Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Research Articles

History and challenges of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Materials Collection of Kobe University Library

History and challenges of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Materials Collection of Kobe University Library

阪神・淡路大震災における兵庫県の組織運用の分析 －災害対応のための人材確保－

阪神・淡路大震災における兵庫県の組織運用の分析 －災害対応のための人材確保－

Has 20 Years of Japanese Earthquake Research Enhanced Seismic Disaster Resilience in Kumamoto?

It has been about 20 years since the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (HERP) was established following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster. Now the time has come to examine its contributions to disaster resilience. On April 14 and 17, 2016, a series of large earthquakes, including M6.5 and M7.3 events, occurred in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. More than 200 fatalities and 8,600 totally collapsed houses were reported. The earthquakes occurred on known active faults, which were assessed by the Earthquake Research Committee (ERC) before the events. The regional disaster management plan by Kumamoto Prefecture had predicted the events reported by the ERC and estimated damages at about the same level as what was actually seen. However, even though the estimate was accurate, the countermeasures were insufficient: the local people still did not seriously expect a large earthquake to strike in their local area, and their efforts to enhance the disaster resilience of the Kumamoto area were insufficient. This suggests that the efforts by the HERP were not sufficient to make the local community resilient enough to withstand a large earthquake.

阪神・淡路大震災の応急仮設住宅における避難生活の諸問題(ストレス研究部会特集)

阪神・淡路大震災の応急仮設住宅における避難生活の諸問題(ストレス研究部会特集)

A Study of Evaluation at the Wakamiya Town as a Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Area

A Study of Evaluation at the Wakamiya Town as a Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Area

Interpretation of the mechanical behavior of embankments having various compaction properties based on the soil skeleton structure

After the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake disaster, the seismic resistance of embankments was evaluated, and design principles were changed from specification-based to performance-based. However, compaction properties and the mechanical behavior of compacted soil were not sufficiently considered in the Manual of Highway Earthworks on Embankments.The first objective of the present study is to reproduce the mechanical behavior of three embankment materials having different compaction properties. A series of triaxial compression tests and oedometer tests is carried out. The mechanical behavior is reproduced by the SYS Cam-clay model and the influence of compaction on the mechanical behavior is interpreted based on the soil skeleton structure. The second objective is to evaluate the seismic stability of the embankment, which depends on the compaction properties of the embankment material, using GEOASIA, a soil–water coupled finite deformation analysis code.The primary conclusions are as follows. (1) Through the triaxial tests, the maximum deviator stress increases as the degree of compaction, Dc, increases. However, the trends in the increase differ depending on the material. (2) Based on one-dimensional consolidation tests, the compression curve is approximately a straight line with a large vertical effective stress. In the present study, a greater maximum dry density corresponds to less compressibility and a lower compression curve. (3) The mechanical behavior of each material is reproduced by the SYS Cam-clay model using one set of material constants for each material and representing the differences in Dc by different initial conditions for the structure and overconsolidation. An increase in Dc causes the decay of the structure, as well as the accumulation of overconsolidation. In the case of material A, the decay of the structure and the loss of overconsolidation occur quickly, whereas in the case of material C, the decay of the structure is slight and the loss of overconsolidation is moderate. (4) The seismic response analysis reveals different deformations of the embankment for different materials, even for the same Dc. The seismic stability of the embankments was increased by increasing Dc. Materials, such as material A, that have fast decay of the structure and fast loss of overconsolidation produce embankments with high seismic stability.

Special Issue on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: Part IV

The basic policy of the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), as a multidisciplinary academicjournal, is to cover all types of disasters ? except for war ? through a broad comprehensive perspective. Since its inaugural issue in August 2006, the JDR has been published bimonthly,with six issues a year. 2015 marks the tenth year since the JDRfs first issue. Among the many events happening during this decade is the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster which was induced by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake.This event had two major features ? that the tsunami accompanying the earthquake caused the main damage and that it triggered a nuclear hazard accident at a nuclear power plant. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster was a unprecedented earthquake disaster called catastrophic hazard following two others ? the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake Disasterthat leveled Tokyo and the 1995 Hanshin Awaji Earthquake Disaster that destroyed parts of Osaka and Kobe. In view of this catastrophic hazardfs scale, the JDR decided to publish special annual issues on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster for five years since 2012 in addition to its regularissues. No publication fee was charged to contributors and support was asked from corporations. Papers on the special issues are published mainly online as an e-journal though printed editions are published for archival purposes. The current issue is the fourth of these special issues, and contributors have covered the 2011 disaster from many a wide range of perspectives. 21 papers were submitted and 8 papers are accepted for publication after peer review. The editors are confident that, like the previous three issues, this issue fully measure up to the quality that was expected for the special issue. I wish to express my gratitude to the contributors and reviewers and to thank corporations for their invaluable support.

Special Issue on “What can We do for Developing Search and Rescue Robot?”

As a disaster-prone country, Japan has endured many earthquake disasters. The latest cases include the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster, the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake, and the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. Since the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in particular, many robot researchers have started undertaking the research and development of rescue robots. Their practical applications have a long way to go, so to continue ongoing robot research and development, we should also be aware that comparatively few researchers and engineers are actually engaged in such research and development. Great earthquakes (or tsunami) are both rare and unpredictable, which makes it very difficult to establish research policies for rescue robots intended for specialized use in disaster response. We should also realize that Japan is almost constantly hit by one or another every year – e.g., the typhoons that hit Japan directly every year and themselves triggering other disasters caused by landslides or avalanches due to heavy rainfall. The Japanese populace is so accustomed to such happenings but, nevertheless, few actions have been taken unlike those against large-scale earthquakes. It is often said that an effective disaster response system can only be developed after we have experienced many actual disasters. It then occurs to us that we must first construct disaster response systems – rescue robots, etc. – directly targeting daily natural disasters. Any large-scale disaster response system can be built on such constant efforts. On the other hand, any disaster response system against daily natural disasters could only be developed by locally domiciled researchers and engineers. This makes us feel that it is possible to increase the number of personnel who become involved in disaster response research and development. Based on the above context, this special issue provides a wide range of articles on region-specific disasters and disaster response actions, focusing on their localities and specialties. We sincerely hope that this special issue will help in promoting research and development on rescue robots and putting them to practical use.

Special Issue on “Urban Resilience” for Mega Earthquake Disasters

Tokyo Metropolitan Earthquake and Nankai Trough Earthquakes predicted to hit Japan in the near future makes it urgent that the impact of urban earthquake disasters be reduced by every means possible. To promote research to this end, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan launched a Special Project for Reducing Vulnerability for UrbanMega Earthquake Disasters in 2012 as a five-year R&D effort embracing three academic disciplines – earth and physical sciences, structural engineering, and social sciences. This project in turn consists of three subprojects – Subproject on the earthquake hazard mechanism and risk evaluation of southern Kanto region, Subproject to develop rapid damage assessment and recovery technology of urban function, and Subproject to develop resilient society improving disaster management competence. This special issue features findings and achievements from this last subproject, whose goal is to enhance society’s resilience based on the experiences and lessons of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster that crippled Kobe, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster that prostrated Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast and other such disasters. Concretely speaking, by integrating the wisdom of disaster management researchers nationwide and collaborating with other subprojects, this subproject proposes disseminating disaster information technologies and training methodologies to build up disaster preparedness. This, in turn, is aided by improving disaster literacy and competence among both the general public and disaster management personnel. Focusing on the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, where two-thirds of Japan’s population and three-fourths of the nation’s total assets are concentrated, Web-based disaster information management and dissemination services are being proposed and examined for effectiveness through demonstration experiments and social implementation. In this issue of JDR, we are introducing 11 papers and reports from researchers involved in this subproject to present initial interim findings and progress during the first half of this five-year effort. In doing so, the authors and editors of this issue gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of MEXT in these studies.

Disaster‐time Economy and an Economy of Morals: A Different Economic Order from the Market Economy under Globalization*

AbstractWith the experience of two severe disasters (the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake disaster of 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster of 2011), I wish to consider “subsistence” as human life, existence equaling the basic activities of life, an essential mutual act‐like existence economy. In this paper, I pursue a positive development of “disaster‐time economics” as a research object under the larger framework of the formation of a “moral economy,” as part of a critical process. In this paper, in order that a stricken area and society may aim at the realization of a new methodology about “creative revival” for newly developing independent research involving the state of the revival fund of a wide sense is carried out.Nevertheless, there is an overall understanding of who, in what areas, and using what methodology, has conducted research in the restoration and revival process, as well as the weak points that tend to hinder the process. There is no research on the rationality and function of public finance expenditures or national sources expenditures.Therefore, in this paper, the term “disaster‐time economy” is newly prepared. From this concept, many activities of the project, service, support, self‐efforts etc. of a social and private domain are grasped from a public sphere in connection with the process of maintenance/restoration under the disaster. The feature and subject point of the process are clarified. The market economy order that is going to be produced in this process does the basic work and determines the economic order for another self‐subsistence over life.

阪神・淡路大震災被災地の復興後の居住構造

To clarify the status of households of living in housing in Hanshin-Awaji great earthquake disaster area after the reconstruction, it is useful to analyze for habitation structure on other large-scale disasters. The purpose of this study is to suggest for the estimation of the situations of households in small area, and to clarify the habitation structure of Hanshin-Awaji great earthquake stricken area after the reconstruction by using the method. The results on this study, the estimation method is clarified that the error is very small. This method can use for estimation of other contents data. As analysis of habitation structure of stricken area, it is found house buildings have been changed high-rise and concentratedly in large stricken districts of three wards, and as the residence household, it is found that low yearly income households decrease.

The Process and Problem of Han-Shin Awaji Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction

The Process and Problem of Han-Shin Awaji Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction

Development of Disaster Pamphlets Based on Health Needs of Patients with Chronic Illnesses

The aim of this research was to develop a pamphlet that would enable patients with diabetes, rheumatic diseases, chronic respiratory disease, and dialysis treatment to be aware of changes in their physical conditions at an early stage of a disaster, cope with these changes, maintain self-care measures, and recover their health. Illness-specific pamphlets were produced based on disaster-related literature, news articles, surveys of victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster and Typhoon Tokage, and other sources. Each pamphlet consisted of seven sections-each section includes items common to all illnesses as well as items specific to each illness. The first section, "Physical Self-Care", contains a checklist of 18 common physical symptoms as well as symptoms specific to each illness, and goes on to explain what the symptoms may indicate and what should be done about them. The main aim of the "Changes in Mental Health Conditions" section is to detect posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at an early stage. The section "Preventing the Deterioration of Chronic Illnesses" is designed to prevent the worsening of each illness through the provision of information on cold prevention, adjustment to the living environment, and ways of coping with stress. In the sections, "Medication Control" and "Importance of Having Medical Examinations", spaces are provided to list medications currently being used and details of the hospital address, in order to ensure the continued use of medications. The section, "Preparing for Evacuations" gives a list of everyday items and medical items needed to be prepared for a disaster. Finally, the "Methods of Contact in an Emergency" section provides details of how to use the voicemail service. The following content-specific to each illness also was explained in detail: (1) for diabetes, complications arising from the deterioration of the illness, attention to nutrition, and insulin management; (2) for rheumatic diseases, a checklist of factors indicating the worsening of the illness and methods of coping with stress; (3) for chronic respiratory disease, prevention of respiratory infections and management of supplemental oxygen; and (4) for patients requiring dialysis, conditions of dialysis (such as dry weight, dialyzer, number of dialysis treatments, and dialysis hours) and what to do if a disaster occurs during dialysis. It is expected that these pamphlets will be useful to patients with chronic illnesses, and will be used to prepare for disasters, thereby helping the patients cope with the unusual situation that during a disaster and recover as soon as possible.

Investigation of Extent of Damage to Elevated Bridges under Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster by using GIS

Investigation of Extent of Damage to Elevated Bridges under Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster by using GIS

Geotechnical Issues to Learn from The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster

Geotechnical Issues to Learn from The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster

Influence of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster on People's Preferences for Housing and Residential Areas

Influence of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster on People's Preferences for Housing and Residential Areas

阪神・淡路大震災による住宅・居住地選好に関わる住意識への影響 : 被災地域公団住宅居住者の場合

阪神・淡路大震災による住宅・居住地選好に関わる住意識への影響 : 被災地域公団住宅居住者の場合

An analysis of the recovery of the residential dwelling stock in urban areas affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake disaster using national census data

An analysis of the recovery of the residential dwelling stock in urban areas affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake disaster using national census data

INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH ON WARNING INFORMATION FROM THE CENTRAL SUPERVISORY SYSTEM IN THE EVENT OF A WIDE-AREA DISASTER

The log file of the central supervisory system during the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake disaster was examined from the viewpoint of information management during the period of crisis. When various abnormal conditions arise within buildings, various warnings are issued simultaneously, which may confuse those handling the situation. In addition, some information may be lost during the process of information collection. It was also suggested that the actual time of occurrence of an event subject to warning and the time stamp of the warning information may not match in systems performing time management when the information reaches the central supervisory system.

AN APPLICATION OF MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION TO TRAFFIC BEHAVIOR FOR EVACUTION IN EARTHQUAKE DISASTER

After Hanshin-Awaji huge earthquake disaster in 1994, it has been important for urban disaster prevention to build a comprehensive evacuation program of a large earthquake occurrence. In this program, it is substantial to observe human behavior for the evacuation time. Thus, we should introduce a new methodology based on behavior-oriented agent system, that is, a multi-agent model. In this study, first of all, the production rules of the attributive groups were constructed on basis of the questionnaire survey for the inhabitants. Next, using the set of production rules, we developed a multi-agent system model for evacuation. An agent in this study is a person that can perceive its environment through sensors and decide the activity through effectors. We simulate multi-agent system in a district in Kushiro City of Hokkaido, Japan. Finally, we concluded to build the reproduction of the human traffic behaviors and their interactions during earthquake impact and to be simulated multi-agent model including seven agent groups obtained the results of questionnaire survey.