jaue2023074: Study on Platform Tools and Practice on “Sustainability Scoring Index”

Abstract

In recent years, Japan has experienced a rising frequency of severe natural disasters such as typhoons and heavy rains. These catastrophic events have underscored the urgent need for municipalities, which are the smallest units of public local governments, to bolster their disaster preparedness and develop resilient organizations and communities. Our study aims to promote self-evaluation among key personnel within local government bodies in Japan by developing an index to evaluate the sustainability of various current plans implemented by these municipalities. Furthermore, this study promotes the identification of problems and the development of organizations to improve disaster resilience during noncrisis periods. The research methodology employed here is based on the assumption that the common factors of resilience are found in both the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030. These international indicators are primarily referenced from the publications by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). We selected a set of resilience qualities and extracted 43 indicators from the original 118 indicators of the source document “Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities Detailed Assessment” published by UNDRR (May 2017). These qualities and indicators were suitably modified to assess the sustainability of Japanese local governments. To validate these indicators, we conducted a pre-evaluation in four Japanese municipalities designated as ordinance cities in Japan. Herein, we developed a prototype of a “Sustainability Scoring System” for improving the disaster resilience of local governments in Japan. Furthermore, this study reveals the positive advantages of engaging municipal officials in a preliminary assessment, shedding light on the evaluation content prior to the internal evaluation of their plans.