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The aim of this project is to modify and test the executive model of professional teacher training of disaster prevention education.

A three‐level teacher‐training program for disaster prevention education and training curricula is designed for campus disaster mitigation. The designed disaster prevention education in schools focus on the awareness of disasters, attitude toward prevention, preparation beforehand, appropriate countermeasures, scheduled drills, establishment of community‐based prevention units, participation, training programs for teachers, safety warning signs for public buildings, and research on disaster prevention.

The accomplishment of the project includes: the design of a systematic license procedure for disaster prevention for the leading‐level, county‐level, and campus‐level; the design of a systematic curricula for teacher training of disaster prevention and training campus‐level teachers; and the evaluation of the efficiency and performance of the teacher‐training program for disaster prevention education.

A three‐level teacher‐training program for disaster prevention education and training curricula is designed. Statistics analysis of training and learning efficiency evaluation by trainee shows that the designed courses are efficient and practical. The project cultured 310 campus‐level disaster prevention teachers and more than 1,000 licensed teachers trained that follow the training program in Taiwan.

As a result of awareness of the increasing school accidents in recent years and severe damage to school infrastructure by Typhoon Morakot, this paper seeks to discuss the current natural disaster prevention education strategy in Taiwan and investigates the seriously damaged schools from Typhoon Morakot.

Methods of analysis used in this paper include aerial photo interpretation of landslides and debris flows with the aid of field investigation and spatial rainfall distribution by GIS analysis. Additionally, the reasons attributed to the schools’ damages and disaster prevention education strategies in schools after Morakot are discussed.

After an overall review of the current disaster prevention education programs, the following items are to be stressed in disaster prevention education as a result of studying the effects of Typhoon Morakot: integration of disaster prevention education into formal school curricula; teacher training for campus disaster prevention education; development of a coalition of campus and community‐based disaster management; and study of the impact of climate change and school vulnerability. School infrastructure safety evaluation and risk assessment, education materials and design activities for psychological recovery after disasters, and the connection of school safety management and community‐based disaster prevention are deemed urgent after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

The current achievements of disaster prevention education in Taiwan include the development of operation and support mechanisms, curricula development and experimental schools selection, development of teacher training program, the popularization of disaster prevention education, the development and use of learning materials, and the determination of an effective assessment mechanism. It is expected that disaster prevention education will become part of the formal school curricula. School safety and vulnerability assessments as a result of climate change and student psychological recovery following disasters are urgent lessons to be implemented after learning from the results of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

Generally, family and community have a great deal of local experience and local knowledge of disaster. Disaster education for family and community is aimed at recognizing the characteristics of a disaster and the existing social situation for the purpose of acquiring general knowledge of disasters, usually at school. Community and family structures and roles differ according to character and location such as urban, rural, coastal, near rivers, and near mountains, among others. In recent times, people's participation in the community has been affected by social changes. Earlier, historical local disaster prevention methods were passed on to other family/community members through daily activity. Recently, however, the characteristics of disasters have changed such that people now need to prepare for disasters of which they have no experience and about which they have difficulty obtaining information. It is thus necessary for communities and families to know different scenarios of disaster. “Community-Based Disaster Risk Management” is difficult to establish without linking community and household. For instance, many types of associations can be found in the community, but some do not play a direct role in disaster prevention and management. However, these associations have strong human relationships and much local knowledge. As an example, family members traditionally take care of children and old and handicapped people. Presently, lifestyles and social systems have changed such as long-distance commuting, both husband and wife working, weak family relationships, fewer children, aging, and unstable economies, among others. It is therefore necessary to carry out disaster prevention education aimed at building local capacity for disaster prevention, after determining the situation in the community and family and the roles people in the community play.

In the previous chapters, disaster education was discussed based on the aspect of the place where disaster education was conducted – in school, in the household, and in the community. Generally, school disaster education is regarded as formal disaster education, while household and community disaster education as informal disaster education. School-based stand-alone courses are perhaps the easiest programs to implement on a large scale and within a short time frame (Petal, 2009). However, to achieve community-based disaster management, stakeholder involvement is important. If students learn with the community, the learning may be regarded as informal or semi-formal education. When the community, including students, learn about disaster management, local contexts are important to be considered. Anticipated hazards, stakeholders, availability of human and physical resources, extent of threatened or affected area, culture, history, and other various factors can be taken into account. In addition, when the community and students learn together, there are at least two actors. This means that disaster education programs should focus on both community members and students as the target learners. Therefore, such education programs cannot be discussed from the aspect of place of education like school, community, or household. Shaw and Takeuchi (2008) emphasized the importance of the participatory approach. Thus, it is necessary to consider how education programs should be conducted. As described before, it is necessary to consider various factors and situations in order to provide disaster education programs that meet local contexts. In this regard, a standardized disaster education program is not appropriate. Therefore, people/organizations who/that organize disaster education programs should need to play important roles so that the disaster education program becomes effective. In other words, the organizers need to consider how they provide disaster education as well as what they provide.

This paper seeks to demonstrate a unique project with tsunami height poles and disaster education to maintain disaster awareness for several decades in the area where the Indian Ocean tsunami caused significant damage in 2004.

A case study approach is utilized combined with field observation, participatory observation and a general literature review of relevant studies and secondary sources.

The major finding is that the unique device of 85 tsunami height poles was brought from the outside to Banda Aceh city so that people may remember the impact of the tsunami over a longer period of time when awareness is likely to reduce. As local people gradually understood the significance of the poles, the number of local cooperators increased and the project's impact improved significantly.

The long‐term impact of the disaster resilience is yet to be verified in Banda Aceh city. The field research results of the project's process and impact immediately connected with grassroots practice with people to maintain disaster awareness and resilence for the city. The practice to which the Hyogo Framework for Action gives priority connects with building understanding of tsunami risk and disaster awareness with local knowledge, assimilated by preserving disaster records and visualizing disaster.

The paper describes a field‐based project in Banda Aceh city and the suburb, Indonesia, which was implemented in cooperation with local communities, local non‐government organizations, local school boards and specialists from Kyoto University, Japan. Thus, the study findings are directly related to its practical implications.

The paper highlights how the device of 85 tsunami height poles which were built in order to visualize disaster and maintain disaster awareness under the concept, blended an expert's unique idea with old Japanese knowledge in Banda Aceh city by the local community in Indonesia in June 2007. The paper shows that local ideas maintain living knowledge and lessons with sustainable development in the local place after the project had finished and recommendations can apply to the other tsunami affected areas.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) researchers and practitioners have found that schools can play a critical role in DRR education, with many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) developing initiatives to actively involve children in DRR education programs. This paper reports on a case study on an innovative Chinese NGO school-based program focused on participatory child-centered DRR (PCC-DRR) education, from which a PCC-DRR education framework was developed so that similar programs could be replicated, especially in developing countries.

After nearly a year of research involving follow-up interviews, fieldwork and secondary data collection from annual reports, news reports and official websites, a case study was conducted on the PCC-DRR education program developed by the One Foundation (OF), a resource-rich NGO in China, that focused on its education strategies and project practice in Ya'an following the 2013 Lushan earthquake.

Based on constructivist theory, the OF developed a PCC-DRR education program that had four specific branches: teacher capacity building, child DRR education, campus risk management and campus safety culture, which was then implemented in 115 schools and consequently evaluated as being highly effective.

The innovative OF PCC-DRR education program adds to theoretical and practical DRR education research as a “best practice” case. Because the proposed framework is child-centered, participatory and collaborative, it provides excellent guidance and reference for countries seeking to develop school-based DRR education programs.

It has been widely acknowledged that education takes on a pivotal role in reducing disasters and achieving human security in the attempt to achieve sustainable development. Previous experiences have shown positive effects of education in disaster risk management. Children who have been taught about the phenomenon of disasters and how to react to those situations have proved to be able to respond promptly and appropriately, thereby warning others and protecting themselves during times of emergencies. One of the classic examples illustrating the power of knowledge and education is the story of the 10-year-old British schoolgirl, Tilly Smith, who warned the tourists to flee to safety moments before the Indian Ocean tsunami engulfed the coast, saving over 100 tourists' lives in 2004. She had recognized the signs of an approaching tsunami after learning about the phenomenon in her geography lessons at school, just weeks before visiting Thailand (UN/ISDR, 2006a). Although the United Kingdom is not a tsunami-prone country and the schoolgirl did not have any previous experiences, with the knowledge acquired at school, she was able to save the lives of many.

In addressing disaster management in schools, many researchers and workers in NGOs, UN agencies, and other organizations have pointed out that school-building safety and disaster education are significant factors in developing school safety, especially in the case of earthquake disasters (Izadkhan, 2004; Dixit, 2004; Wisner et al., 2004). School-building safety is useful for disaster reduction in the short term, while disaster education can play a significant role in developing a culture of disaster reduction in the long term. The importance of disaster education at the school level is recognized in the works of Radu (1993), Kuroiwa (1993), Arya (1993), Frew (2002), and Shaw, Shiwaku, Kobayashi, and Kobayashi (2004). Students are viewed as initiates into tradition, and parents are also congregational members (Strike, 2000). Shaw and Kobayashi (2001) stress that schools play an important role in raising awareness among students, teachers, and parents. UNISDR conducted a campaign based on the observation that children are among the most vulnerable population group during disasters (UNISDR, 2007a) and that disaster risk education empowers children and helps build greater awareness of the issue in communities (UNISDR, 2007b).

Following the 26 December 2004 tsunami, Planet Risk NGO took part in the international research program TSUNARISK and ATIP‐CNRS Jeune Chercheur. The aim of this paper is to encourage the development of tsunami‐resilient communities essentially through educative actions.

The tsunami risk in Indonesia was assessed by researchers. Planet Risk then used scientific findings and advice for building adapted prevention actions among Javanese populations.

Many people could have survived if they had received a basic knowledge of tsunamis. The Indonesian public as well as local authorities must be educated to face tsunami risk. To be efficient, this education must be adapted to local cultural and geographical characteristics. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners is a good means of reaching such an objective.

The paper is the result of a two‐year successful collaboration between interdisciplinary scientific teams and an NGO team. It demonstrates that an efficient prevention scheme can be implemented through this kind of collaboration. To the authors' knowledge it is the first time that such tsunami education programmes have been led in Indonesia.

Central America is exposed to a variety of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods. The region, located on four connected tectonic plates with 24 active volcanoes and in the path of hurricanes, has experienced 348 major disasters from 1981 to 2010, resulting in 29,007 deaths and US$16.5 billion in direct economic losses. Therefore, all six Central American countries rank among the top 35 countries in the world at high mortality risk from multiple hazards. The countries in this region, including Costa Rica, began paying attention to the disaster risk management (DRM) initiative recently, after Tropical Storm and Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which was the region’s worst catastrophe of the century. After the devastation by Mitch, several local DRM capacity development projects were implemented in the region. By reviewing these project profiles of local DRM implemented in the region, this chapter identifies outcomes, lessons, and challenges of DRM at the local scale, from Mitch to the present, as a baseline for incorporating climate disaster risk reduction into local development planning.