Supporting Disaster Resilience Building through Cross-Community Knowledge Sharing

Collaborative action in disaster mitigation efforts contributes to knowledge and experience sharing, resource sharing, improvement of response and coordination, and standardization of good practice. In this study, we propose a workshop model and develop a virtual collaboration tool to support and promote cross-community knowledge sharing and collaboration focusing on disaster mitigation efforts. The workshop model involves pre-fieldwork training, actual fieldwork, and post-fieldwork information exchange. The collaboration tool enables information collection, sharing and record keeping. The effectiveness of the workshop model and the collaboration tool is demonstrated through use in a citizen participatory disaster preparedness workshops linking two elementary schools located in the central and southern regions of Japan.