Critical Factors for Successful Practice of Disaster-Resilient Community in Urban City

Due to special geographical environment, Taiwan is a natural disaster-prone area, which often suffers from earthquakes, typhoons and other natural hazards, resulting in heavy casualties and huge property losses. Furthermore, effect of global warming increases extreme climate events and leads to frequent and severe natural disasters. Therefore, disaster prevention and response are not only an important issue of government policy, but also a critical issue of people's life. Rather than over-reliance on government assistance, the spontaneous participation and co-operation by people can complete specific disaster preparedness and reinforce local energy of disaster prevention and response. Although the concept of disaster-resilient community (DRC) has been shaped for a period of time, residents in the community cannot keep up the pace with government, which may decrease the effectiveness of DRC development. Thus, the study of theory and practice of urban DRC becomes an imperative need. This article is a qualitative case study, which uses the participant observation and self-reflection in action research methods to collect relevant information for empirical validation. Particularly, this investigation is supplemented by service work experience in DRC promotion conducted by the researchers. According to the qualitative analyses of case communities during training process of disaster prevention and preparedness, we can identify the critical factors affecting the level of community-based disaster prevention and protection works. Based on the literature and empirical supports, the factors are discussed through three spindle constructs respectively, namely coping strategy, operations management and organizational behavior. Based on the findings of this study, we make conclusions and suggestions for related authority in sustainably promoting DRC.