Disasters can occur in various forms with durations ranging from mere hours to days, weeks, or even months of prolonged damages and losses. Approaches taken to face such situation can build resiliency in a community. Lacking it, important community decisions will be made under the constraints of the crisis or disaster. A community with good disaster preparedness and local leadership engagement will be more capable of responding to, and managing disaster risks, which in turn will reduce damages and losses caused by disasters. This study was conducted to gauge the extent at which community leadership mediates the relationship between community resilience elements (community engagement, community education, and community awareness) and community preparedness. This was done using the results from questionnaires gathered from 318 respondents at Bukit Antarabangsa, Selangor, Malaysia. A structural equation modelling was employed to assess the validity and reliability of the instrument and thus test the research hypotheses. Based on the path model analysis, there are significant correlations to prove that community leadership is a viable partial mediator between community engagement, education and awareness, towards enhancing community preparedness. This also means that the presence of a capable community leader may well be a critical success factor to ensure that the respective community is better prepared and more resilient against disasters.
Within the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia, Johor has experienced the most severe flood disasters with almost 9,000 evacuees between the year 2012 to 2017, which the locals attributed to poor flood management and administration. Eight main responding agencies identified based on NSC Directive No. 20 were surveyed in Segamat, Johor, in order to assess current perception and practices, as well as ascertain aspects of flood management that need improvement. A self-administered questionnaire was used which focused on the agencies’ flood response capabilities, and five key determinants towards effective disaster response namely collaboration, predisposition, information sharing, coordination among agencies, and preparedness. Results from the survey among 80 respondents found that responding agencies in Segamat have a positive perception of their planning and responding capabilities. Based on a checklist of preparedness measures, the majority of respondents were found to have a high level of flood preparedness, particularly for emergency coping and restoration works. However, while the findings showed that the agencies have high confidence in responding to flood individually, there are opportunities for improvements in their capabilities to work and respond cohesively with each other and with the local communities.
While relatively uncommon, tsunami typically leads to extreme and devastating impacts to human lives and development at far distances. Various international bodies and academic research have highlighted the importance of understanding risk and its determinants for effective risk management. Currently available methodologies to assess tsunami risk and the effect of vulnerability towards the resulting impact present opportunities for improvement particularly in their adaptability, accuracy and generalisability for pre- and post-disaster applications, as well as across temporal and geographical boundaries. This paper discusses the potential of a methodology to assess tsunami risk for buildings based on their vulnerability level, which in turn is determined through a set of vulnerability indicators. A vulnerability index equation consisting of four indicators namely building materials, number of storeys, coastal protective structures and coastal vegetation was formulated through the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The index is then applied for two major yet distinctly different tsunami events for the purpose of examining potential links between hazard intensity measure, building vulnerability and recorded impacts while also establishing basis for generalisability. While certain correlations can be observed, the findings are still at preliminary stage and thus approaches to further refine the index were proposed.
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