2018 Volume 83 Issue 747 Pages 877-884
This paper is a continuation of the study examining the possibility of approximately 70,000 temples nationwide complementing emergency place and/or evacuation shelters expected to be in shortage when many disaster-affected residents appear during widespread disasters.
In response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Basic Act on Disaster Control Measures is being partially amended and regional disaster prevention plans are being revised in terms of both hard and soft aspects such as evacuation measures and designation of evacuation shelters in municipalities nationwide in light of the importance of the roles of a diverse range of entities within the community in the event of a large-scale widespread disaster. However, major disasters forcing many residents to be evacuated for a prolonged period have been experienced in various regions since then, and widespread disasters could occur anywhere in Japan in the future.
It is not easy to secure evacuation shelters with sufficient capacity assuming the evacuation of a large number of residents in the areas covered by all local governments.
The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of local governments designating temples as emergency place and/or evacuation shelters, and to present observations on the possibility of temple utilization to compensate for the shortage of emergency place and/or evacuation shelters when widespread disasters occur.
1. Temples are designated most at 25% by local governments assumed for Tsunami disaster specially located at coastal region.
2. The most common reason for a temple to be designated as an emergency place and/or evacuation shelters is because it is located on high ground and other reasons include being used for a long time in the past when disasters occurred, no facilities existing in the same district, and demand from neighboring residents.
3. Many local governments do not fully understand the potential of residents being in temples.
4. Even though some local governments could house the assumed number of people in the designated shelters, one third of them either did not confirm the distance from residents or still have some residents living at radius of 4 kilometers or more.
5. One third of the temples within the local government region that have decided to use public facilities as evacuation shelters are located in districts without public facilities.
Considering evacuating on foot, it is preferable that these shelters are located within 2 kilometers, and some temples are closer to houses than public facilities. The number of local governments that have designated or agreed with temples doubled after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Examining the current disaster prevention measures in each local government and gaining knowledge for the improvement of shortfalls of evacuation shelters including temples are believed to be an important perspective for widespread disasters expected to occur in the future.
