Cable sensor is considered to have a distinctive characteristic to be able to extend a monitoring area for rock failure or rock fall detection. In this study, it was studies if the impact point of fallen rock to rock shed could be evaluated two dimensionally and if the weight of a fallen rock could be evaluated from the measured signals, and characteristics of wave forms of cable sensor was analyzed comparatively with those of accelerometer. Where, cable sensors of 21 strings were stretched in grid pattern of the internal surface of a rock shed of practical scale. Moreover, functions of newly developed signal transmission system using mobile multimedia network was examined. From these field studies, following points have been made clear:
1) Cable sensor can be used insted of accelermeter for rock failure and rock fall detection when high accuracy in not required. 2) Impact point caused by a weight dropping can be evaluated from rise time of wave forms, from amplitudes of wave forms and also from topography drawn using peak values of wave forms. 3) Order of the weight can be estimated from the amplitude of wave forms. 4) Sensitivity decreases when the length of a cable sensor becomes longer than several meter. But it was confirmed that enough sensitivity could be obtained when the length was longer than 100m. 5) It can be said that signal transmission system using mobile multimedia network can be used practically, because data transmission time from the impact initiation to the final displays of transmitted wave forms and topography on a remote computer is within only three minutes.

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Accurate determination of the permeability of hydraulically-tight rock at great depth is very important for the design and/or assessment of facilities associated with many kinds of underground utilization or exploitation. One of the promising ways to test a rock specimen having such low permeability is to use gas such as air as the permeant. Because the viscosity of air is much lower than that of water, air permeates through a hydraulically-tight specimen of rock more readily than water. In this study, we developed a new laboratory permeability test system. This system is capable of testing low permeability rocks either by the constant pressure air permeation test or by the constant-flow air permeation test under high confining pressure conditions that simulate ground pressures at depths. The system was used to test Shirahama sandstone and Inada granite, which are two types of rock widely available in Japan. In order to investigate the effects of anisotropy on rock permeability, specimens cored parallel to and perpendicular to bedding for sandstone, and specimens cored in the direction perpendicular to Rift Plane, Grain Plane and Hardway Plane for granite, were used. In addition, a series of test conditions were set so that the effects of test method, permeation or entrance pressure, specimen size and confining pressure on gas permeability of rocks can be assessed. Preliminary results of present study show that: (1) air permeation tests, especially the constant-pressure air permeation test can be effectively used to measure the permeability of a hydraulically-tight specimen of rock as low as that of granite; (2) the permeability of a rock specimen is a function of the confining pressure, it decreases monotonously with increase in confining pressure. Under the tested conditions with increment of confining pressure from 1MPa to 69MPa, the gas permeabilities of Shirahama sandstone and Inada granite ranged from 9.4×10^-16 to 7.4×10^-17 and 5.2×10^-18 to 8.0×10^-20 (m²), respectively; (3) Inada granite in particular appears to exhibit hydraulic anisotropy. The permeability in the direction perpendicular to Rift Plane along which major microcracks exist demonstrates the lowest value. In other words, the permeability in the direction along the plane of microcracks is higher than that in the direction perpendicular to the plane of microcracks.

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Relationship between damage of buildings caused by Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake and landforms, and relationship between the damage of buildings and ages of residential development are investigated on Takarazuka City. Distributions of the damage of buildings, the landforms and the ages of residential development are overlaid using GIS. Ratio of the damaged residential area to whole residential area in each landform and the similar ratio in each age of residential development are calculated. Another kind of damage measure corresponding to the ratio is also estimated using regression coefficient by quantification method of the first type. The former calculation is to handle landforms and ages of residential development independently, and the latter is to handle them simultaneously.
From the evaluation of the ratios and their 95% confidence interval, landforms in order of frequency of all the levels of damages are middle terrace, low terrace, artificial reformation area of lowland, alluvial fan, alluvial plain, mountain, artificial reformation area of mountain and hill, and natural levee. Landforms in order of frequency of heavy damages are the first group of alluvial fan and low terrace, the second group of artificial reformation area of lowland and middle terrace, and the third group of natural levee, mountain and artificial reformation area of mountain and hill. The order of all levels of damages and the order of heavy damages are different. Furthermore damages are more frequent in middle terrace, low terrace and alluvial fan with firmer ground than alluvial plain and natural levee of alluvial area with softer ground. Deposits of landforms and geologic structure seem important factors of these results.
As for the ages of residential development, it is clear that the damages tend to less frequent in newer residential areas than older one.

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The Equotip hardness tester made in Switzerland is one of the testers developed so as to understand elastic properties and strengths of metallic materials. It is picked up as the characteristics of the tester that a small sample is needed for the test, sampling time is short, and the tester is convenient for portable use. In case of applying the tester to an actual rock structure and a lithic cultural heritage whose shape is complex, it is therefore expected that the tester is able to measure rapidly toward all test directions in the field.
For the purpose of newly developing an evaluation method for rock materials using the tester, this paper reports on especially two objects such as (1) investigations on the effects of test conditions (considerations on the size, shape and roughness of rock samples), and (2) investigations on fundamental properties of unweathered rock samples (considerations on the relationships to physical and mechanical properties).

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