Mitigation of disasters through community cohesion

摘要

The 2011 Great East Earthquake and consequent tsunami that hit Japan was an event in a high-income country with considerable capacity to handle disaster. But the involvement of the nuclear power station positioned for cooling on the coast made it that much worse. The immediate disaster was clear globally, and has been followed by national and international analysis of acute responses for each type of event (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power station failure), including population health protection and societal responses for the aftermath of destruction of infrastructure, deaths, health impacts, and displacements. This is challenging and costly for any individual nation. Going further and assessing long-term impact is even less straightforward. How do we really know what the effects on populations of disaster, whether man-made or natural, will be, or the increasing likelihood of the two intimately entangled? These will be short, medium, and long term and will be influenced by many factors, including wealth of nations, culture, social capital, coherence, and investment in infrastructure before and after. Earlier research from other disasters has suggested that disruption to the living environment and social environment can be followed by major long-term distress. Rarely though is there the opportunity to examine individuals across the time of a disaster and to examine carefully potential mitigating as well as exacerbating influences.