Study on Establishing the System of Enterprises’ Participation in Flood Disaster Prevention

Taiwan has unique geographical characteristics. Located in a subtropical monsoon region, it is plagued annually by exceptional meiyu (East Asian rainy season) in May and June, and numerous typhoons from July to October. This unique climate often brings torrential rains and combined with Taiwan’s steep topography and short rivers, frequently triggers severe floods. Moreover, Taiwan lies at the intersection between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate and is among the areas with the world’s most frequent felt earthquakes. Natural hazards here can roughly be categorized into four types: earthquake, typhoon, flood, and hillside disasters; manmade disasters include: industrial disasters, residential/commercial fire, road traffic accident, and shipwreck. When disasters strike, they often cause grave impacts and tolls in human lives and properties. In recent years, there has been a rising trend in both their frequency and scale due to rapid urbanization and growing environmental vulnerability.
According to World Bank’s 2005 publication, Natural Disaster Hotspots - A Global Risk Analysis, Taiwan tops the world in the land area simultaneously exposed to three or more natural hazards (73%) and in the population under disasters’ threat (73%). Additionally, there has been an increase in potential hazards such as disease outbreaks and severe public safety accidents. Therefore, when large-scale disasters strike and the impact is beyond what the affected municipalities can or have resources to handle, the key to minimizing death and injuries as well as financial losses becomes how nearby municipalities can offer support, participate rapidly in the emergency response, integrate resources effectively, enhance response effectiveness and prevent the disaster’s spread.
The “Operational Compact for Emergency Management Mutual Aid between Municipality and County Governments” passed in 2005 has now been in effect for four years. Yet, a comprehensive review of recent years’ severe disaster experiences indicates that the chief rescue and relief responsibilities still fall on the central government; the rare implementation of the above Compact by local authorities exposes the inadequacy of the actual system. Thus, this paper examines the literature on relevant ordinances, operating models, and case studies in the American and Japanese regional mutual aid systems to emergency management, in order to offer suggestions for improvement towards a more complete regional mutual aid system, a significant upgrade on municipalities’ disaster response capabilities and effective functional integration and collaboration.