Host: Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
The devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 left more than 18 millions tons of debris in the stricken areas. Temporal storage of the debris had risks for the people who live in the surrounding areas. Especially wildfires burned many debris storage sites. In this study temperatures and gas components were observed by a thermography instrument and a portable landfill gas monitor at the debris storage sites of a devastated city in Iwate prefecture. Temperature and gas monitoring are essential for managing the risk of wildfire at a debris storage site. Temperature profiles and gas components at the debris storage sites are shown. It is assumed that the temperature elevations at the debris storage sites firstly resulted from aerobic biodegradation because significant concentrations of carbon dioxide were detected. An effective method for decreasing those high temperatures for wildfire prevention was digging those piled wastes for exposure to the air.
