A transdisciplinary approach (TDA) for disaster risk reduction (DRR) is an inclusive and collaborative implementation strategy that brings together stakeholders from various disciplines and sectors. TDA facilitates the collective efforts of diverse stakeholders, encouraging them to work together to co-produce and co-implement solutions that reduce disaster risks. Technical Committee 21, “Transdisciplinary approach for building societal resilience to disasters (TC21),” was established as a technical committee of the Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council in 2016. TC21 has been engaged in international collaborative research activities aimed at mitigating water-related disasters by introducing scientific, knowledge-based decision making using the TDA.

This special issue features four case studies that analyze DRR efforts through the lens of the TDA. One such case covers Xinshan Village in Taiwan, which sustained devastating impacts from Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Through collaborative efforts involving all levels of government, residents, academia, and specialists, the village successfully prevented there being any casualties. The second study focuses on the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program in Japan, a program which is developing disaster risk information systems through collaboration with local municipalities. These systems play crucial disaster management roles on the ground. The third study examines the mechanisms of cost- and responsibility-sharing for disaster management, developed by Japan and the US, and highlights the importance of collaboration and shared accountability in building resilient societies. The fourth study analyzes statement publications at the UN Global Platform for DRR and finds that the number of member states publishing official statements is decreasing.

The findings of these articles demonstrate that collaboration, technology, and investment is crucial for DRR and that these areas can be developed through the TDA. By fostering collaboration, embracing technology, and investing in resilient solutions, stakeholders can collectively build more resilient societies.

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.

Although the transdisciplinary approach (TDA) is becoming popular during the implementation of disaster management facilities in recent years, there are few examples of the research and development phase of disaster management technology. The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) Phase 2, financed by the Government of Japan, emphasizes the need for industry-academia-government cooperation, and is undertaking the research and development of a disaster information provision system. As part of this program, since 2018, Kyushu University, as an academic participant, and Foundation of River & Basin Integrated Communications (FRICS), as a practitioner, are developing the “Integrated-System of Disaster Reduction for Municipalities” (IDR4M) in collaboration with municipalities across Japan. This article introduces IDR4M’s development process, especially the collaboration between academia and municipalities, who are the system’s actual users.

Whether national and local governments should assume larger financial responsibility for reducing disaster risk remains a controversial issue. Local governments lack resources to cover the full cost of managing mega-disasters and need assistance from higher level governments. However, national governments covering all costs may create moral hazards, discouraging local governments from investing in ex-ante measures. This study identifies national and local governments’ fiscal responsibility determinants for disaster management. Despite the differences between the federal system in the US and the centralized system in Japan, the two countries’ national governments share common practices. Both have continuously developed legislation to expand their financial responsibilities for relief and recovery efforts as disaster consequences have increased. We argue that despite major institutional differences in Japan’s unitary and the US federal government systems, both have expanded the areas covered by national assistance along with the amount over time. These findings bring with them recommendations for governments in an era of increasing extreme weather events due to climate change.

This study aims to clarify the attitudes of each member state on disaster risk reduction (DRR), and the issues that need to be addressed in the international arena of DRR, to move forward with the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). To this end, we focused on the last three United Nations meetings of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) after the agreement on the SFDRR and analyzed the frequency of publication of official statements by each member state. In addition, the status of these official statements was analyzed in terms of the actual geographical distribution of disaster risk. We clarified that (1) the GPDRR is not necessarily aware of the situation and opinions of all member states; (2) the trends between the frequency of official statement publication and the actual amount of risk are not always closely related; (3) the member states in the Asian and Pacific Ocean region were more active in presenting official statements than those of other continents; in other words, the attitudes of Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and some African member states, which also have high disaster risks, were shared less frequently in the international arena; (4) some least-developed member states are actively making official statements and expressing their intentions despite the limited human and financial resources. The results of this study would be helpful for member states that have not yet made official statements in the past GPDRR to advance their official statement publication and situations in the international arena.

This study aimed to establish a training system for non-mental health professionals to cope with the mental health and social issues of impacted residents in disaster recovery public housing after more than 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). In September 2021, a group interview was conducted with seven life support advisors (LSAs) in charge of providing continuous support for impacted residents. These advisors possess a good understanding of the situation of impacted residents in disaster recovery public housing. Isolation emerged as an apparent issue, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak in which interactions among residents were reduced. Then, a training program for coping with isolation, as well as other issues identified through the interviews, such as delusions, troublesome behaviors, alcohol-related issues, wandering, suicidal ideation, and social withdrawal, was developed. For infection prevention and ease of obtaining training opportunities, this program was distributed online. Eleven participants were trained to use the developed program and were subsequently asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire. Results showed a considerable increase in the participants’ comprehension in addressing the impacted residents’ mental health issues. Although further investigation is warranted given that the representativeness and validity of our findings are somewhat limited, this study revealed the current situation of impacted residents in disaster recovery public housing following the GEJE. It also established a mental health training system for non-mental health professionals that addresses the identified issues. The developed training system for advisors would contribute to preparedness and risk reduction for future disasters.

The three-dimensional full-scale earthquake testing facility, “E-Defense” was constructed using the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake as a lesson. Until October 2022, this facility has conducted 123 experiments as part of the research and development on earthquake engineering for various purposes (e.g., the clarification of destruction processes, evaluations of seismic structural performances, functional maintenance, collapse margins, and damage control technologies). Even after its commencement, large earthquakes that significantly affected human life and socioeconomic activities occurred such as the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake caused the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. These earthquakes revealed some new challenges for disaster prevention and mitigation. Such issues have also been incorporated as subjects to be addressed by the facility. This article introduces the researches and developments using E-Defense, chronologically linking them with the major earthquakes occurred in Japan after 1995. By summarizing the activities, its near-future direction is also briefly indicated.

A large-scale disaster striking a fundamental infrastructure can disrupt the entire business area. Hence, Area Business Continuity Management (Area-BCM) is proposed to bring together stakeholders in the same area who aim to minimize economic losses and impacts due to a disaster. Its distinctive features consider public–private partnerships, critical external resources, and scalability of risk management. However, Area-BCM is still a long way from being successful as many challenges are found. This study aimed to build a model of success factors and analyze relationships among factors for Area-BCM implementation. The total interpretive structural modeling technique was utilized to construct a hierarchical model. Interviews and questionnaire surveys were performed for data collection. A process-automated tool was used to ensure accuracy and eliminate complicated calculations. The results indicate the foundation factors and critical suggestions to be grounded for success. The outstanding findings are the interpreted interrelationships in the final model. Moreover, cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification approach categorizes factors into four groups based on driving and dependence powers. The outcomes provide strong implications for Area-BCM practitioners or executors, helping them prioritize attention and prepare suitable strategies for successful implementation.

Although the overall crime rate of an area decreases after a major disaster, the occurrence of some types of crime may increase. This may be explained by the routine activity theory, which suggests that the absence of a capable guardian and other factors induce occurrence of crime, such as when houses become temporarily unoccupied due to the evacuation of disaster victims and absence of competent guards. This study used interference analysis to investigate whether the aftermath of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, temporarily increased the number of burglaries in the affected areas. Specifically, we examined whether the number of recognized burglaries temporarily increased after the earthquakes by dividing the land in Kumamoto Prefecture into two areas: one with severe earthquake damage and the other with minor damage. Results demonstrated an increase in the number of burglaries in the severely damaged areas in April and May 2016. The impact of the earthquakes was significant in April, but decreased notably in May. Contrastingly, the number of burglaries remained unchanged in areas with minor earthquake damage. Therefore, a correlation was found between the severe damage caused by the earthquakes and the transient increase in the number of burglaries.

The outbreak of COVID-19 poses a serious threat to global public health, and vaccination is an effective means of prevention. Studying the spatial layout and accessibility of COVID-19 vaccination sites is of great significance. The study analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility of vaccination sites in the early stage of mass vaccination in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, based on GIS technology and combines three location allocation models: the p-median model, maximum covering location problem (MCLP) model, and location set covering problem (LSCP) model to identify candidate COVID-19 vaccination sites for the proposed public service facilities. The study found that only 47 COVID-19 vaccination sites exist in the early stage, with a small overall number, uneven spatial distribution, and trend of high accessibility in the central but low accessibility in the north and south; after the proposed addition of 31 vaccination sites, the overall distribution showed an even and dense distribution in the central and western regions, sporadic distribution in other regions, consistent with the distribution characteristics of residential communities. The areas where the accessibility of vaccination sites increased by more than 500 m accounted for 41% of the total area, and the area served by vaccination sites increased by 18%. Therefore, using the existing public service facilities to reasonably add the vaccination sites can improve the efficiency of vaccination and safeguard the establishment of a herd immunity barrier.