Future Trends of Disaster Reduction Measures Based on Environmental Disaster Mitigation Concept

Conceptual frameworks of inter-relationships among disaster risk, natural hazards and ecosystem services are provided in consideration with disaster mitigation and social recovery after hazards. Recent trends of disaster reduction measures include ecosystem services under the name of Eco-DRR. Most of them take into account of roles for reducing disaster risk such as a buffering by decreasing physical exposure to hazards but not always for increasing the ecosystem services. Natural hazards have important roles in creation and/or renewal of ecosystem structure, being essential for sustainability of ecosystem services. Therefore, in order to ensure social life styles depending on ecosystem services, future disaster reduction measures should include environmental disaster mitigation allowing the changes in ecosystem structure as a result of natural hazards. Further studies for prediction of ecosystem changes after hazards are required as well as those under climate changes for better society in future. In this sense, a catastrophic event of hazard might be a good chance to change social systems into those with more sustainable resource use and life styles.