Strategies of Adaptation Capacity Improvement Among The Natural Disaster Victims

Abstract


INTRODUCTION Population and Sample
The study population were head of family in the Kuwang and Randusari, with a total of 260. Eight participants then purposively selected to participate in this study.

Data Collection
Quantitative and qualitative approaches were enrolled in this study. A survey method applied to gather the quantitative data. Survey method widely known as a technique of data collection from a respondent who were a sample of one population by using a semi-closed questionnaire (Singarimbun & Effendi, 1989). Qualitative data were collected through observation and interview sessions. We also complemented our analysis by involving secondary data that obtained from several well-established institutions, such as the Regional Disaster Management Agency of Sleman Regency, Argomulyo Village Government, Head of Village of Bakalan and Gadingan Padukuhan, and other related sources.

Data Analysis
Qualitative descriptive analysis employed to address the first and second aims. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires and processed by using Microsoft Excel 2010. Qualitative data analysis conducted in four stages: data collection, data reduction, descriptive data presentation, and the formulation of conclusion (Miles & Huberman, 1992).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Adaptation capacity of victims of the eruption of Mount Merapi
Adaptation capacity is the capability to adapt to changes after a disaster occurence. Longstaff et al. (2010) explained that adaptive capacity was a function of the ability of individuals or communities to: 1) store and recall experiences (institutional memory); 2) use memory and experience to learn, innovate and reorganize memory and experience as resources for learning, adjusting to the demand of a changing environment (innovative learning); and 3) connected with other people, within and outside the community (connectedness).
The majority of resident's occupation in shelter of Kuwang and Randusari were mostly agricultural and livestock farmers (31.25%). In addition, 21.25 percent and 16.25 percent of residents were working as entrepreneur and sand miner, respectively. Sand and stone (sirtu) were natural resources that can be utilized by the community. Sirtu from the eruption of Mount Merapi is known as a good for building materials. Table 1 shows the distribution of occupation among the residents.  (2019) Profitable sources of livelihood were sand mining, livestock farming, and agriculture. Sand mining activities had attracted many people because it provided instant and regular income (Nofrita & Krol, 2014).

Institutional memory
Institutional memory is defined as the ability to recall the past experiences into current or future knowledge. Public knowledge about the eruption was obtained from the eruption events that had happened to their life. Longstaff et al.(2010) referred institutional memory as the accumulation of local experience and knowledge that was passed down from generation to generation.
The 2010 eruption of Merapi is an upredictable event. Residents who came from Bakalan and Bronggang Padukuhan have never been affected by the flow of Merapi's hot clouds. Mei et al. (2016) stated that based on the collective memory of residents, prior to the 2010 eruption, Bakalan and Bronggang Padukuhan area have never been damaged by volcanic disasters (pyroclastic flows). Study by Umaya et al. (2020) showed that the south to southeast region was experiencing the most severe eruption and the largest eruption in the last 140 years. Livelihoods include livestock, farming, tourism and mining activities had been destructed by the eruption. The eruption in 2010 had destroyed their village and triggered traumatic responses. This institutional memory classified into poor memories.

Innovative learning
Innovative learning is defined as the ability to utilize knowledge from past experiences to create or develop new method of adaptation to adjust with the existing changes. The eruption has caused several environmental changes that require people to be more innovative in utilizing natural resources, especially to meet their daily life need. One of the economic issues arose in the shelter was the difficulty to get appropriate occupation after the disaster. Table 2 reveals their perspective toward the job opportunities after the disaster.  Table 2 shows that 51.25 percent of participants were not satisfied with the job opportunity. This finding indicated that participants may encounter challenging time in obtaining proper occupation. Study by Aminay & Sahay (2011) had stated that relocation had an impact on the loss of productive sources including land, income, and livelihoods. The locations of work, fields for farming, and rivers for sand mining became more distant after the disaster. It would require more transportation costs. The impact of the eruption also affected their economy. Umaya et al. (2020) highlighted the extreme changes on the ecosystem and the economy field brought by the eruption; resulting a transition from the livelihoods from livestock farmer to tourism service businesses.
We also noted their efforts in obtaining a better occupation as their main or side job to meet their daily life need. This was shown by the presence by several grocery shop business, laundry business, and mushroom cultivation business in the area of shelter. Some housewives also tried to pursue their side income from working as helpers.
In addition, aid for economic recovery had been delivered by the authorities. Although some residents were forced to sell their livestock due to meet their daily life need. Agriculture and livestock farming still had the potential to be developed. Nofrita & Krol (2014) had suggested farming activities as main livelihood for the community in the Merapi area. However, the potential of the farming activities had not been utilized in optimal way. Further, issues encountered in the livestock business was the communal size cage. The capacity of the communal cage could not be expanded, but the number of livestock cattle was kept increasing. Also, the location cattle feed was quite distant.
Currently, there are several private sand mining companies operating around the Gendol River area. This situation added to the variety of jobs in the shelter area. They were working as a porter (lifting and unloading sand into trucks), a truck driver for a sand mining company, or being a security guard in the mining area.
Another potential is the natural tourism sites, especially those that situated in Bakalan Padukuhan. Buildings affected by the eruption were used as a nature museum for tourism and educational purposes. This potential has been developed by the Sleman Regency Government under the name of Sleman Volcano Park. This finding was supported by a study by Dillashandy & Panjaitan (2019) that highlighted the potential of a tourism activity as a new area of work among the eruption victims. Merapi Lava Tour is a natural tourism activity involving a tour through the areas of hot clouds by driving a Jeep. This tour is located in the Kinahrejo area with a famous object, "Museum Hartaku". The management of this tourism activity was run by the local community itself. Related authorities only performed as the supervisors, advisors, and authorization providers (Mulyowati & Shanti, 2016).
The majority of the residents found to be returned to their old jobs after seven years living in the shelter. New jobs besides farming and sand mining have not been carried out and tend to be conducted personally, not collectively. Hence, their innovative learning aspect was quite poor. They did not show good quality of collective coping mechanism in dealing with post-disaster life. They tended to cope with their problem individually, not in collective ways. This was in line with the finding of Maharani et al.(2016). This study discovered that social vulnerability mostly affected the relocated community and women population after the Mount Merapi eruption. Muir et al.(2019), revealed that relocation was a strategy for survival in overcoming the disasters, but those who returned to their places of origin had showed a better level of mental health.

Connectedness
Connectedness is defined as a connection, namely the establishment of social interaction between residents of the temporary shelter and with local residents. Connectedness is viewed from two components: social relations and leadership. The social interaction of the victims of the eruption of Mount Merapi who currently lived in Kuwang and Randusari Shelter was quite open. They had tendency to exposed themselves to outsiders, especially during the daily social activities. Many external donors provided aids, both individually and coordinated through institutions during the disaster response period. Formal leadership, namely the head of the village or padukuhan (dukuh) played as an actor to disseminate and enforce the national or local policies.
The majority of residents of Kuwang and Randusari shelter stated that they were quite satisfied with the relation with outside parties with a percentage of 68.80 percent. The residents of the Kuwang and Randusari shelters were still relatively friendly. Social interactions spotted in several locations such as patrol posts, mosques, and communal cages. Social interactions were becoming closer and requent due to the distance between houses.
The quality of the social interaction of the shelter residents could be perceived externally from the level of satisfaction towards the connection between the shelter residents and external parties (Table 3).  (2019) Social interaction between residents of the temporary shelters is also maintained through a social media platform, such as Whatsapp (WA). They organized a WA group for Sedulur Bakalan as a media to sustain their social interactions in Padukuhan Bakalan. Randusari Huntap also had a WA group, named Paguyuban Huntap Randusari. Table 4 reveals that the majority of social interaction (36.30%) conducted in direct way. This way of interaction was common among older residents. They had limitations in using communication tools. In addition, adjacent spaces between houses had made more frequent social interaction.  (2019) The strong community ties are also supported by their kinship blood relations. Most of the residents living in Kuwang and Randusari shelter were relatives. The division of housing in the shelters is also done based on their area of origin. This situation served a stronger social tie between residents. This kinship also had a massive role during the occurance of Mount Merapi eruption. Aristianti & Christiawan (2019) showed that kinship connection was related to the evacuation destination and the presence of relatives.
Social activities together are commonly and frequently conducted, especially during a hajatan (celebration event), gotong royong (communal work), and ronda (patrols). These social-based activities fostered the spirit of collectivity and a "authentic" role played by the community. Relation among members in the community had an important role in facilitating disaster preparedness (Sagala et al., 2009). Strong social ties also foster a sense of belonging among the residents. This condition was in line with the concept of shelter development which from the beginning of the planning used a community empowerment approach. The goal to establish a sense of ownership among the residents. Widodo (2019) stated that the shelter development policy with a community empowerment approach had estblish the community as an object and subject in the implementation of the shelter development policy. The local community is assisted to contribute their active role in the initial to the end of the stage.
In addition to social interaction, connectedness is also supported by leadership. A good leadership that was capable to manage the community during a disaster or post-disaster to reduce the adverse of the disaster (Demiroz & Kapucu, 2012). Bakalan residents used to lead by a dukuh. Dukuh served a major role, especially to direct the time and provide place for the evacuation. Aids was also channeled through the padukuhan. Istikasari (2017) also highlighted the role leadership in disaster planning and management, communication and utilization of appropriate information technology, organization of appropriate decisions, and collaboration.
The existence of paguyuban (association/organization) also assisted the leadership management in the shelter area, especially in the Randusari. Paguyuban aimed to facilitate the coordination of residents that came from different regions. Paguyuban led by a head of paguyuban who would mobilize collective social action for residents such as mutual cooperation, clean water management, and other social activities.
Based on the findings, the connectedness between residents were quite well. They supported by quality social interaction and good leadership. Good community connectedness would build a better community (Longstaff et al., 2010).

Adaptation Capacity Building Strategies
The improvement of adaptive capacity is delivered through three aspects, namely: physical, economic, and social.

Physical Aspect
The shelter building is a housing area, a house with the type of 36 with an area size of 100 m 2 , adjacent to each other, and had no yard. Contrary with the shelter situation, their previous house was quite spacious with yards and separated in quite distant space with other houses. During the construction of shelter, the local government granted 30 million for each house to residents who were willing to be relocated. Resident who refused to be relocated would use their own money to build houses. The majority of participants stated that they applied the compensation funds from the dead livestock to build houses and purchase their temporary living expenses (Setyadi et al., 2016).
Residents with extra funds had modified the housing area to be more comfortable living area. However, resident with limited funds had not conducted any changes on their house. Residents in Kuwang and Randusari shelter had remodeled their houses. Some residents added more rooms and second floor in the existing building. This finding was in line with Mei et al. (2016) that found 47 percent of the residents of Kuwang shelter had renovated their house to make a more comfortable spaces of living.

Economic Aspect
Economic adaptation could be observed by resident's daily activity. Most of the residents have not experienced change in terms of work. This condition was in line with a study conducted by Suprapto et al. (2016) on post-disaster community in the Pagerjurang shelter. They found that most residents still do the same livelihood as before moving to the shelter, namely agricultural and livestock farmer.
Distance has been a major concern for the farmer. They needed additional costs or energy to find to their agricultural field. Utami et al. (2018) suggested that the concept of post-eruption land management needed to be formulated based on land configurations. This concept was related to local conditions such as topography, hydrology, meteorology, and natural drainage systems.
Older farmers were quitting their cultivation activity, handed it to their heirs, or let other farmer cultivated in their land. Livestock farmer should will to spend more time to discover feed for their livestock due to the relocation.
A study of Rahman et al. (2019) found that relocation had limited the opportunities to engage in various economic activities (which were once important), and has also restricted the married and adult from owning their property. People who are living in new residentials have difficulty accessing new land and property around their new area. It usually happens because of its high prices and crumbly structre of the land to build an housing area.
Adaptive strategies engaged were the diversification of income sources. We aimed to add more source of income in the shelter, such as service-based businesses, food stalls, tourism activities, ojek (driver), and mining. Some participants in Kuwang Shelter stated that they had opened a laundry business at home, operated a grocery shop, and run a mushroom cultivation business.

Social Aspect
Social adaptation is essential to manage the social constraints in the shelter. Social constraint arises along with the higher intensity of social relations. The distance between houses were quite far and relatively separated from each other before the disaster. This situation produced lower intensity of social interaction between residents. Further, the majority of the resident spent most of their times in their agricultural land, cultivating their plant. Their free times usually filled with gardening activity in their house yard. However, the distance between houses was quite close and only separted by a wall in the current shelter. No house yard available in the shelter. This situation created more frequent social interaction between residents.
New issues such as competition between the residents, social jealousy, and conflict might occured. Social jealousy commonly arose due to unfair perception of aids delivered by the authorities, eg. cattle. The close distance between houses also increased the social costs associated with the habit of amalan (giving donations). The adaptation strategy organized to deal with this issue was related to social bonds enhancement between residents. Activities such as yasinan (a local religious ceremony), amalan (donation), gotong royong (communal work), social gathering, and ronda (night patrol in a small-scale of area) could be applied as strategies to increase the social adaptation capacity among the residents.
These finding was in line with by Syapitri & Hutajulu (2018) that had highlighted the adaptation behavior revealed residents of Gurukinayan Village during the eruption of Mount Sinabung, the psychological aspect. The majority of the residents admitted their sadness after the eruption. However, they set a positive mindset to survive. They also found an adaptive coping in the socio-economic aspect. The attachment and social interaction between the residents were very strong and solid. This situation pushed them to stay positive about their life. The element of infrastructure improvement also identified as an adaptive behavior. Residents were putting their time to repair houses and land after the eruption.
This finding was also asupported by a study conducted Bakkour et al.(2015). They mentioned several issues on post-disaster situation: lack of appropriate infrastructure, complex interactions between authorities, dependency on funds from external parties, and limited quantitative documentation on losses. material and human. These issues hindered the adaptive capacity of the system.
The strategy for adaptive capacity improvement among communities affected by natural disasters is illustrated in Table 5 below.  (2019)