Department of Education and Public Awareness


Strengthening Disaster Prevention Potential of Central and Local Governments

1.The SWAN, as an academic research institution related to disaster prevention, provides assistance and academic research to the central government and the Ministry of Science and Technology for all the related matters in Yunlin county. Additionally, it connects both central and local governments in order to exchange information more efficiently.


2.Besides Yunlin county, the SWAN provides assistance for disaster prevention to the local governments of Changhua county and Chiayi city to promote the effectiveness of the regional research and operational support, to upgrade overall research and development potential, and to provide technical support for matters related to disasters. The SWAN is also responsible for disaster prevention education and training drills. Such drills mostly include disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness information and techniques combined with practices.


3.The SWAN provides research and projects for environmental investigation when disasters occur (e.g. landslide investigation - Morakot Typhoon in 2009, flood investigation projects after the appearance of typhoons, etc.). Moreover, the SWAN has created a disaster-prone index database for flood and landslide phenomena, based on the data of the areas of Yunlin and Chiayi.

Promoting Disaster Prevention Works and Education

1.The SWAN holds or participates in domestic and international activities and conferences for promoting disaster prevention matters. The goal of such actions is for experts to share their ideas and knowledge with the public and spread disaster prevention awareness.


2.The SWAN organizes competitions and activity programs for disaster prevention. Most of them include singing, picture books, blogs, etc., especially when they are referring to children in order to raise citizens' interest.

Counseling Educational Institutes of All Levels to Promote Disaster Prevention Awareness

The Ministry of Education has authorized the SWAN to hold counseling groups for assisting schools and other educational institutes all over Taiwan to promote disaster prevention awareness. Disaster prevention plans for schools, environmental investigations and hazard maps are just few of the tasks of these groups.

Promoting Disaster Prevention for Local Communities

By assisting the local governments of Yunlin and Changhua counties and Chiayi City, the SWAN aims to provide the communities all the necessary tools and information for disaster prevention matters, including counseling, disaster prevention planning, environmental investigation, as well as training. The goal of such projects is to make people aware of disaster prevention and self-protection in order to minimize the impacts and reduce the casualties when disasters occur.

Identifying Environmental Education Facilities and Fields

According to the Environmental Education Act, the SWAN provides assistance to institutions which need to identify specific spaces as their environmental education facilities. The SWAN has assisted the Yunlin Irrigation Association to identify its museum of irritation as an environmental education facility. Regarding the fields, the SWAN has organized various environmental education activities and programs for promotion. The goal of such projects is to make people aware of environmental education.

Training Volunteers and Personnel

The SWAN assists institutions in matters of personnel/volunteer training, mostly for flood awareness and environmental education matters so the services of the volunteers to become more efficient. For instance, the SWAN provided flood prevention training programs to the volunteers and personnel of the Fourth River Management Office, WRA and environmental education training programs to the volunteers and personnel of Yunlin Irrigation Association. Volunteering is important for society and the SWAN hopes through such training programs to make more people participate in public affairs and disaster prevention campaigns or other related environmental and educational issues.