Preparing for Natural Hazards Events in Small Island Communities: The Role of Social Vulnerability

Small island communities in large archipelagos are often underrepresented in disaster and climate change studies. While they share similar features of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as remoteness and economic isolation, they remain distinct from SIDS as they tend to lack political priority and sovereignty in allocating resources to manage risk and social vulnerabilities. This can further compromise their preparedness for climate shocks and disasters. This study proposes a comprehensive framework for assessing community preparedness that can be applied to multiple hazards in a small island community setting through two steps: (1) an individual’s capacity within a household to prepare for a disaster, followed by (2) an evaluation of the collective community’s preparedness at the village level. The researcher administered a 48-question survey among 782 respondents in a small island of North Moluccas province that aimed to understand how respondents leveraged their resources, knowledge, and social networks in their disaster preparedness, measured by four key parameters, namely knowledge and attitude (KA), emergency response plan (EP), early warning system (WS), and community capacity (CC). The findings suggest that the knowledge, attitude and the warning system at the household level mainly shape individual preparedness. At the community level, the availability of evacuation maps and signs, evacuation drills, and sharing information via social media shape the community’s preparedness. This investigation contributes to developing strategies to enhance disaster preparedness and sustainably mitigate disaster risks by engaging all stakeholders