Disaster preparedness for metro projects: a social-cognitive perspective of Pakistan

During the last decade, 2.4 billion individuals, the majority of which were residing in low economic growth countries, became victim of global disasters. As economic growth is correlated with the resilience of a nation against a disaster, therefore developing and underdeveloped nations significantly face higher magnitude of losses. With Pakistan being a developing country, the present study takes into account the most recently accomplished mega project of METROBUS service that is currently operational in the twin metropolitan cities of Pakistan i.e. Islamabad and Rawalpindi to study the pre and post development perspectives of project in terms of the hazard perception, prospect disaster threats it poses towards the society in case of major seismic activity and the magnitude of disaster preparedness associated to the potential hazardous circumstances as result of seismic event occurrence. Statistical evaluations for the current study were conducted utilizing the SmartPLS 3.0, being based upon the information collected through 336 self-supervised surveyed responses. The results of the current study indicated, the respondents to be highly in favor of the commute service project, but at the same time, they highlighted the concerns regarding socio-economic adversities faced during the project development phases as well as after its completion. Further, the respondents expressed major reservations regarding the disaster management measures taken by the potential stakeholders of the project. Despite the fact that most of the respondents were well educated, the lack of awareness regarding preparedness against any possible project related disastrous situation, was observed. To mitigate the potential disaster losses associated to the project, respondents suggested that the national authorities should proactively provide awareness to the public and assure the availability of all necessary facilities, in case of any hazardous situation; seismic in particular. Considering the practical implications, the current study may be useful for other developing countries, which too faced similar concerns during development of comparable megaprojects and share similar environmental conditions.