Abstract
Coastal forests have received much attention for their concurrent benefits for environment and tsunami disaster protection. This study has surveyed coastal forests in Japan from viewpoints of tsunami barrier functions.Using detailed land maps and satellite images,their topographic properties,such as altitude,distance from the shoreline, growth areas,etc.are investigated. Next, for each area of the selected coastal forests, the expected tsunami run-up heights which were published by the central and local governments are surveyed. Based on both aspects of the land altitude properties and tsunami vulnerabilities, assessments on the expected tsunami reduction ability of the coastal forests have been performed.
