How can the human dimensions of disaster impacts be more accurately captured and represented in the analysis, modeling and simulation of disasters?
Integration of knowledge on disaster risk reduction should be promoted with the aid of OSS-SR. Research for DRR has advanced greatly in the field of natural science and engineering by looking at disasters as natural phenomena; that is the behavior of natural hazards. In other words; studies on disasters as social phenomena have been small in number in the past. It did not take into account the interactive nature of disasters between hazards and the society impacted. As a result; despite the effort to promote DRR studies; the number of natural disasters and consequently the damage and losses due to these disasters has increased especially in terms of floods and extreme weathers related events. The promotion of studies of disasters as social phenomena does not mean the promotion of social scientific studies of natural disasters of any kind. It really means the empirical social scientific studies in the context of a hazardous environment where both the natural and social sciences work together. All of these efforts should be stored at OSS-SR; which is online synthesis system for sustainability and resilience proposed by SCJ in its recommendation entitled as “Building a sustainable global society by strengthening disaster resilience:- Developing an "Online Synthesis System (OSS)"and fostering "Facilitators" to realize consilience - “ published in 2020.
What type of data and supporting research infrastructure would be necessary to enable novel, transdisciplinary approaches to answering these and other human-centered disaster questions?
In order to promote the studies of the interactive nature of disaster risk reduction; we should be aware of “bounded rationality” of researchers as Herbert Simon pointed out. Each researcher; either natural scientists or social scientists; has his or her expertise or “comfort zone” of their own. It is difficult to leave their comfort zone for the exploration of new research questions. With the help from Online Synthesis System for Sustainability and Resilience (OSS-SR; for short); it is possible to facilitate knowledge of disaster and environmental risk reduction by improving disaster resilience; which is an indispensable element of sustainable development. OSS-SR will provide a free internet environment for users in each country or region to search currently relevant information for their own problem solving related to disaster risk reduction . All stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction can make and register their own contributions in forms of either websites or files on this system to share their experiences and lessons in disaster risk reduction using their own language. All types of information (data; information; knowledge; and wisdom) based on the DIKW model will be handled in this system in terms of seven targets and four priority actions specified in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR; or Sendai Framework). To make this project successful; an international advisory board should be established to supervise the ontology of the keywords to be used for the classification and categorization of individual entries.
In what ways can US-Japan collaborations advance these questions in new and important ways?
Both the US and Japan have experienced many disasters in the past; natural; unintentional; and intentional; which resulted in lots of lessons learned in terms of prediction; prevention; response; and recovery. These lessons should be accumulated using OSS-SR in addition to academic research on disaster risk reduction available on the internet to create integrated stories which provide understanding about how people or society go through disasters of various kinds. To achieve this goal; there are several issues to be studied through the collaboration between the US and Japan. (1) Developing a system of systems processing digital information using digital twin technologies; (2) Developing a set of hypotheses about human behavior before; during; and after disasters based on the review of available scientific evidences; (3) Developing a tool to compile a story using various kinds of digital materials such as still photos; movies; maps; texts; and sounds.