Building Disaster Resilience amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Transdisciplinary Approach for Decision Making

Abstract

The fact that COVID-19 caused unprecedented challenges for the first time in the human race and eventually rose against all odds in such a short period is a testament to transdisciplinary capacity building. This study analyzes the approaches to disaster management during the pandemic by examining some cases in the Asian region. Managing disasters during a pandemic requires a transdisciplinary approach (TDA), including multi-sectoral coordination, and an interdisciplinary approach based on sound knowledge sharing. The session, in September 2021, in which nine presenters participated, discussed the role of TDA in managing disasters. Through this special session, it was found that the TDA contributed to managing disasters in complex situations, and three characteristics could be identified. First, as per institutional arrangements, case studies show how disaster risk reduction agencies, which had been responding to the expected scale of disasters, have started to respond to multiple different disasters and infectious diseases because of COVID-19. Second, public trust based on sound knowledge and information sharing is essential for promoting multi-stakeholder coordination. Third, information and communication technology utilization was found not only for information sharing and contact-base registration systems on disaster response to COVID-19 but also for monitoring the reconstruction process after a disaster in a remote manner. Further analysis and review will be conducted to develop these evolving practices to build disaster resilience.