In 2012 Jan, a newspaper reported that “an inner-plate earthquake of M. 7 class will occur with probability 70% in 4 years, according scientific findings”. Other mass media followed the news, but they put an inner-plate earthquake as a specific earthquake whose epicenter is located under Tokyo Bay. The latter information was incorrect.
An inner-plate earthquake in the first news was not specific one. That means one which can occur anywhere in Tokyo metropolitan region. In general, strong shaking area by an inner-plate earthquake is limited to inside area of a circle with radius 20km at maximum. Therefore, in case of an earthquake enough far away from a specific point, there will be no damage. Probability 70% in 4 years includes all earthquakes. It is different from probability on the earthquake under Tokyo Bay and from probability which a specific point shakes. This series of reports can be said to make social awareness of disaster higher, and to contribute to promote disaster countermeasures.
At the same time, I can point out that it has negative effect. The correct scientific knowledge was not diffused to society. The contribution is not a reason of discharge. Ideally the situation to promote disaster prevention measures by correct scientific knowledge should be realized.
In this paper, I explain the difference of two probabilities from the original and information by the following mass media and demonstrate the relation of probabilities of “occurrence of an inner-plate earthquake” and “shaking of a specific point in Tokyo metropolitan region” mathematically. Finally I discuss how the information should be published.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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This paper analyzed implementation of building damage assessment of local govenments after The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Authors conducted questionnaire survey for local governments which are carry out the building damage assessment. As a result of questionnaire suevey, duration of assessment is effected by some factors which are damage level and so on. On the other hand, alomost local governments does not carry out the pre training of building damage assessment.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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More than one year has elapsed from the occurrence of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, various academic societies has made a variety of activities such as survey of affected areas, support for affected people, and the originator of the proposal. In this study, the authors analyze the trend of contents such as results of activities related to the 2011 Great East japan Earthquake academic societies has published to the web and proposals of Science Council of Japan from the point of view of disaster prevention.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Damage to timber school buildings in Great East Japan earthquake was reported.
Some school buildings using old timber construction were reported to have a partial collapse, cracks of outer walls. School buildings using laminated timber construction only experienced minor damage to the concrete foundation and the end of steel bracings. A large amount of damage due to ground deformation and the liquefaction occurred.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In the Tohoku Earthquake Disaster 2011, the tremendous efforts were required to understand the liquification damage in the vast area. For the future, the automated and standardized approach to detect the liquification damage is expected. In this study, several approaches to detect the sand boil caused by liquification were examined. The high resolution satellite images such as World-View-2 which were taken before and after the disaster were used. The image was classified based on both the pixels and the objects, using Clustering, Decision-Tree and Maximum Likelihood methods. The result showed that Maximum Likelihood method based on the object oriented image was most effective to detect the sand boil.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Despite its immediate need, evaluating tsunami damage proves to be difficult due to the vast affected area. Debris in a high resolution optical image of tsunami affected area as well as digital elevation models were used to estimate the inundated area. This paper shows how the usage of remote sensing technologies can help to promptly estimate tsunami damage.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Men and Women often have different needs for lives after disaster. This tendency led to various social problems during the phase of emergency response and recovery/reconstruction after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, although the same problems have been reported since the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. In this paper, issues on how to consider gender problems in emergency response were classified. Then future issues were discussed based on the survey data both on the difference between residents' needs by gender and actual governmental response after the earthquake.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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We develop a novel method for analysing SNS messages by Self-Organizing Maps and Hidden Markov Models. Firstly, we were classified articles on the basis of occurrences of words by Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). Then, we determined topics on the SOM from the Z-score of word occurances in each node. Finally, we applied Hidden Markov Models to messgame sequences in each user. As results, five topics were obtained and the fluctuation of topics was visualized.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this paper, we propose a novel visualization method for large amount of text data which are related to a big disaster such as the Great East Japan Earthquake. Firstly, we were classified articles on the basis of occurrences of words by Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). Then, we determined topics on the SOM from the Z-score of word occurances in each node. Six topics were extracted from 14019 articles of the Great East Japan Earthquake.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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The magnitude 9.0 Tohoku Earthquake, subsequent tsunami along the Pacific seaboard of Japan, and ensuing nuclear crisis have reinforced the importance of clear and timely communication of disaster-related information for mitigating long-term negative impacts and working towards recovery. For people living in Japan, however, this disaster has been one of confusing and conflicting messages from differing information sources. In order to improve the dissemination of information after future disasters, a survey investigation was conducted to understand how people in the Kanto region received their disaster-related information and how it affected their decisions in the aftermath of the disaster. This paper compares the results of Japanese and foreigners and discusses some initial impressions of the disaster information gathering behavior and post-disaster actions.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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After the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake, people living in Japan were faced with confusing and conflicting messages from differing information sources which created an atmosphere of uncertainty and led many people, particularly foreigners, to relocate to western Japan or leave the country entirely. In order to improve the dissemination of information after future disasters, a survey was conducted to understand how foreigners in the Kanto region received their disaster-related information and how it affected their decisions in the aftermath of the disaster. Through the survey, it was found that the role of domestic information sources versus overseas information sources could have contributed to the confusion foreign respondents experienced and led to their relocation or evacuation from Japan.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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During the 2011 Thai flood, people searched for information regarding the disaster to better understand the situation and make decisions or preparations regarding whether to evacuate their homes or businesses.
However, many people experienced information-related difficulties such as incorrect or conflicting reports, false rumors, congestion in networks such as hotlines, and so forth. In order to improve information dissemination in the future, a survey was conducted to understand how people collected their disaster information. This paper analyzes the results from the perspective of income level in order to propose effective information dissemination considering the difference in quality of living-related factors.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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People in the northeastern part of Thailand have been affected by floods, storms, landslides and drought, resulting in delayed economic development and social problems. In order to address these issues, we hope to propose a disaster information dissemination system for improving local communitys’ disaster response ability in rural and agricultural mountainous areas where support from the national and local governments cannot be expected. To clarify the current problems and needs at the local community level, we conducted a field investigation using Loei Province as a study area. This article summarizes the outline of the whole project.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In order to design and develop a disaster information dissemination system, localization based on current local conditions and needs should be carefully considered. To clarify the current problems and needs at the local community level, we conducted a field investigation using Loei Province as a study area. First, we interviewed provincial and district officers in charge of disaster management in the region to clarify the flow of disaster information from the national government to the local community. We then organized consultation workshops in two villages in order to understand the current means of disaster information collection and what systems are desirable in the future.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In these days, rapid development of geospatial technology including web-mapping and social networks makes people possible to obtain various types of disaster information. However, it is difficult to obtain such information with a same means for people in rural mountainous areas lagging behind from urban area. In addition, it may be possible that those people cannot understand or utilize sufficiently on the information. Therefore, this report presents a result of questionnaire survey conducted to understand required disaster information and its dissemination means for local community in rural mountainous area.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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At the time of Thai great flooding 2011, enormous amount of disaster information was disseminated even only by web-mapping utilizing crowd sourcing from network communities, mash-up, and social network services (SNS). This report presents the dissemination and sharing of the information during flooding and shows the possibility to understand the people's demands on it by regarding their awareness via use of SNS. In addition, actual way of road information gathering for web mapping and future improvements are described through interview to Department of highways, Ministry of Transport.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this paper, the authors summarized disaster management for typhoon Talas of three municipalities in southern part of Wakayama prefecture by interviews of personnel. As a result, the following three points became clear. Residents understand the facilities with the aim of disaster mitigation have the ability to reduce the impact of disaster. It is necessary to multiplex the communication network such as utilization of telecommunications infrastructure and services. Municipalities need public relations which people can decide evacuation before it gets dark without fear of going to waste.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this study, the authors summarized current situation and the problems of priority of road recovery at Kii peninsula. The authors interviewed the officials of road recovery at Typhoon Talas. They were the officials of three prefectures at Kii peninsula (Mie, Nara, and Wakayama). As a result, the following three points became clear. Three prefectures had made their own policy of road recovery. There were events which affected not only emergency recovery work but also traffic management. The prior consideration is required on the response to the isolated area/village.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this paper, the authors organized the reality and problems of disaster information dissemination system on Loei province (Thailand) from the perspective of “planning and output of disaster information”, “disaster information generation flow” and “disaster information distribution flow”. Furthermore, issues and improvements of disaster information dissemination system on Loei province were revealed in comparison with the case of disaster management for typhoon Talas of three municipalities in southern part of Wakayama prefecture from the view point of “multiplexing communication network” and “early evacuation before dark”.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Recently, local governments recognize the importance of distributing information using social media during large-scale disaster. But, effective social media operation procedure is not built. The purpose of this study is to examine the effective distributing information for local governments using social media during large-scale disaster. Then the authors conducted interview survey for three organizations and a private operator of social media. Furthermore, characteristics and problems of social media operator is arranged. As a result of this study, the authors suggest the guideline of social media for local governments, and proposed the solutions of the problems of social media operation procedure.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Area-mail by mobile phones is becoming one of the important communication tools during disaster. When a Typhoon No.12 passed Kagawa Prefecture in September 2011, local governments provided evacuation information to the residences by area-mails. This paper conducted a survey for the residences and revealed how they received and responded to the information. Positive answers were predominant although it was the first opportunity for them to receive area-mails. However, some problems such as expression in the mails related to the necessity of evacuation were obtained.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In recent years, it is reported that the Koto Delta Area in Tokyo including areas whose elevation are lower than sea level has the risk of large-scale flood. In this paper, considering both inland and wide-area evacuation according to the traffic condition and possible walking distance, we estimated the number of people who should evacuate to evacuation centers using GIS data of flood, population distribution and building inventory. And then, we evaluated the capacity in each area and the possible use of existing public or private buildings as additional evacuate centers. Finally, we discussed necessary approaches to prepare appropriate evacuation centers.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Land-use change is one of the major factors that alter local and regional hydrology. A land-use forecast model to simulate deforestation and urbanization sites was developed in GIS based on local land-use change trends. The model was applied to 2003 land-use to forecast 2033 land-use. The entire approach from land-use forecast could help local stakeholders understand watershed-wide future water resources risks and develop future water resources plans. The Sekong, Sesan, and Srepok (3S) Sub-basins, a part of the Lower Mekong River Basin including land in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam, were used as a study area.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In this study, Simulation Exercise of Emergency Response Headquarter Management by Objectives (SEMO) is developed. The purpose of SEMO is to perform and learn how to manage an emergency response headquarter. Participants of SEMO follow the whole situation of the crisis event from fragmented information, develop action plan based on the strong objectives of the organization, and conduct strategic public relations to realize objectives. The basic model of SEMO consists of five stages; orientation, team meeting, exercise, press conference, and evaluation. To design a real exercise, the basic model is customized based on constrained conditions, characteristics of participants, the object of exercise, and time for exercise.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Estimation of inundation forest caused by seasonal change of water level of Amazon river is important for research of forest biomass. Y. Sawada developed program remove cloud effect from Terra/MODIS data and made land cover mapping product. but the accuracy of this land cover mapping product is not evaluated. In this research ALOS/PALSAR data is analyzed by using object base classification method and are of inundated forest is estimated. then evaluated accuracy of land cover mapping product made from Terra/MODIS data by Y. Sawada.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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To monitor the loss of Cambodian forest, we used the MODIS Land cover classification map set , from 2001 to 2010. From the MODIS map, we detected the change of evergreen broad-leaved forest and semi evergreen forest. So based on Cambodian forest cover map (2002, using aerial photo and ground survey) , we detected the change of these forest. And we estimated that 5.75% of these forest were declined. It means that forest area lost 1.67% of the total land area.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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A solution for improvement of the productivity of forest is an efficient management of individual tree in forest. In this paper, we proposed a new forest inventory method using a terrestrial LiDAR that used in survey field widely. By means of the terrestrial LiDAR, the shape of individual trees in wide area may be measured within short time. As the result of this approach, characteristics of each individual tree may be estimated effectively. Therefore, we developed an estimation method of the diameter of trunk of individual trees, and moreover developed a visualization system of the results for easy understanding. The details are as the follows; firstly, DEM was generated from the measured LiDAR data. Secondarily, the diameter of trunk of individual trees at specific height was estimated by a fitting circle generated from an arc-shaped point cloud. Finally, the estimated diameter and DEM were visualized in 3D space. As the result of an analysis, the estimated diameters under canopy height were almost good well. On the other hand, the estimated diameters near tree crown and inside crown had errors. The reason was contamination of point cloud derived from branches or leaves. Although it needs improving the estimation method for the reduction of errors, the results indicate that the developed method was useful for the forest inventory. Moreover, the result indicated that location of a terrestrial LiDAR was quite important for an efficient management of individual tree in forest.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Steel pipe piles of open-type wharf are generally located in severe corrosion environment. To keep the structural performance of steel pipe piles, corrosion protective coating system is generally applied to the piles located in splash and tidal zone. The authors have tried to develop the new protective coating system which has high durability and impact-resistant performance using Ultra High Performance Strain Hardening Cementations Composites (UHP-SHCC). In this study, the influences of loading speeds and fiber mixing rates on the impact resistance of UHP-SHCC were experimentally investigated.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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This paper discusses the methodology on performance assessment of un-reinforced concrete coastal structures with cracks. Inspection on un-reinforced concrete parapets has been conducted to measure crack widths, depths and length. Based on the inspection, an equation to estimate a crack depth from its width was proposed. Subsequently, an un-reinforced concrete parapet was modelled with various crack patterns by using the proposed equation considering the dimension of the structure. A finite element analysis was carried out to identify the relationship between crack patterns and structural performance of un-reinforced concrete parapet.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Ultra high strength fiber reinforced concrete (UFC) has high ductility, strength and durability compared to general concrete. When steel fiber in UFC is corroded, however, those excellent performance may be lost. The objectives of this study are to experimentally investigate the tensile performance of UFC after crack occurrence. As the results, corrosion of steel fibers and chloride ion penetration in UFC without an initial crack are not observed. On the other hand, more corrosion products on steel fiber are detected near the surface of seawater when UFC has a wider initial crack. It was also made clear that corrosion of steel fibers increases tensile stress carried by the UFC regardless of the initial crack width.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Internal erosion of the soil usually accompanies loosened soil around it. The degree and area of the loosening are dependent on the type of soil. In uniform sand, soil around the internal cavity expands and a lot of voids develop in the loosened area. On the other hand, for sand with fines, fine particles escape between coarse grains.
In this study, loosening in the uniform sand was simulated and the mechanical properties of loosened sand were evaluated by triaxial testing.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Internal erosion causes various ground disaster such as cave-in accident, slope failure and etc., which is supposed to happen due to water penetration under the ground with severe rainfall. Especially in well-graded material, initially finer particles flow out and this flow makes drained water turbid, which has been considered as a warning of the ground failure. However, relationship between turbidity of drained water and internal erosion is not very clear. In this research, characteristics of internal erosion were evaluated from turbidity of drained soil by one dimensional column test.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Local soil collapse due to the rise of air pressure in a subsurface cavity or trapped air bubble is investigated. Considering that the most of the shallow ground is unsaturated, air may play an important role in the ground failure phenomenon. The air can be trapped in the ground due to sudden water inflows when surface ground is saturated by rainfalls.
In this study, local failure was observed in the soil specimen when the pore air was trapped between saturated soil layers and the air pressure was elevated.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Elastic wave tomography using bender elements was conducted to evaluate stress distribution in a model ground. Bender element method has been widely applied in laboratory soil element testing such as triaxial test, oedmeter test, or direct shear test. When BEs are used in a model test, it was found that the signal processing was essential to obtain clearer waveforms as the amplitude of received signal was not large enough due to generally lower level of confining stress. The effects of chamber side wall should be also taken into account in the arrangement of the elements location. In a densely compacted model ground in a trapdoor testing soil chamber, the distribution of stress in the ground was estimated using tomography technique and it agreed well with the results of physically measured stresses at the base and shear planes observed.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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To reduce the reinforcement congestion, mechanical anchorage is becoming popular in use instead of conventional hook rebar. However the behavior of mechanical anchorage placed in thin cover zone is not well understood, and the use of this is still limited. In previous research, the pull-out test of rebar with mechanical anchorage placed in thin cover was conducted, and the anchorage performance was investigated. In this study, the discrete analysis method was used to investigate the performance of mechanical anchorage, and pull-out test in previous research was modeled. The result shows that analysis could be simulated the crack pattern similar to observed one. And the crack concentrated more at the anchor plate when the number of transverse bar was small, because the stress level of contribution of anchor plate was increase.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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PVA-ECC is a high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite that has superior tensile ductility. Due to the absence of coarse aggregate, however, it was found that cracks in PVA-ECC are susceptible to shear. The possible use of coarse aggregate had been demonstrated to increase the resistance of the cracks to shear. In this research, shear beam tests which represented multi-directional stress field were demonstrated to investigate the behavior of PVA-ECC which contained coarse aggregate under static and fatigue loading. From the experiments, a comparable or slight increase in static shear capacity can be expected at structural member level, with a possible of significant fatigue life extension. Furthermore, effective role of aggregate can be investigated from measurement of opening and sliding behavior of main crack.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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The effect of a fire detector in decreasing the detection time against arson occurring outdoors was examined using 63,179 incidents obtained from the Fire Report Database. The 90 percent confidence intervals of the bootstrap distribution of the median time required to call the authorities were calculated for each combination of the following categories: years, type of fire, and municipalities. These categories were reclassified into five groups. The reduction effect, which was defined as one minute less than the median detection time, was estimated, as shown in Table. 4; it was inversely proportional to the size of municipalities.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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These days, the terms of “resilience” and “vulnerability” are often used in the fields of climate change, natural disaster etc. These terms are the concepts for representing why and how a system responds to disturbance, but they might bring confusion because the definitions of them are various. This paper reviews the progress and various definitions of two concepts which have been developed in academic fields in English speaking world. Additionally, it implies that the elements of resilience and vulnerability, like “exposure”, “sensitivity” and so on, explain why and how a system responds to disturbance.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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In 2007, the EU has adopted a new Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks. Under the Directive, Member States shall prepare flood hazard maps and flood risk maps by 22 December 2013.This paper will show, for just a preliminary survey, typical examples of hazard maps and risk maps in European countries according to the map types: flood extent maps, flood depth maps, maps displaying other flood parameters, flood danger maps, flood risk maps (qualitative and quantitative), referring to the Atlas of Flood Maps in the EXCIMAP which was updated on 23 February 2012.[This abstract is not included in the PDF]

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Framework substitution of silica into high-valence phosphorus ion was carried out to bring forth an anion-exchangeable property on an inorganic solid surface. Phosphorus was mostly incorporated on silica network as a phosphate ion by a conventional hydrothermal synthesis method as zeolites or mesoporous silica, even though various pH, reactive phosphorus sources, and a wide variety of surfactant were applied for the syntheses. At last, we could find a thermal method called “solvent-free dehydrocondensation” using normal silica and phosphate sources, where phosphorus was wholly incorporated inside silicate network having four Si-O-P bonds around phosphorus. However, the phosphosilicate species was found weak against water treatment even at 50 °C, and the Si-O-P bond was hydrolyzed to leach phosphate. Unique properties were also developed by the phosphosilicate species obtained in this study, which adsorbed/ion-exchanged fluoride ion and oxidized nitrite ion into nitrate ion at room temperature.

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