Socio-hydrological modeling and its issues in Japan: a case study in Naganuma District, Nagano City

Abstract

The Asian monsoon and Japan’s steep terrain structure make it a flood-prone country. These natural, flood-prone features have prompted Japan to develop unique social norms for flood risk management. Over the last decade, human-flood interaction models have been developed in socio-hydrology (SH), being applied and validated in various countries. This study applied the SH model for the Naganuma District of Nagano City, Japan, an area that was affected by Typhoon Hagibis in 2019. Additionally, the SH model was examined for its applicability in Japan using sensitivity analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the SH model in a real-life scenario in Japan. The results suggest that there are differences between the output from the existing SH model and the actual human-flood interactions in Japanese society. This paper also provides recommendations to improve the Japanese SH model and inform associated future research agendas in Japan.