Recent Research on Technology to Protect against Natural Disasters

Abstract

Over the past few decades the frequency of serious natural disasters, i.e. large earthquakes, extreme meteorological phenomena (heavy rain bursts, tornados), volcanic eruptions, have become a source of concern. As such, it is necessary for the railways to take preventive action. This paper describes the characteristics of and how natural external forces have evolved over recent years, and will introduce recent progress made in the study of natural disasters. There is new research on innovative disaster prevention and reduction technology for railways focused on the resilience of railways against unknown large-scale natural disasters. This paper also outlines how this research is planned and organized.