Effects of web geographic information system (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 geographic information system (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, on-site and online–on-site mixed. The students first answered a pretest. Then they learned about DRR using the explanatory web pages and the web hazard maps by answering quizzes shown on the pages. After that, they answered a posttest and a questionnaire. Most students exhibit improved results after utilizing the digital DRR materials. This improvement is pronounced for the on-site implementations, while the mixed online–on-site implementation proves 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 daily use of online maps and attention to disaster prevention and mitigation affect the learning of all the materials. Increasing the use of online hazard maps is key to realizing social DRR.