DEVELOPMENT OF A LONG-TERM DATABASE ON FLOOD DAMAGES FROM 1900 TO 1965 IN JAPAN

Abstract

 Long-term records of flood damages are important for studying flood countermeasures and predicting future flood damages. Although the best record of flood damages in Japan is the Flood Statistics Survey started in 1961, there are no long-term statistics which record the magnitude, scale, area, and factors of flood before the survey. In this study, we developed a database on flood damages from 1900 to 1965 with using the flood records prepared by the local meteorological stations and others. This database is the most detailed and long-term records related flood damages in Japan. The results of the database analysis show that major flood events occurred between 1941 and 1945, which have not been recorded in the previous records, and the frequency and intensity of flood events have clearly increased since 1950s.