Developing and Evaluating a Flood Disaster Risk Reduction Education Program Using the Web-GIS Teaching Material “YOU@RISK for Children–Flood”

This study developed a flood disaster risk reduction (DRR) education program using the Web-GIS teaching material “YOU@RISK for Children—Flood,” developed by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, and evaluated its educational effectiveness by implementing it at junior high schools in Niigata Prefecture. This program adopts the three-step structure for flood learning presented in the Practical Guide for Disaster Education (Junior and Senior High School Edition) compiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and was designed, based on the ADDIE model, which is a framework for instructional design, as a learning program that emphasizes understanding flood risk and making evacuation decisions using map information in an ICT learning environment. The first implementation targeted junior high school students in Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture, an area where flood damage occurred owing to the heavy rainfall in August 2022. Of the 16 items measuring the achievement of learning objectives through self-evaluation, 14 demonstrated significant improvements, while no significant changes were observed in two items related to understanding flood damage and identifying safe evacuation sites. Therefore, the program was improved by revising the visual materials, explanations, and hands-on operation activities, and implemented with junior high school students in Mitsuke City, Niigata Prefecture, an area with a history of flood damage from the July 13, 2004 flood disaster. The results demonstrated significant improvements in all items, including those that depicted limited improvement in the first implementation. In the follow-up surveys at the two schools, the scores of most items remained generally higher than the pre-learning levels, although they declined from the levels immediately after learning. Thus, the findings suggest the effectiveness of this program for flood DRR education targeting junior high school students, particularly in supporting learning from acquiring basic knowledge about floods to evacuation decision-making using map information.