Currently, the population of Kawasaki City is increasing, but it is predicted that it will reach its peak in 2030 and then decrease. Firstly, this paper quantitatively evaluates current regional building collapse risk of the city based on building inventory and ground amplification ratio and finds vulnerable districts which should be considered disaster risk reduction countermeasures. Then, it analyzes regional population trend using population data (1980-2055). Finally, it clarifies risk reduction effect due to removal of vacant houses in the 11 most vulnerable districts with Rank-5 of building collapse risk value.

At the time of disaster, to keep the level of bath-support in each region, it is hoped to utilize private institutions. Indeed, many local governments contract agreements with several private institutions to get their supports. However, it is suspicious whether they can behave as bath-supporters or not in the disaster. In this study, we focused on local public baths and accommodations, and gathered cases of their activities in past disasters or contract of agreements with local governments. We also estimated the amount of bath-supports supplied by private institutions, by simulation in the real region. Furthermore, we researched some problems about participation of private institutions and considered how to resolve them.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of geographic risk and local disaster memory on the disaster preparedness of residents in an area that had been severely damaged by floods in the past and had not experienced floods for more than 20 or 30 years. The results of the analysis showed that the disaster preparedness of residents and knowledge of past floods were related to the number of victims of past floods in the region. Also, Geographic risks were found to affect the disaster preparedness of residents, but the effect of elevation, which was the greatest risk, was small.

Typhoon Hagibis passed through Japan on October 12, 2019, brought heavy rainfalls over half of Japan, and resulted in flooding in wide areas. This study focuses on a flooded state-managed river, the Naka River, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. In this study, we conducted the field survey on October 28, 2019, after the typhoon passed. Additionally, a series of runoff analyses for the entire Naka River basin and inundation analyses for some sections of the Naka River were conducted. Comparing the results of numerical simulation with the inundated areas detected by aerial and satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, the accuracy of the numerical simulation was investigated. The maximum F value was 78.65%, and the simulated result broadly coincided with the inundated areas.

We studied the influence of the COVID-19 and countermeasure of enterprises in Miyagi prefecture. We carried out questionnaire survey to the companies, which presented some kind of countermeasures against COVID-19 in their Website. Additionally, we divided the responding companies into in Sendai City and out of Sendai City and compared amang these groups. We also conducted interview study on web conference system or on telephone to 19 enterprises which showed the intention that accepted our interview. We found out the influences of COVID-19 were various depending on the type of industries, and we could learn the tendency and hints for useful countermeasures to realize business continuity against infectious disease.

Reciprocal support becomes indispensable with frequent occurrence of large-scale disasters. “Pairing Assistance”, which was practiced in Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 by Chinese government, was referred to by Union of Kansai Governments during Great East Japan Earthquake. This is named “Counterpart Method” in Japan and based on it “ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications System” was established in 2018. By literature search and interviews, this paper researches the feature of this method and draws a conclusion that it is of great help in alleviating the lack of manpower in local government so as to better cope with disastrous situation.

In tsunami-prone areas, it is obligatory to make evacuation plans according to the actual conditions of the area and to carry out regular evacuation drills, however, it has become more difficult due to the weakening of local community associations according to various social change such as aging of residents. The aim of this study is to develop new method of evacuation drill by utilizing the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which reduce demerit which the existing other methods such as using application of smart phone, in order to make evacuation plan improve and create sustainability of evacuation drill by local community. This paper explains our evacuation drill system with BLE in comparison to other methods, and shows characteristics of our method through an application Toi Oyabu district of Izu City.

This study assessed the vulnerabilities of timber houses to debris flows based on the numerical analysis for typical two-story timber houses in order to discuss possibilities of vertical evacuation in the houses during debris flow disasters. Pushover analysis was performed to the models of three houses to obtain the lateral load capacity. Lateral loads of debris flows were calculated using the formulas for tsunami inundation. The results of the comparisons between the capacities and debris flow loads show that the houses were not collapsed for the debris flow depth of 0.7 m, but the houses would probably collapse for the depth in excess of 1.0 m. We also confirmed that the relationship obtained in this study almost agree with those obtained from the previous debris flow and tsunami disasters.

The number of housing relocation cases happening in advance to a predicted huge tsunami caused by the Nankai Trough Earthquake are increasing year by year. However, it is difficult to proceed due to the costs incurred from relocation, land securitization, and the consensus of building among residents. Focusing on Rikuzentakata city, which underwent a massive residential relocation to higher grounds after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, this paper estimates the cost for the advanced relocation of housing and public facilities based on the actual reconstruction projects in the city. As a result, relocation costs could have been reduced from 25% to 40% with the relocation scheme proposed in this study.

After an earthquake disaster, the transportation system may completely shut down in urban area, which is very dangerous for workers to go home. This problem may influence not only walking people to be injured because of congestion, but also rescue operation to delay. In this study, we define this possibility as risk of jam of walkers to go home. This risk is quantificated by simulation on the basis of the area of departure and destination of moving. As a result of the analysis, we evaluate which route of going home has higher risk of jam of walkers to go home. Also, it becomes clear that starting going home with a time difference and proper traffic regulation can reduce risk.

In this study, we collected disaster prevention education materials from all over Japan focusing on "guidance plans," and created 2,217 data with variables such as target disaster, subject, school type and grade, and learning contents. The data showed that current disaster prevention education programs are developed mainly for elementary and junior high schools, and that there is a lack of programs for learning about meteorological disasters and for understanding the phenomena and mechanisms of disasters. In addition, cluster analysis using variable of correspondence to the Courses of Study showed that the disaster prevention education plans could be classified into three perspectives and eight clusters, providing suggestions for the systematization of disaster prevention education programs in the future.

This study tries to analyze the reatlity of child-rear care labor of disaster affected families based on the case study of Mabi-cho, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, which was severely damaged by the heavy rain disaster of July 2018. The study analyzed child-rear care labor focusing on work flexibility and family structure, and revealed that both work flexibility and family structure affected child-reare care labor. Then it discussed necessity of supporting framework to reduce labor burden through self-support, community support and public support.

In order to mitigate the damage caused by serious disasters, it is necessary to improve the disaster prevention literacy of residents. In this study, a disaster risk communication method consisting of risk mapping and timeline development was developed to support residents' proactive disaster prevention activities by accumulating disaster information in a spatio-temporal manner. The risk map provided an understanding of the spatial distribution of disaster risks, and the timeline triggered a chain of self-help and mutual-help actions.

Nearly 10 years have passed since the 2011 Kii Peninsula flood, and assessing the disaster response at that time is crucial in assembling a future disaster response system. This study is based on a questionnaire and hearing survey of successive construction managers (heads of local agencies in Wakayama Prefecture), as a construction administration in charge of disaster recovery of public civil engineering facilities. It examines the situation judgments and decisions that are made in the field response of disaster recovery, clarifies whether they were undertaken, and considers the issues that should be utilized for future disaster response.

Under the Basic Act on Disaster Control Measures, mayors of municipalities are required to establish a list of the residents who need assistance for evacuation, but the list is not effectively used, and there are many cases of vulnerable residents affected by disasters. On the other hand, advanced municipalities have established their own ordinances to use the list effectively. In this study, we conducted a survey to clarify the design process of the system and operational issues for the use of the list by advanced municipalities. As a result, it was found that the advanced municipalities (1) solved the process problem by organizing cross-organizational teams, and (2) devised ways to obtain the consents of the persons in question and to provide the list to local groups.

This study clarified the actual activities and role consciousness of members of municipal council a disaster, and considered what kind of actions members should take in future disasters, and what kind of parliamentary system is necessary for this purpose. As a result, it was found that council members acted in multiple capacities a disaster, such as as a member of the council, a politician, or a member of the community, and that the activities that council members who were affected by the Osaka North Earthquake focused on a different for each councilor. In addition, we pointed out the necessity of a system for examining the individuality of council members during the initial response period before a disaster, and a system for discussing policies as a council after a disaster.

Hazard maps are useful information for residents to imagine damage and protect their lives and property. In this study, the map side of the hazard map was organized and analyzed from the viewpoint of design, and its features and problems were clarified. We classified flood and landslide hazard maps for Hyogo prefecture from a design perspective. For "representation", items were set and quantified based on Bertin's visual variables. Regarding the contents of the hazard map corresponding to the "plan", items were set and quantified based on national standards, and the hazard maps were classified into four types. As a result of the analysis, the proportions that meet the national standards were also different. As a whole, it was found that the awareness of map representation was low.

This paper examined the relationship between the characteristics of the structure of community units and the nature of residents’ participation in the reconstruction planning process with a comparative analysis through the practice of reconstruction projects in Machikata and Kirikiri district, Otsuchi Town. The results showed the characteristics of the community tended to take over after the reconstruction and pointed out the importance of reflecting the structure of community units with local connections sharing memories through activities to the setting of the participation process.

The number of volunteer firefighters has been decreasing year by year, and aging of members is also an issue. In order to analyze how to secure future members and how to improve activities of volunteer firefighters, a questionnaire survey of volunteer firefighters in three areas was conducted to find out how they joined, why they will leave, and whether or not they can attend disaster sites depending on the time of day. We conducted a comparative analysis of regional differences in the possibility of leaving volunteer firefighters in the near future and the likelihood of participating in a large-scale disaster, depending on social attributes such as age and employment status of them.

This study aims to develop a newly-developed measure, the Scale of Attitude toward Culture of Living with Disaster Risk (SAC-LDR). First, a pool items were designed by workshops. Second, sensitivity analysis with data before and after the interventions from two groups and a confirmatory factor analysis for construct validation were conducted. As a result, the SAC-LDR is consists of Factor 1: “home town love and disaster tradition” and Factor 2: “comprehension of blessings of nature and disaster risk acceptance” with 10 items. The scores of SAC-LDR was significantly increased before and after the program that intends relationship with disaster risk and blessings of nature with Kurikoma Geopartk contents. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of total items of SAC-LDR were from 0.804 to 0.861.

Climate change and intensified disaster risks are a global agenda in the 21st century. Exploring climate change adaptation, managed retreat (buyout) and elevation of the housing would be reasonable options for policy makers, though it is unclear what are the prerequisites and variables for the decision making. This study focuses on the analysis of how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) distributed their funds, Hazard Mitigation Assistance, to mitigate disaster risks before disaster strikes. This study used OpenFEMA Data Sets as a quantitative analysis and QGIS for spatial analysis. The results implied that recurrence of disasters, intensity, and costs would be the potential variables for the decision making, and the buyouts contributed to natural environmental conservation.

Typhoon No. 15 (Faxai) caused great damage to Chiba Prefecture. In this disaster, damage to lifelines such as power outages, water outages, and interruptions in telephone and mobile phones were severe. Furthermore, since the temperature was high immediately after the disaster, there was concern about health damage to the older adults. However, we hardly had known the disaster situation of the older adults at home. Therefore, we conducted a survey of the Community Comprehensive Support Center in order to clarify their damage situation. As a result, it became clear that power outages and interruptions in medical and long-term care services influence the continuation of home life for the older adults.

It is estimated that the earthquake fire caused by Tokyo metropolitan earthquake will cause enormous human damage. The fire spread is characterized by a transition from a state in which the flame is small to a state in which multiple buildings spread. In order to prevent residents from being damaged by the earthquake fire, it is important that they should know many types of emergency actions so that they can respond to changes in the fire spread situation, and select emergency actions according to the fire spread situation as appropriate. In this study, we examined the formation of flexible coping behavior recall as the residents worked on disaster prevention learning and considered the situation and emergency actions at the time of the earthquake fire.

In recent disasters, there have been many cases that people failed to escape despite evacuation advisories or did not make appropriate preparations in advance. One of the possible causes is the influence of cognitive bias. However, countermeasures against cognitive bias have not been developed in community disaster management. In this study, we developed a training tool in the form of web application software to overcome cognitive bias by acquiring knowledge about possible cognitive bias in response to volcanic disasters and discussing countermeasures with community members. The effectiveness of the tool was verified in workshops held in Fujiyoshida City. This training tool allows residents to conduct training on their own using a video conferencing system.

The objective of this study is to reveal the effect on disaster debris reduction by the decrease in the number of dwelling house based on the old earthquake resistance building standards. Using an estimation system of disaster debris amount that we developed, the quantity of disaster debris by the earthquake ground motion and tsunami inundation after the Nankai trough earthquake disaster from 2005 to 2018 was calculated. As a result, the amount of disaster debris were estimated at 327.5 million tons as of 2005, 208.0 million tons as of 2018. In addition, it was pointed out that the reduce of disaster debris after the Nankai trough earthquake disaster requires not only the dwelling house seismic retrofitting but also the comprehensive disaster mitigation against the tsunami inundation.

A questionnaire survey and comparative analysis was conducted among disaster-experienced local government officials and the General Advisers for Disaster Management (GADM) to clarify the characteristics of perceptions and behaviors of disaster management tasks. As a result of the survey, it was clarified that disaster-experienced local government officials have the higher tendency to think that each element of disaster management task is an action mainly taken by themselves, than support staffs. The characteristics of the disaster management process followed by disaster-management experts were extracted.

This study investigates how to utilize Disaster Memorial Facilities in the affected area by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake to pass on the disaster effectively. We conducted an Internet survey among visitors and non-visitors to the affected area (N=1,775). The results can be summarized as follows. 1) Visitors who have never visited the affected area for learning purposes also visit Disaster Memorial Facilities. 2) Visitors expect to learn about disaster response, recovery, and reconstruction after the disaster, but these expectations have not been fully met. 3) The 46 facilities can be classified into four groups based on the visitor’s purpose and the effect on promoting disaster preparedness. Some facilities are effective in promoting disaster preparedness even though many of visitors are non-learning visitors.

It is important to set safety limits for residents’ disaster activities such as early fire extinguishing in order to prevent failing them to escape from an urban fire on post-earthquake fire. In this paper, we introduced a basic study on a method for determining the safety limit timing of residents’ evacuation using real-time evacuation guidance model, which considering incomplete fire information. First, we defined the safety limit time based on the evacuation time of critical. Second, we proposed two probabilistic methods for determining the evacuation start time as a measure to prevent losing the safety limit timing, which are connectivity evaluation of evacuation network based on fire information and precalculation of probability distribution of critical time.

An infectious disease pandemic is one of the biggest risks of business continuity management for profit companies. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey for listed companies in the Kinki region to analyze the response and challenges to the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As a result, before the outbreak of the COVID-19, less than 40% of the companies had a plan to deal with infectious diseases. In the COVID-19 pandemic, "lack of masks and disinfectants" and "lack of information on infectivity and virulence" were indicated as major challenges in response. The outbreak triggered changes in the way employees work, such as telecommuting, staggered work hours, and alternative commuting, in order to prevent infection.

A lot of urban landslide disaster in Japan is caused by social problem that developed through urbanization during 1960-1970s. In this study, the methodology of regional disaster prevention workshop enhancing adaptation capacity to the landslide disaster in the hilly-suburb community was developed for K district in Hachioji City, Tokyo, and the discussion contents in the workshop was analyzed.

In our country, emergency transportation roads have been designated for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of goods, personnel, etc., including evacuation and rescue. In this study, we will investigate how to set up a road network that complements emergency roads and connects necessary places. Specifically, assuming a situation where a vehicle loaded with relief supplies visits multiple evacuation shelters, a mathematical planning model is built to clarify how the complementary roads should be established in order for such operations to be carried out effectively. Next, we will apply this model to an analysis of central Tottori city and consider the effectiveness of the proposed method through a case study.

This study focuses on child-rearing care support for the people who suffered by floods. In case houses are affected by floods, people have to cleanup, dry and repair houses. People have to evacuate shelters or temporary houses until their own home repair finish. The change of living environment sometime causes difficulty in balancing works, household works and parenting works. The study analyzes child-rearing work balance focusing work allocation among family, government support and community support through case study of Mabi Town, Kurashiki City, Japan which suffered by the 2018 July heavy rain disaster. It tries to identify post-disaster parenting work balance problems and discusses how to balance those works.

In this paper, we propose “kata” (Japanese reading of “form of essence”) of facilitation of community, based disaster management activities, based on a literature survey and an interview survey with experts involved in developing disaster prevention plans in several local communities. In particular, first, based on reports on domestic efforts and research about solution of local problems, we propose “kata” to promote disaster prevention activities of local communities. Next, we describe a semi-structured interview survey with the experts. Finally, based on the survey results, we confirm that “kata” proposed in this paper can explain their actual facilitation process.

The purpose of this study is to present a framework for training development to promote cooperation between organizations in local governments, and to consider the process and development results of training development conducted at the Aichi-Nagoya Resilience Co-creation Center. As a result of this examination, the effectiveness of participation from the initial stage of the examination of local government officials and step-by-step trials was clarified, but it became clear that it was necessary to incorporate the method in actual implementation in the local government.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of disaster risk communication workshops participation on disaster risk reduction literacy that were held in Onoji and Itoshima cities. The subjects consisted of those who responded to the post-workshop surveys (n=321). Propensity score analyses were performed to infer the causal effects on the disaster risk reduction literacy. The results showed that full workshop participation significantlly improved workshop participants' understanding of threats. The risk of non-balanced analysis and the efficacy of propensity score balancing were discussed.

In the GEJE, the mortality rate of people with disabilities (PWD) was more than doubled in Miyagi Prefecture, where the normalization was advanced and widely practiced. The root cause of their high mortalities lies in the siloization of normal time social services and emergency time operations. The fundamental solution is to seamlessly connect those two silos. In order to break through the situation, the existence of the “inclusion manager” is important as a role that connects multiple stakeholders. In this study, data from interviews with high-performing inclusion managers were repeatedly validated using data interactive methods.

The authors conducted the structural equation modeling based on the questionnaire survey to municipalities, in order to reveal causal relations between the disaster response by local government utilizing resources within affected regions and “universalization”, “boundary crossing” and “cooperation” before disaster. The results are as follows; firstly, “cooperation” is a parameter of “boundary crossing”. Secondary, “universalization” and “boundary crossing” have relations to “maximization of resource within affected regions” and “optimization of organizational management”during a disaster. Finally, this paper shows specific elements of “universalization” and “boundary crossing”.

The purpose of this study is to attempt to develop a measurement scale based on the theoretical model of bosai literacy. When the model is repeatedly disproved and the most robust model is accepted as a theory, the scale will be used as a standardized measurement scale. As a first step toward this goal, this study attempts to develop a scale to measure bosai literacy in a way that follows the construct validation paradigm. In order to examine the results internally, a field survey was conducted in Tajiri-cho, Osaka Prefecture. As a result, we succeeded in developing a scale with reliability that can withstand continuous use.

In this study, the geographical and spatial characteristics of pachinko in Nagoya City were examined by focusing on the utilization of idle private facilities in case of disasters from the viewpoint of increasing the evacuation space. As a result, 1) Pachinko is evenly distributed over the entire area and has a spatial distribution of the walking distance. 2) The capacity has a mutually complementary distribution characteristic according to the regional conditions, and efficient disaster response is possible through mutual cooperation and division of roles. 3) Many pachinkos are directly connected to high-standard road links and have good accessibility. 4) In the southwestern and northeastern regions of Nagoya City, the level of service that can support evacuation life in the event of a disaster is high. From these results, the linkage model between evacuation base facilities was proposed.

To identify the appropriate interval for tsunami evacuation guidance signs, experiments in a university campus with students and faculty members were conducted. Using a 500m stretch of main street at the campus as a tsunami evacuation route, we investigated how far subjects would continue to follow instructions on signs and where they would get anxious after passing the signs. By analyzing behaviors of the subjects, the following conclusions were obtained. (1) There is no necessity to consider the subject's distance evaluation when determining the interval of the signs. (2) There is little need to consider the guiding distance when determining the interval of the signs. (3) It is desirable to place signs at intervals of 150m to 200m even if evacuation route continues to go straight.

During heavy rainfall disasters, local municipalities face difficulties in decision making regarding evacuation, though they are required to provide the residents with accurate information. Due to its wide range of interpretation, the guidelines for evacuation by the Japanese Government cannot always be applicable for actual cases across Japan. Each municipality relies on local administrators’ empirical knowledge, resulting in non-objective decisions to evacuate. The vulnerability, consisting of calculating disaster risk and hazard, stems from administrators’ experiences. We present an innovative way to assess accurate evacuation times for disaster preparedness and present time limits in a form that can be used by local government officials for decision making.

The Northern Osaka Earthquake occurred during the morning rush-hour (7:58 a.m., June 18, 2018). As the results, a huge number of stranded people had emerged in the urban area. A huge earthquake may occur directly beneath the Tokyo Metropolitan area and paralyze the transportation network in the future. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of the evacuation site designation policy promoted by Tokyo Metropolitan government against urban fires that might occur in the event of a major earthquake by estimating the number of evacuees including stranded people and analyzing the effective area per person to refuge at evacuation sites. It was clarified that several evacuation sites didn't have sufficient capacity to ensure more than 1 m2 per person.

In recent years, large-scale disasters have occurred every year in various parts of the country owing to heavy rains. Therefore, the needs for the disaster mitigation and evacuation plans are increasing. The means of developing an evacuation plan include a planning workshop, which has been accomplished by many local governments in recent years. Regarding this effect, it is believed that an evaluation is necessary in the future. Therefore, this study aims to grasp the effects and problems through a workshop for refuge strategy examination.