainfall. The data was collected through questionnaire survey to the agricultural departments in all the prefectural offices in Japan. From the results, the administrative issues were attributed to the complexity of project procedures and documentation, human resources, rural planning, the lack of capacity in construction companies, in most of the prefectures. The use of GIS and UAV was limited in many prefectures due to the lack of knowledge or experience. However, GIS could help the recovery processes quicken for some prefectures. Based on the findings, it is suggested to make a manual about GIS database building which can be shared among prefectural offices and farmers to inherit the past lessons and enhance resilience for the future.