Community-based earthquake disaster risk reduction in China: integrating local and scientific knowledge for planning and preparedness

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The outcomes of our research will have impact at local and national levels in China. At national level, our work should help to refine the guidelines for comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration communities, as defined by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MoCA). The research will generate understanding of the factors that affect community participation and engagement in DRR activities, which will be of direct relevance to MoCA officials in considering how to improve the criteria for demonstration communities and the mechanisms by which those communities are chosen and monitored. The model of co-produced strategies to deal with earthquake risk may also be of relevance to MoCA as a way of enhancing the existing approaches to CBDRR. We also expect that some of the co-produced strategies for DRR actions will be of interest to MoCA as examples of activities that could be trialled more widely.

Our assessment of landslide hazard will result in novel characterisation of landslides in the study region. We will produce a set of practical tools with which to evaluate these hazards in exposed communities, allowing us to extend this work to other earthquake- and landslide-prone areas beyond the target communities. This understanding will be of major potential benefit to the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), which has statutory responsibility for assessment of earthquake hazard in China.

At local level, our project will have direct impact on awareness and preparation for earthquakes in our chosen case-study communities. A fundamental goal of our work is to understand the factors that can enhance sharing of awareness and information between different communities (broadly defined). We will thus aim to emphasise the aspects of our results that are transferrable - between different elements of a single case-study settlement, and between the study region and other tectonically-active parts of China.

Our primary pathway to impact with MoCA will be through PI Fan through the China National Disaster Reduction Committee and the National Disaster Reduction Center of China, which sits within MoCA. Prof Fan will broker key contacts within MoCA on CBDRR, including officials with interests in both demonstration community guidelines and in DRR reporting requirements under the Sendai Framework. We will organise a series of workshops in Beijing with key MoCA and CEA staff; these will be used to create quick-turnaround publications that summarise the state of CBDRR in China, along with recommendations for follow-up work.

We also expect that project will generate new understanding of the controls on, and limits to, community participation in China for DRR purposes. This understanding will be formalised in a report to MoCA that will outline how the Chinese government can implement its reporting responsibilities under the Sendai Framework for DRR.

Impact with CEA will be through Zhang Peizhen and Su Guiwu and their existing contacts with PI Densmore. We will coordinate the timing of field work in China to allow the direct exchange of information on primary earthquake hazard between different projects. Key CEA staff will also be involved in the Beijing meetings in Y1 and Y3. We will also run a training course for the CEA on landslide mapping and statistical analysis at the end of Y3, as part of the final Beijing workshop.

Finally, we will use the EwF partnership (which spans more than a dozen earthquake-prone countries throughout Eurasia) to share wider international perspectives on landslide hazard and CBDRR. For example, we will broker discussions between MoCA officials and EwF partners in the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (India), and Kazakhstan Red Crescent Society with expertise and interests in evaluating characteristics of disaster-resilient communities.