Evaluation of Regional Vulnerability to Disasters by People of Ishikawa, Japan: A Cross Sectional Study Using National Health Insurance Data

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 13;15(3):507. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030507.

Abstract

The 2013 Partial Amendment of the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law mandated that a roster of vulnerable persons during disasters be created, and further development of evacuation support is expected. In this study, the number of vulnerable people living in target analytical areas are identified in terms of neighborhood units by using the National Health Insurance Database to create a realistic and efficient evacuation support plan. Later, after considering the "vulnerability" of an area to earthquake disaster damage, a quantitative evaluation of the state of the disaster is performed using a principle component analysis that further divided the analytical target areas into neighborhood units to make a detailed determination of the number of disaster-vulnerable persons, the severity of the disaster, etc. The results of the disaster evaluation performed after considering the vulnerability of an area are that 628 disaster-vulnerable persons live in areas with a relatively higher disaster evaluation value.

Keywords: KDB (national health insurance data); disaster evaluation; earthquake; principal component analysis; vulnerable people.

MeSH terms

  • Cities / statistics & numerical data
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Disaster Planning / methods
  • Disasters*
  • Earthquakes
  • Humans
  • Japan
  • National Health Programs
  • Residence Characteristics / statistics & numerical data*
  • Vulnerable Populations / statistics & numerical data*