Evaluating the Role of Social Capital in Post-Disaster Agricultural Recovery Using Satellite Remote Sensing

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of social capital on disaster mitigation and recovery in agriculture. Agriculture not only serves as a means of food production but also provides various ecosystem services to human society. Human society relies on these ecosystem services, and for the realization of a sustainable society, it is essential that agriculture continues even after disasters. This study focused on the role of social capital in disaster mitigation and recovery. Social capital is known to contribute to population recovery and improvements in mental health after disasters. However, its relationship with the recovery of industries such as agriculture has not been extensively studied. This study examines the impact of the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula, Japan on January 1, 2024. Using satellite remote sensing, we quantified the effects of the disaster on rice paddy utilization at a micro-geographic level and explored its relationship with social capital. Specifically, we used the annual frequency of village meetings as the proxy variable for social capital and analyze whether differences in meeting frequency influenced post-disaster rice paddy utilization based on a kernel matching with Gaussian process regression. Controlling for potential confounding variables, we found no significant difference in rice paddy utilization associated with variations in meeting frequency. Although social capital is widely regarded as an important factor for disaster mitigation and recovery, our analysis did not find a significant association between social capital and the recovery or mitigation of agricultural land use. This study not only contributes to the theoretical development of social capital but also serves as a pioneering example of applying satellite remote sensing in social science research, demonstrating the significance of this innovative methodology.