Creating Disaster-Resilient Green Cities by Improving Disaster Evacuation Rates

Recent severe natural hazards and associated disasters worldwide have demonstrated the necessity of developing disaster-resilient green cities. This study argues that the realization of such cities should be promoted step by step, starting with improvements in disaster evacuation behavior. This study conducted a questionnaire survey in December 2023 and analyzed the data to (1) grasp the current status of citizens' conditions, such as recognition, preparations, and experience (Analysis 1-1), and apply supplemental crosstabulation for some of them (Analysis 1-2); (2) identify tendencies in citizens' evacuation rates (Analysis 2); and (3) determine factors influencing citizens' evacuation rates (Analysis 3). The results of Analysis 1 suggest that citizens behave rationally based on their risks but tend to be optimistic, in part because they may not fully understand the characteristics of natural hazard risks. The relevant agency should consider the results of Analysis 2, that citizens may enhance their evacuation activities substantially for a small improvement in the false alert ratio from 49 % to 50 %, and 89 % to 90 %. Analysis 3 implies that the provision of real disaster information would not change people's evacuation activities effectively. Because natural disaster risks have increased and the adoption of green infrastructure widens heterogeneous risk distributions, future studies should address the improvement in citizens' risk perceptions and their understanding of the importance of evacuation behavior, followed by their understanding of green infrastructure and its conservation activities.