Theory and practice of pre-disaster planning for disaster waste management

In order to facilitate quick, efficient, yet sustainable disaster waste management, it is believed that Disaster Waste Management Planning (DWM Planning), i.e. pre-disaster planning of disaster waste management strategy to improve preparedness, should take place. Although the same claim has been made repeatedly in government guidelines, in reality, the effectiveness of DWM Planning seems less promising.

This study takes the first step to base our DWM Planning practice on sound theoretical background. For this, principles and criteria for effective DWM Planning was established based on literature survey and interviews, followed by an evaluation of current Japanese practice. The results suggest that 1) the principles/criteria are useful in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of DWM Planning in practice, and 2) while pro-forma increases the number of DWM Plans, without continuing process of DWM Planning, it does not contribute to improved preparedness.