Offers an informative introduction to the subject of disaster risk reduction education and highlights key places of education such as family, community, school, and higher education. This book describes and demonstrates different aspects of education in an easy-to-understand form with academic research and practical field experiences.

The book is expressly written for the young minds because they are our best hope for a safer tomorrow. The book is profusely illustrated, as it offers a joyride to the world of the whole range of hazards through simplified teaching-learning process, with less of teaching and more of learning. This is because most readers would love to learn without actually being taught. The book is designed to take advantage of distilled wisdom of centuries to inspire and enlighten the common man to turn them into prime movers of safer societies. Senior citizens, community leaders, self-trained disaster managers, social workers, media personnel, bureaucrats and those averse to the very thought of reading will also find the book useful as it is illustrative and inviting.

Disaster management is the discipline dealing with the organization and management of resources and responsibilities to cater with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies and disasters- both natural and man-made. It involves preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen and mitigate the impact of disasters. Prevention is better than cure, is a novel saying which is very apt in the context of disaster management. It is now becoming increasingly evident and mitigation and investment in disaster preparedness can save thousands of lives, vital economic assets, livelihoods and reduce the cost of overall disaster relief. There is a never ending role of education and schools in disaster risk reduction. The importance of education in promoting and enabling Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) has already been identified by researchers and policy makers. In doing so, there is a renewed focus on disaster risk education in primary and secondary schools.

Education is regarded as a cross-cutting issue for disaster risk reduction (DRR) through reviewing the Sendai Framework for DRR (SFDRR) 2015–2030. Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the education sector is one of the important efforts to enhance resilience in a community. DRR in the education sector not only focuses on provision of disaster education, but also includes securing a safe school environment, developing school disaster management plans, and building the capacity of school teachers and local educational officers. Japan, with its wealth of experience in DRR, has developed a good resilient system in its education sector, which has been tested and revised through experiences of past disasters. This book reviews the evolution of DRR in the education sector in Japan, including some of the recent developments after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, focusing on DRR governance and practices in national policies, curriculum development and teacher training, community linkage, and international cooperation, to enhance resilience in the education sector. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of disaster management and DRR studies. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the collective knowledge from this work to policy and decision making. The book provides an overview of the current research trends and furnishes basic knowledge on this important topic.

A detailed guide to the design and evaluation of effective disaster learning programs Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement provides a much-needed evidence-based guide for designing effective disaster learning plans and programs that are tailored to local communities and their particular hazard risks. Drawing on the most recent research from disaster psychology, disaster sociology, and education psychology, as well as evaluations of disaster learning programs, the book contains practical guidance for putting in place a proven design framework. The book outlines the steps to take in order to tailor a disaster education, communication and engagement program and highlights illustrative examples of effective programs and activities from around the world. The author includes information on how to identify potential community learners and presents a methodology for understanding the at-risk community, its hazard risks, disaster risk reduction, and emergency management arrangements. Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement describes both country-wide campaigns and local disaster programs that involve community participation. This important resource: Presents a detailed framework to guide the design and evaluation of tailored disaster learning programs Includes information that links disaster resilience with sustainability and climate change learning Describes the ‘disaster cycle’ and reviews learning content and methods related to the cycle Explains effective ways to combine disaster education, disaster communications, and disaster-related engagement Contains material on using new technologies such as gamification, virtual reality, and social media Written for emergency managers, students of emergency management, and humanitarian courses, Disaster Education, Communication and Engagement is a hands-on guide filled with ideas and templates for designing and evaluating targeted disaster learning programs.

Simulation and game-based learning are essential applications in a learning environment as they provide learners an opportunity to apply the course material in real-life scenarios. Introducing real-life learning allows the learner to make critical decisions at different points within the simulation providing constructive education that leads to a cognitive understanding of the material. The use of simulations provides the learner with the ability to cognitively store and recall learning in real-life experiences. Therefore, it is crucial to not only provide course material but to have students apply what they have learned in simulations that replicate real-life scenarios. These learned skills are essential for students to be marketable and thrive in a career field where decision making, problem solving, and critical thinking are job requirements. Simulation and Game-Based Learning in Emergency and Disaster Management is a cutting-edge research book that examines the best practices and holistic development when it comes to simulation learning within emergency and disaster management as well as global security. Drawing upon the neuroscience of learning, classroom instruction can be enhanced to incorporate active-experiential learning activities that positively impact a learner with long-term information retention. Each simulation project is carried out in different environments, with different goals in mind, and developed under various constraints. For these reasons, this book will provide insight into the simulation planning and development process, provide examples of online simulations and game-based learning activities, and provide insight on simulation development and implementation that can be used across disciplines in educational and training settings. As such, it is ideal for academicians, instructional designers, curriculum designers, education professionals, researchers, and students.

There is a perennial gap between theory and practice, between academia and active professionals in the field of disaster management. This gap means that valuable lessons are not learned and people die or suffer as a result. This book opens a dialogue between theory and practice. It offers vital lessons to practitioners from scholarship on natural hazards, disaster risk management and reduction and developments studies, opening up new insights in accessible language with practical applications. It also offers to academics the insights of the enormous experience practitioners have accumulated, highlighting gaps in research and challenging assumptions and theories against the reality of experience. Disaster Management covers issues in all phases of the disaster cycle: preparedness, prevention, response and recovery. It also addresses cross-cutting issues including political, economic and social factors that influence differential vulnerability, and key areas of practice such as vulnerability mapping, early warning, infrastructure protection, emergency management, reconstruction, health care and education, and gender issues. The team of international authors combine their years of experience in research and the field to offer vital lessons for practitioners, academics and students alike.

The world has spent the majority of 2020 enduring an unpreceded crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of this crisis has been enormous, and the situation has yet to be resolved. It is still difficult to anticipate when the pandemic will end and how our lives will have changed after the crisis. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have also had to undergo tremendous transformation, in particular, changing a conventional educational, teaching, and learning system to a digital and online mode and cancelling or postponing important events such as graduation and entrance ceremonies and entrance examinations. In addition, a number of HEIs have been facing financial constraints due to reduced enrolment, particularly from overseas. Students have missed opportunities to meet their family and friends, causing profound psychosocial impact and stress for all concerned. Simultaneously, however, the situation has given HEIs a good opportunity to consider their disaster preparedness, response, and recovery capacity on campus. Some surveys have highlighted a lack of preparedness for pandemic and other hazardous risks beyond natural hazards. Safety issues are a top priority at HEIs because they bring together a number of students, faculty, and staff. This book covers the experiences and lessons learned from HEIs in preparedness, response, and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare for such calamities beyond natural disasters in the future. The book consists of 15 chapters divided into three major sections. They highlight the importance of HEIs’ governance issues in disaster risk management, examine the challenges that HEIs have faced during the pandemic and the implementation of new teaching and learning methodologies, and provide innovative responses and preparedness by HEIs based on science and technology, respectively.