Evaluation Method of Natural Disasters Prevention Performance of Social Infrastructure and Facility in Urban Areas

Abstract

Ensuring urban safety against natural disasters is of utmost importance. We, therefore, conducted research on a mitigation technology against earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tidal waves, fires, and sediment disasters around urban areas. We aim to develop an evaluation method of disaster prevention performance and an evaluation index for disaster prevention in order to effectively execute risk management within a city. Further, we aim to develop a method to build an urban disaster prevention plan that acts as a countermeasure against all types of natural disasters. The estimation of disaster prevention performance using risk index is defined as the product of the frequency of occurrence of natural disasters and a potential of disaster prevention in the area. The disasters prevention performance of an area is defined as the total sum of potential for disaster prevention against all the disasters likely to occur in that area. It is possible to compare multiple disasters by calculating the expected annual loss resulting from each disaster. To illustrate an example of the research, this study explains a method for evaluating the damage to road facilities in order to maintain a functional road network when an earthquake occurs.