Disaster Risk Reduction: High Time We Address the Education and Practice Gap

Abstract

In light of typhoons Rolly (Goni), Siony (Atsani), and Ulysses (Vamco) that have caused disastrous flooding and subsequent losses to both human life and property, the importance and implications of the study Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge among local people in a Selected Community in the Philippines (Soriano, 2019), cannot be discounted. A disaster as defined by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2016) is "a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its resources" (Najafi et al., 2017). Soriano (2019) described the sampled community members from Taytay, Rizal to possess a fair knowledge of disaster-related knowledge and disaster risk perception, good knowledge of disaster preparedness and readiness, disaster adaptation, and disaster awareness. Soriano also determined possible relationships between respondents' age, sex, civil status and educational attainment, and the community's level of disaster risk reduction (DRR) knowledge. None of the tested sociodemographic variables were seen to be correlated to the community's overall good level of DRR knowledge. I appreciate the study's contribution to local knowledge on DRR. I want to take this opportunity to motivate our readership to help bridge the DRR knowledge and practice gap through research.