Framework for utilizing disaster learning tools classified by real and virtual aspects of community space and social networks: Application to community-based disaster risk reduction and school disaster education on earthquakes in Japan for during- and post-COVID-19 periods

Disaster learning is conducted in community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) and school-based disaster-education programs are promoted all over the world. The diversity of such programs is growing wider due to the spread of COVID-19 and the rapid digital transformation that followed. The ultimate goals of these diversifying tools tend to center on reducing human loss in local communities. The community space where DRR is conducted and the social networks through which residents cooperate are two of the important components for loss reduction. Against this backdrop, this study proposed a framework for utilizing disaster learning tools classified in terms of the real and virtual aspects of community space and social networks, both of which are important factors for diversifying tools. The uniqueness of this framework lies in its deductive categorization of the tools relative to previous studies, which inductively proposed categorizations based on existing tools. Applying this framework to community-based DRR and school-based disaster education related to earthquakes in Japan revealed future challenges in terms of self-help, mutual-help, and collaboration among actors as well as the present contribution based on its four quadrants. Although Japan is a relatively advanced country in terms of DRR and disaster education, the study identified room for developing the tools. •The study proposes a framework for utilizing disaster learning tools deductively.•The real and virtual aspects of community space and social networks matter.•The framework revealed future challenges in related to earthquake DRR in Japan.•Room was identified in the framework to develop disaster learning tools.