Following the Tohoku Earthquake of March, 2011, local public entity disaster prevention information was the main source of knowledge about evacuation. Hazard maps (safe area maps and area maps of predicted tsunami flooding during disasters) available to read on city homepages were an effective means as the first stage of disaster resilience education. For more than 100 years, Okinawa Prefecture has not experienced a tsunami due to a large earthquake.
However, only 23.4% of residents, less than half, have the experience to read this information. In this regard, this research longitudinally studied the effectiveness of this hazard map system in the extent that it reduces the concern of residents of the Prefecture and examined measures to raise the ratio of those in Okinawa reading the hazard maps. We presented 57 cooperating locals with hazard maps and questionnaires including knowledge on disaster prevention to survey the level of their concern and changes in their initiative toward evacuation activity. As a result, the number of people in the concern group declined by 29.3% of the total, and the group with the highest level of concern went from nine people to three (- 6 people).
Moreover, analysis of open responses, etc. raised concern due to insufficient knowledge of evacuation locations as the number one factor interfering with evacuation activity, and effects were seen through use of hazard maps for the residents of Okinawa Prefecture. This also suggests the necessity considering the employment circumstances of locals and devising a means for actual disaster prevention education with hazard maps as a measure to raise the ratio of locals reading them.
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