The Construction of the Historical Disaster Evidence Database and its Effectiveness

Abstract

Evidence of past earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods has been discovered during archaeological excavations. The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (hereafter referred to as “NABUNKEN”) has been constructing and releasing the “Historical Disaster Evidence Database” constructed upon Geographic Information System (GIS; hereafter referred to as “HDE-GISdb”) by compiling disaster evidence information from excavation sites throughout Japan. Through this initiative, we aim to build an information infrastructure that will facilitate not only the elucidation of disaster occurrence mechanisms and local disaster histories but also disaster prevention and mitigation research. This paper discusses the effectiveness of HDE-GISdb using a case study of the Palace and Capital of Nagaoka sites in Kyoto Prefecture to visualize potential hazards, which cannot be read from topography, by disaster evidence recorded in Holocene and Pleistocene deposits.