Acquiring Disaster Prevention Knowledge from Fieldwork Activities in a Region

There has been increasing awareness of the need for disaster prevention in Japan. The aim of this research is to ascertain whether a basic knowledge of disaster prevention can be acquired through fieldwork learning activities for purposes of creating a disaster prevention map. We developed a disaster prevention learning support system that facilitated the task of recording information at real locations, and then aggregated it. Using this system, we conducted a classroom exercise at a high school to help students identify the kinds of hazards that are likely to develop in specific areas—based on their features—in the event of a large earthquake. After conducting fieldwork, they returned to the classroom. Under the guidance of their teachers, they referred to the information they had recorded and the knowledge they had acquired to postulate a scenario in which a large earthquake occurred. They further assumed that this earthquake had occurred while they were outdoors. The students then devised evacuation measures using paper simulations. The results of this exercise revealed that the knowledge of disaster prevention acquired through this exercise had practical applications.