3. Literature review
3.1. Community-based disaster management
A few literatures on social vulnerability in cities highlight the role of a local-based body that helps in
increasing the resilience of a community in dealing with disasters. Pelling (2003: 64) proposes that 'a
supportive institutional framework social capital can be transformed into social organization to build
(local) adaptive potential’. This is supported by Obrist (2006), arguing that social organisations shaping
the allocation of, access to and use of resources at the household level (such as the CBOs) are vital for
establishing resilience. Chen et al. (2006) discuss on community-based disaster management program in
Taiwan where community residents learned how to analyze vulnerable conditions, discover problems,
develop solutions, and establish an organization to implement disaster management tasks. They also
continuously improve their emergency response capability through a participatory process. The scheme is
called Integrated Community-Based Disaster Management Program and initiated in 2001 to empower the
community to take actions in hazard mitigation, emergency preparedness and emergency response. The
aim of this program is to strengthen community resilience due to the country's vulnerability to
earthquakes, typhoons, landslides and debris flows.
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