The study of association between social capital and community participation on disaster management among flood affected households in Warin Chamrab sub-district, Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand

Abstract

More lives have been deprived by natural disasters, especially by the flood, and imposed both health and economic impact directly to the human well-being in recently. To reduce the threaten, community participation (CP) is a crucial factor for community-based disaster management and social capital (SC) is one of the predictors that drives the people to involve in disaster risk reduction. The study area was selected in Thailand, where the severe flood occurred in 2019 in Ubon-Ratchathani (UR) province. This research aimed to investigate three objectives among flood affected households in pre-, during- and post-flood disaster in UR province in Thailand; 1) To describe the social capital; 2) Examine community participation level; and 3) Investigate association between social capital and community participation. The period of this study was from August, 2019 to December, 2020 and a cross-sectional survey was conducted with structured-questionnaire which reviewed by the three experts from AIHD Mahidol University. The study area was selected purposively in Warinchamrab sub-district in UR. Three-hundred-fifty was calculated as sample size and 338 respondents were assigned to analyze. The network, governance/decision-making (G/D) strengthened and cohesion found altered in disaster phases. Over 80% respondents participated in community reconstructions. Multivariate regression revealed that the network and cohesion were positively associated with CP in each disaster phase (p-value<.05). G/D and trust/norms were found negatively associated with CP (p-value<.05). SC was affected both in negative and positive way in disaster situation and SC found also both of positive and negative association with CP in disaster phase among affected households. This research suggests implications to foster SC strategically to draw CP in disaster risk reduction policy. IMPLICATION OF THESIS 1. For policy making of the disaster risk reduction and management, to establish effective network social capital can be strategized to draw the community people's participation. 2. For practice utilization, local government or leaders are able to encourage affected people for more involvement for their community activities. 3. Further research is strongly recommended to investigate the evidence of the result of this study