Effects of Web GIS Technology and Curriculum Approaches on Education for Disaster Risk Reduction

Abstract. Disaster risk reduction education (DRRE) is a strategy to mitigate the harmful effects of disasters. The implementation of DRRE in schools is on the rise, and Web GIS technology in DRRE is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, little knowledge exists about whether students can improve their understanding of disaster risk reduction (DRR) through Web GIS technology and which factors affect their learning of web hazard maps. This study has provided materials and curricula for DRR education in Chinese and Japanese high schools, and utilized them eight times in the classroom between 2020 and 2022. These classes had three forms of implementation due to the COVID-19 pandemic: online, onsite, and online-onsite mixed. The students first answered a pretest. Then they learned about DRR using the explanatory web pages and the web hazard maps with answering quizzes shown on the pages. After that, they answered a posttest and a questionnaire. Most students show improved results after using the digital DRR materials. It is pronounced for the onsite implementations, whereas the online-onsite mixed implementation was less effective. The pretest scores for the implementations using local disaster cases are low, but the subsequent improvement is significant. The ability of students to utilize electronic devices affects the learning of GIS-related content rather than other aspects. The frequency of daily usage of online maps and daily attention to disaster prevention and mitigation affect learning the entire materials. Increasing the use of online hazard maps is a key to realizing social DRR.