Word Count: 3302
The article “Global Trends in Satellite-based Emergency Mapping” takes a deep look into the importance of satellite geospatial data collection relating to environmental impact assessment. Although this source is broader and does not focus strictly on Japan, it provides the reader with a great understanding of how geospatial data science methods are used to analyze environmental crises and disasters. This is incredibly important to my research regarding disaster management in Japan relating to social development, as the article answers how the data is acquired and analyzed so said data can be used to promote human development.
This source focuses on geospatial data collection through satellites and puts a lens on satellite-based emergency mapping, or SEM. The authors first introduce earth observation (EO) satellite systems and explain the huge impact these systems have on assessing the impact and coordinating emergency response activities after major global natural disasters. Ground information for natural disasters have many operational uncertainties that impede emergency responses as the information is almost always limited and incomplete. EO satellites help overcome these uncertainties of post-disaster ground information and lead to clearer and more efficient emergency responses. The authors then segway into the uses of SEM as part of larger resilience strategies. They explain how SEM systems help design, implement, and evaluate recovery programs and disaster risk reduction. The article also has great visuals regarding the EO systems and the principles of emergency mapping. After a crisis or disaster, mobilization, data-acquisition, and pre-processing are performed by EO systems before the situation is analyzed. After the analysis is complete, map production and dissemination are executed as the last steps in emergency mapping, leading to an integration in collaborative platforms and better planning and decision support within relief organizations. The article concludes with displays of the global distribution of SEM activation. Relating to my research, there’s a clear spike in SEM activation in eastern and southeast Asia.
In this article, the authors answered the scientific question of how geospatial data gathered by satellite systems is used to improve emergency response management. Although the authors did not mention human development directly, the reader can see how the processes and results of the shown methods of data collection helps human development in nations susceptible to natural disasters. This source is useful for my research as it relates to the two research articles I cited about social development in Japan, and also provides more detail concerning my other source about Japan’s disaster management response processes.
The article “Disaster Management in Japan” by Toshinori Ogata encompasses a broader look at the processes and data behind Japan’s disaster management. One can relate the protective security freedoms presented in the writing to human development. The author goes in depth about Japan’s use of geospatial data regarding earthquakes in specific regions and how said data can be used to predict damages and help outline countermeasures against such disasters. The fascinating and methodical actions of Japan’s disaster response management is a great model of what disaster response methods should look like in terms of efficiency.
Ogata breaks down Japan’s three-tiered administration system consisting of the national government, prefectures, and municipalities. In the event or risk of disaster, the cabinet office takes the lead in countermeasures and assesses the danger of disaster in a one to five scale. The Extreme Disaster Management Headquarters (EDMH) is led by the Prime Minister and is responsible for accurate and prompt emergency response. The author then dives into geospatial earthquake data from the Nankai Trough Earthquake, Tokyo Inland Earthquake, and the Great East Japan Earthquake. After learning from the data provided from these earthquakes, the EDMH can now immediately grasp the whole picture of the damage and action of a disaster. Ogata then segways into the advancement of The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. The ministry has three pillars on how to efficiently and effectively provide health care in the event of a disaster: setting up disaster base hospitals, operating and training Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, and establishing an Emergency Medical Information system. Ogata brought about the scientific question of how to advance disaster management through data. He presented that the disasters of Japan’s past had detrimental effects on Japan socially and economically. He then displayed how the use of geospatial data created a spark in improving the disaster management problem and showed the reader how the development of protective security through this data greatly benefitted the safety, economy, and some social aspects of Japan.
The reader can draw clear comparisons between the growth of disaster response in Japan in this article and Amartya Sen’s definition of human development. The slow development of a better understanding of disaster response through protective security is a great picture for Sen’s belief in a slow, broad growth in societal development due to public health advancements and learning from data.
In this research article, a group of Japanese authors explain their methods and findings relating to Japanese social connections after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and tsunami. Assisted by geospatial data provided after the GEJE, the statisticians looked at the importance of “social capital”, or the social connections in a community, when it comes to improving disaster resilience and protecting the health of older adults. Addressing this crucial role that social connectedness plays in human development is key to the topic of my research. Furthermore this article also helps my research when it comes to focusing on social development in environmental impact assessment.
To start off the research project, people who lost their homes in the GEJE and tsunami were relocated in two different ways: group relocation to public temporary trailers housing and individual relocation to government provided housing. People were randomly assigned into these two different relocating processes. The researchers conducted a follow-up survey two and a half years later which investigated the health status and social capital of the participants. It was found that those who were part of the group relocation method fared much better than those indiviudually relocated. Residents who moved into temporary shelters with their neighbors continued to participate in a number of communal activities, such as meeting with local officials to voice their grievances and ideas relating to post-disaster services. The individually relocated people, however, struggled with social cohesion, mainly due to anxiety, negatively affecting their cognitive social capital. The lack of social capital leads to a higher risk of health problems, functional disabilities, and cognitive decline, thus hurting human development.
The results of this experiment further proves the point of my research that social freedom and connectedness are incredibly important to not just the improvement of the resilience of disaster response, but to the development for a population as a whole. This source also relates to Amartya Sen’s definition of human development, as Sen believes in a slower form of development fueled through social and public health improvements rather than an economic boom and abundance of resources. The sustainable development goals presented in this article are also similar to another source I cited from the Japan Medical Association Journal. Both articles stress the importance of temporary shelters after a big natural disaster. This specifically answers the question of how to better the resilience of disaster response in Japan while also touching on the importance of social development in general.
This excerpt explores some of the struggles Japan has faced with social freedoms, specifically gender-related issues, after natural disasters. Following disasters such as the Kobe Earthquake and Great East Japan Earthquake, gender perspectives were not just overlooked, but reinforced in Japanese society. Saito mainly looks at geospatial data relating to the disaster prevention and evacuation management of Japan. He dives into the great contributions of neighborhood disaster prevention organisations and other association leaders’ roles in disaster management.
During the period of high-economic growth in Japan, men were seen as the breadwinners of their family, having to work far from home. This made women responsible for domestic work. After the Kobe Earthquake, it was evident that the gender roles were hurting the social development of Japan. Community disaster management organisations are a big part of disaster prevention in Japan, and after the Kobe Earthquake, it was revealed that 96% of the leaders in these resident associations were men. It was found that women, on the other hand, were mainly involved in very small organisations, like the household fire prevention club. Additionally, after the emergency phase following the GEJE, various gender-related issues arose. Women voluntarily cooked at evacuation sites while men were paid to do jobs like moving debris, for example. The mortality rate of women in Japan is noticeably higher than that of men because of these gender perspectives. Single and older women often live in less secure and safe places because of the few economic opportunities women have in Japan, due to their unreasonable low employment rate and social status. Saito understands that these social unfreedoms are greatly hurting the development of Japan in multiple ways and elaborates on possible solutions. When the author speaks of ways to solve these gender perspectives, the reader can tell that Saito holds similar views to Amartya Sen when it comes to improving human development. Saito believes that the main ways to conquer these gender-related issues is through building a resilient community and educating the public of these social issues. These ideas the author presents can be seen within Condorcet’s beliefs of reasoned freedom.
Saito’s goal is to plan Japan’s future for combating natural disasters along with fighting gender-related issues as well. Relating strictly to disaster prevention, Saito stresses that the use of temporary shelters are just as important as spending time to prevent the disaster in the first place. The author also proposes two major ways to combat the gender inequalities and inequities in Japan not just for future disasters, but for the present state of Japanese society as well. Although slower, long-term approaches, Saito expresses a need for more research and public education relating to gender roles, along with a building of resilient, better informed communities.
I was very satisfied with how I broke down my sources from a broad look at environmental impact assessment and data science methods to gender perspectives in Japan relating to disaster management. I think there are gaps between the literature pieces I have cited which I have to fill in moving forward. Right now the main question for my research is how to piece back the information with my own ideas and arguments.
This article looks into the enhancement of disaster preparedness in Japan due a better understanding of the effectiveness that social capital has on disaster management after the Great East Japan Earthquake. I think that this source is incredibly relevant to my research, as it builds off of another research article I have that focuses on social capital. It also does a great job of analyzing and modeling Japan’s pre disaster preparedness processes. The information presented in this article will help me fill in gaps of my research and better connect social capital with Japan as a whole, enhancing the content in my third source.
The author’s start off talking about the GEJE and the damage it had on the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station. They then start talking about other research studies that have looked at disaster prevention and post-disaster health checkups of similar magnitude. The authors found, however, that there were no studies that analyzed factors of disaster prevention and post-disaster health checkups together. They then chose to explore the scientific question of how much social capital, taking evacuation experiences and demographic parameters into account, was associated with disaster prevention and post-disaster health. The research team sent questionnaires to those in the Basic Resident Register and those who evacuated from EOAs (evacuation order areas). The team split up datasets by factors such as gender, age, and location. It was found there was a significant association between disaster preparedness and utilization of health check ups. It was also found that men were generally less prepared for disasters than women and that there was a significant association with certain regions and disaster preparedness. The research team was able to conclude that people who reported stronger bonds with other local people were more likely to partake in disaster preparedness and health check ups. This is what I wanted to mainly take away from the article, as it supports my other source about social capital.
This research article further proves a pattern relating social capital to disaster preparedness and serves as a great model for similar research studies. Something I also found interesting in this source is that the authors also touched on some factors relating to gender and post-disaster management. This will make it a lot easier for me to connect social capital in general to gender perspectives in Japan. Being able to shift my research’s focus from social issues in general to specifically gender perspectives will be the most difficult part of this project in my eyes, and this source makes said shift less difficult.
In this article, Mieko Yoshiama and Tomoko Yunomae explore a research project concerning the participation and voice of Japanese women after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Although this article doesn’t incorporate much geospatial data, I believe the analysis and patterns of gender perspectives in post-disaster Japan are incredibly important to my research. This article will help me fill in some gaps and provide further analysis when it comes to gender inequalities explored in my fourth source.
To start introducing the project, the authors give a brief overview of the GEJE then transition into the underrepresentation of women’s perspectives and roles after disasters. Their photovoice research project sought to answer the question of how to make disaster responses and policies more inclusive and gender-informed. Photovoice methodology was developed in the 1990s and was a popular way of assessing communities needs. This methodology requires participants to take photographs and share them in a series of group meetings so they can discuss the issues important to their lives and communities. This particular project had five women from Koriyama, nine from Sendai, and six from Miyako. With ages ranging from 30s-70s, these women had diverse backgrounds with some being housewives and others being professionals in government organizations. After the disaster, many of them were working or volunteered helping others and many had their own homes damaged as well. Many meetings and photographs later, several exhibits were put on display for the public. The audience of these pieces reacted actively, preaching the importance of speaking up about the hunger, cold weather, and difficulty of daily living in general. This display did an amazing job of publicly spreading the importance of fixing gender inequities in Japan. The people were able to hear the voice of these women and see for themselves the injustices in their communities.
The authors did a great job of exploring the underlying social forces and processes behind the scenes of great disasters and the participants provided great insights to identify what needs to change. The research provided is a great model for human development processes in Japan concerning pre and post disaster response. The project itself is a spitting image of Amartya Sen’s definition of a “friendly” process of development. By diving into communities and having women speak up about the damaging gender perspectives, the public was educated, showing the powers of Japan’s political system what truly should be a great focus of change within the nation.
This short article about geospatial applications goes into detail about how Japan uses remote-sensing technologies from satellites, helicopters, and other vehicles for earthquake disaster assessment. The authors introduce the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2010 and segway into how remote sensing was used during the disaster to monitor and map the situation. I believe that this source is important for my research because it gives a lot more information about Japan’s disaster management system relating to geospatial data. This article, although short, is able to connect my sources about satellite collected geospatial data and Japan’s disaster management system.
The authors quickly dive into the concepts behind the monitoring and mitigation of disasters. They talk about the efficient and speedy data collection and how it leads to a quick analysis and data relay for authorities to use. They talk about how useful this mobile mapping system has been for many earthquakes in Japan, like the Great East Japan Earthquake. The authors talk about the mobile mapping actions taken during this earthquake and wrap up with a brief conclusion. The first step was acquiring data through a variety of platforms and sensors, mainly by satellite and airborne tools. Secondly, the first actions took place within 72 hours after the earthquake. Distribution maps of seismic intensity were created the day of the earthquake. The third and fourth steps were quick, as the maps of the flood of the 500km coastline were visually interpreted aerially and the change of inundated areas were reported. Finally, the gathering of high resolution panoramic images took place. Over 20,000 oblique photos were taken of districts for damage estimation and reconstruction planning and were delivered to local governments. In conclusion, this disaster monitoring method is a great model of Japan’s disaster management system and the data collected is constantly being interpreted in order to make higher quality pre and post disaster plans.
Although this article doesn’t cover a specific human development process, it does a great job of modeling the data collection processes of Japan during a disaster. I chose this source because I believe that my four original sources are great foundations for my research, whereas this source and others provide more detail and fill in gaps between said original sources. Understanding the use of geospatial data in Japan helps me break down my broader sources better into focusing on Japan’s disaster management system.
In this large research workshop report, an international collaboration between Japan and the USA looked into important information regarding the use of Big Data for disaster management. Although this source is very large and I won’t use every page of the source, I think that the content is extremely useful nonetheless. I believe that there is a gap in my research when it comes to talking about specific data science methods relating to Japan’s disaster management system, and this paper talks about Big Data a lot and other processes used in the system as well. The detailed descriptions of said specific data science processes will be a great help when it comes to breaking down and labeling ideas and methods for my paper.
The authors first introduce the rapid growth and use of Big Data globally, then explain how the report was broken down into three different groups. Although the methodology in this workshop report was interesting, I chose to focus more on the analysis and description of Big Data rather than the workshop and report organization and planning. The authors recognize the impact that different cultural and linguistic barriers have among different countries in emergency response when it relates to Big Data. After pointing out this notable obstacle in the beginning of the paper, they then dive into the usefulness of big data within disaster management. Big Data is impactful in all four phases of disaster management: preparedness, response, recovery, and prevention. The authors then cover the two main sources of Big Data: dedicated sensor networks (eg. seismometers) and multi-purpose sensor networks (eg. social media). They then give specific examples of these types of networks and their applications during the Tohoku Earthquake. Although Big Data is crucial for pre and post disaster planning, there are a couple noteworthy drawbacks. There are challenges producing highly available, real-time responses during a disaster. Secondly, it is hard to depend on consistent and quality resource availability and reliable communications with the victims during a disaster. Nonetheless, Big Data is still key for developing better disaster management programs despite the drawbacks in variety and veracity.
This workshop report, and final source for my literature review, holds an incredibly wide range of detailed information relating to Big Data and disaster management. The description of Big Data and conclusions drawn for a better way forward for disaster management provided by this source helps my research in focusing on data science methods within the disaster management response system in Japan.