Tsunami Damage Research Articles

Effect of Tsunami Damage on Passenger and Forestry Transportation in Pacific County, Washington

The outer coast of Washington State is exposed to significant seismic and tsunami hazards. A Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) event is expected to cause high earthquake intensities and tsunami inundation, resulting in considerable infrastructure loss, inundation of developed land, and degraded functioning of coastal communities. One area of particular concern is Pacific County, in southwest Washington, where more than 85% of the population is expected to experience severe shaking intensities. This paper establishes the predisaster passenger and freight transportation patterns and the predicted damaged postdisaster road network in Pacific County. The hazard used in the analysis was a CSZ magnitude 9.1 earthquake with Washington asperity and resulting tsunami. The anticipated change in trip distance and the percentage of trips that could no longer be completed were used to compare passenger travel and forestry freight travel. Because passenger and freight travel have different purposes and patterns, understanding how they are affected differently can serve as a foundation for community-based disaster recovery planning to increase community resilience in earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Search for Tsunami Evidence in the Geological and Archaeological Records, With a Focus on Japan

Tsunami damage to archaeological sites in Japan has been recognized since the 1980s, but the Great Tōhoku-oki Earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 stimulated geologists and archaeologists to find evidence of previous tsunami in Japan, investigate the responses of earlier inhabitants to tsunami, and assess the probability of future occurrences. Excavated sites on the Sendai Plain, partially inundated in this recent tsunami, have been crucial in this endeavor, with recovered data at times contradicting historical sources. Great progress has been made in the science of identifying tsunami deposits and understanding their nature and distribution, aiding in their recognition at archaeological sites. This article provides an introduction to the nature of tsunami waves and their causes, resources available for studying past tsunami worldwide, and difficulties in identifying tsunami sediments. Seventeen case studies of sites where tsunami deposits have been investigated throughout the Japanese and Ryukyu archipelagos are presented. Tsunami can be included within my conception of ‘tectonic archaeology,’ archaeology that must methodologically deal with the influence of plate tectonics on the islands. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and most tsunami relate to the subduction zone setting of Japan; thus, to fully understand the site remains of previous tectonically derived disasters demands knowledge of plate tectonics, seismology, volcanology, sedimentology, and wave physics among others. Integrating these spheres of knowledge into archaeological research opens new avenues of interpretation, including understanding why many Middle Yayoi settlements on the Sendai Plain were abandoned, not to be reoccupied for 400 years.

War and disaster in Sri Lanka: Implications for widows' family adjustment and perception of self-efficacy in caring for one's family.

The data for this study were collected in 2014 from widows in Eastern Sri Lanka whose spouses died in the civil war, tsunami, or from health-related problems. Conservation of resources (COR) theory was used as a lens to examine the extent to which war and tsunami-related damages and family problems predict variation in social support, family adjustment and a perception of self-efficacy in caring for one's family as reported by widowed women. We also investigated whether social support from the community and social support from family and friends mediated those relationships. Results of a path model fit to the data suggested variation in family adjustment to be negatively predicted by war-related family problems and positively predicted by the social support of friends and family. Additionally, a sense of self-efficacy in caring for one's family was found to be inversely predicted by war-related family problems and tsunami damages. Clinical, social and theoretical implications are discussed as well as directions for further research.

Innovation for Resilient Coastal Structures to Reduce Tsunami Disaster

The Great East Japan Earthquake Tsunami on March 11, 2011, caused unprecedented damage mainly in northeast Japan. This paper introduces the characteristics of the tsunami and resultant damage. The mechanism of the breaching of coastal structures and the effect of surviving structures on damage reduction in land are discussed. Then, a two-level tsunami mitigation concept, proposed and adopted by a committee hosted by the Government for recovery and reconstruction, is introduced. Within this framework, coastal structures are required to be resilient to external forces exceeding the design level. Various technologies that have been developed based on experience and research after the tsunami are introduced.

Baseline Study to Estimate the Amount of Disaster Waste Using RapidEye Data

In the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, the Pacific Ocean coast of the Tohoku region suffered serious tsunami damage. To draw up reconstruction plans following great earthquakes in such areas it is necessary to estimate the amount of disaster waste. Disaster waste estimation using remote sensing data is a fundamental priority that affects all subsequent processing. Although high ground resolution remote sensing data contain detailed information, they represent a narrow scanning width and are expensive. On the other hand, remote sensing data of lower ground resolution (5 to 30 m) are able to cover wide areas at a low cost. However, the digital number (DN) of each lower resolution pixel represents the average land cover conditions, i.e., the information provided by a pixel should be represented as a one-pixel mixed class (“mixel”) instead of one-pixel one-class. In a previous study, we developed a method for unmixing mixels using the DNs from RapidEye data. We also developed a method of disaster building domain estimation using RapidEye data acquired before and after an earthquake. In this study, we propose a method to estimate the number of disaster buildings using the results of the disaster building domain, whose effectiveness was confirmed by our findings.

Restoring Tsunami Damaged Coastal Lands in Sri Lanka: Evidence of the Anticommons?

ABSTRACTAfter the 2004 Tsunami, non-governmental organisations and international groups sought permission from government agencies to implement ecosystem restoration projects. Following the logic of the anticommons problem, the likelihood of project implementation is hypothesised to be inversely related to the number of government agencies which have the right to permit use. Our findings are consistent with the anticommons problem: a marginal increase in the number of government agencies, each exercising the right to grant permission to the applicant, reduces the likelihood that a proposed project would ultimately receive permission.

Metrics for the Technical Performance Evaluation of Light Water Reactor Accident-Tolerant Fuel

The safe, reliable, and economic operation of the nation’s nuclear power reactor fleet has always been a top priority for the nuclear industry. Continual improvement of technology, including advanced materials and nuclear fuels, remains central to the industry’s success. Enhancing the accident tolerance of light water reactors (LWRs) became a topic of serious discussion following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, resulting tsunami, and subsequent damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex. The overall goal for the development of accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) for LWRs is to identify alternative fuel system technologies to further enhance the safety, competitiveness, and economics of commercial nuclear power. Designed for use in the current fleet of commercial LWRs or in reactor concepts with design certifications (GEN-III+), fuels with enhanced accident tolerance would endure loss of active cooling in the reactor core for a considerably longer period of time than the current fuel system while maintaining or improving performance during normal operations. The complex multiphysics behavior of LWR nuclear fuel in the integrated reactor system makes defining specific material or design improvements difficult; as such, establishing desirable performance attributes is critical in guiding the design and development of fuels and cladding with enhanced accident tolerance. Research and development of ATF in the United States is conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fuel Cycle Research and Development Advanced Fuels Campaign. The DOE is sponsoring multiple teams to develop ATF concepts within multiple national laboratories, universities, and the nuclear industry. Concepts under investigation offer both evolutionary and revolutionary changes to the current nuclear fuel system. This paper summarizes the technical evaluation methodology proposed in the United States to aid in the optimization and prioritization of candidate ATF designs.

Evaluating the Human Damage of Tsunami at Each Time Frame in Aggregate Units Based on GPS data

Abstract. Assessments of the human damage caused by the tsunami are required in order to consider disaster prevention at such a regional level. Hence, there is an increasing need for the assessments of human damage caused by earthquakes. However, damage assessments in japan currently usually rely on static population distribution data, such as statistical night time population data obtained from national census surveys. Therefore, human damage estimation that take into consideration time frames have not been assessed yet. With these backgrounds, the objectives of this study are: to develop a method for estimating the population distribution of the for each time frame, based on location positioning data observed with mass GPS loggers of mobile phones, to use a evacuation and casualties models for evaluating human damage due to the tsunami, and evaluate each time frame by using the data developed in the first objective, and 3) to discuss the factors which cause the differences in human damage for each time frame. By visualizing the results, we clarified the differences in damage depending on time frame, day and area. As this study enables us to assess damage for any time frame in and high resolution, it will be useful to consider provision for various situations when an earthquake may hit, such as during commuting hours or working hours and week day or holiday.

Evaluating the Human Damage of Tsunami at Each Time Frame in Aggregate Units Based on GPS data

Assessments of the human damage caused by the tsunami are required in order to consider disaster prevention at such a regional level. Hence, there is an increasing need for the assessments of human damage caused by earthquakes. However, damage assessments in japan currently usually rely on static population distribution data, such as statistical night time population data obtained from national census surveys. Therefore, human damage estimation that take into consideration time frames have not been assessed yet. With these backgrounds, the objectives of this study are: to develop a method for estimating the population distribution of the for each time frame, based on location positioning data observed with mass GPS loggers of mobile phones, to use a evacuation and casualties models for evaluating human damage due to the tsunami, and evaluate each time frame by using the data developed in the first objective, and 3) to discuss the factors which cause the differences in human damage for each time frame. By visualizing the results, we clarified the differences in damage depending on time frame, day and area. As this study enables us to assess damage for any time frame in and high resolution, it will be useful to consider provision for various situations when an earthquake may hit, such as during commuting hours or working hours and week day or holiday.

ESTIMATION OF DAMAGED AREAS DUE TO THE 2010 CHILE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI USING SAR IMAGERY OF ALOS/PALSAR

A large-scale earthquake and tsunami affect thousands of people and cause serious damages worldwide every year. Quick observation of the disaster damage is extremely important for planning effective rescue operations. In the past, acquiring damage information was limited to only field surveys or using aerial photographs. In the last decade, space-borne images were used in many disaster researches, such as tsunami damage detection. In this study, SAR data of ALOS/PALSAR satellite images were used to estimate tsunami damage in the form of inundation areas in Talcahuano, the area near the epicentre of the 2010 Chile earthquake. The image processing consisted of three stages, i.e. pre-processing, analysis processing, and post-processing. It was conducted using multi-temporal images before and after the disaster. In the analysis processing, inundation areas were extracted through the masking processing. It consisted of water masking using a high-resolution optical image of ALOS/AVNIR-2 and elevation masking which built upon the inundation height using DEM image of ASTER-GDEM. The area result was 8.77 Km<sup>2</sup>. It showed a good result and corresponded to the inundation map of Talcahuano. Future study in another area is needed in order to strengthen the estimation processing method.

ESTIMATION OF DAMAGED AREAS DUE TO THE 2010 CHILE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI USING SAR IMAGERY OF ALOS/PALSAR

Abstract. A large-scale earthquake and tsunami affect thousands of people and cause serious damages worldwide every year. Quick observation of the disaster damage is extremely important for planning effective rescue operations. In the past, acquiring damage information was limited to only field surveys or using aerial photographs. In the last decade, space-borne images were used in many disaster researches, such as tsunami damage detection. In this study, SAR data of ALOS/PALSAR satellite images were used to estimate tsunami damage in the form of inundation areas in Talcahuano, the area near the epicentre of the 2010 Chile earthquake. The image processing consisted of three stages, i.e. pre-processing, analysis processing, and post-processing. It was conducted using multi-temporal images before and after the disaster. In the analysis processing, inundation areas were extracted through the masking processing. It consisted of water masking using a high-resolution optical image of ALOS/AVNIR-2 and elevation masking which built upon the inundation height using DEM image of ASTER-GDEM. The area result was 8.77 Km2. It showed a good result and corresponded to the inundation map of Talcahuano. Future study in another area is needed in order to strengthen the estimation processing method.

DISASTER PREVENTION COASTAL MAP PRODUCTION BY MMS & C3D

Abstract. In March 2011, Eastern Japan suffered serious damage of Tsunami caused by a massive earthquake. In 2012, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport published “Guideline of setting assumed areas of inundation by Tsunami” to establish the conditions of topography data used for simulation of Tsunami. In this guideline, the elevation data prepared by Geographical Survey Institute of Japan and 2m/5m/10m mesh data of NSDI are adopted for land area, while 500m mesh data of Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of Japan Coast Guard and sea charts are adopted for water area. These data, however, do not have continuity between land area and water area. Therefore, in order to study the possibility of providing information for coastal disaster prevention, we have developed an efficient method to acquire continuous topography over land and water including tidal zone. Land area data are collected by Mobile Mapping System (MMS) and water area depth data are collected by interferometry echo sounder (C3D), and both data are simultaneously acquired on a same boat. Elaborate point cloud data of 1m or smaller are expected to be used for realistic simulation of Tsunami waves going upstream around shoreline. Tests were made in Tokyo Bay (in 2014) and Osaka Bay (in 2015). The purpose the test in Osaka Bay is to make coastal map for disaster prevention as a countermeasure for predicted Nankai massive earthquake. In addition to Tsunami simulation, the continuous data covering land and marine areas are expected to be used effectively for maintenance and repair of aged port and river facilities, maintenance and investigation of dykes, and ecosystem preservation.

Results of Post-Field Survey on the Mw 8.3 Illapel Earthquake Tsunami in 2015

On 16 September 2015, a Mw 8.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of Illapel, Central Chile, generating a tsunami that caused moderate damage along the coast of Central Chile. To investigate tsunami damage and evacuation responses, we conducted a post-tsunami field survey between La Serena and Concón. The average tsunami inundation height in the survey area was 3–4 m; however, in the innermost corner of Coquimbo Bay, which was shielded from the tsunami source by the Coquimbo Peninsula, the tsunami inundation height was 6.0–6.2 m, decreasing gradually along the coast away from the corner. This phenomenon was also confirmed around Tongoy Bay, which is geographically similar to Coquimbo Bay. Based on our results, we hypothesize that the tsunami was diffracted and refracted by the peninsula, and then converged on the innermost corner of the bay, located behind the peninsula. Interviews with local residents confirmed that most people evacuated immediately after feeling strong seismic motion, but before the tsunami warning and evacuation orders were issued. However, several people did not evacuate, either because they believed that they were located in a safe place, or because they wanted to protect their property.

A Study on the Influential Factors on Building Damage in Sri Lanka During the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damaged a number of buildings in many Asian countries. The research objective of this paper is to determine the significant predictor variables and the direction of their relationships regarding the building damage level. This quantitative study used data collected by Murao and Nakazato [“Recovery curves for housing reconstruction in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami,” J. Earthquake Tsunami 4(2), 51–60; “Vulnerability functions for buildings based on damage survey data in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami,” Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Sustainable Built Environment, Kandy, Sri Lanka, pp. 371–378] in Sri Lanka for analysis via the statistical approach. The tested explanatory parameters included the inundation depth, the structural materials, and the areas. This research is among the first pioneering efforts in applying the statistical analysis to investigate the influential parameters in tsunami damage areas. This work can contribute to the damage analysis research area in terms of providing the proved parameters as well as contributing to the practical understanding of urban planners, engineers, and related persons who are involved in building construction and disaster management.

Tsunami and Seismic Damage Caused by the Earthquake Off Iquique, Chile, in April, 2014

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014, at 8:46 p.m. local time in Chile, a subduction earthquake of Mw 8.2 occurred about 100[Formula: see text]km northwest of the city of Iquique, where the Nazca plate subducts beneath the South American plate. This earthquake triggered a tsunami, which hit coastal areas in northern Chile. A joint Japan–Chile team conducted a post-tsunami field survey to measure the height of the tsunami traces and to investigate the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Based on measurements of the tsunami traces, it is estimated that a tsunami 3–4[Formula: see text]m in height hit the coast from Arica, which is near the border between Chile and Peru, to Patache, south of Iquique, a straight-line distance of approximately 260[Formula: see text]km. The tsunami caused only minor inundations near shorelines, and caused no damage to buildings because living spaces were higher than the tsunami run-up height. Seismic damage was more extensive than that caused by the tsunami, especially in Iquique, and included the destruction of houses, buildings, and other infrastructure. It also ignited fires. In the Port of Iquique, a wharf, before earthquake-resistant improvements were implemented, was destroyed by the strong ground motions that resulted from the earthquake.

Building Damage Assessment Using Scenario Based Tsunami Numerical Analysis and Fragility Curves

A combination of a deterministic approach and fragility analysis is applied to assess tsunami damage caused to buildings. The area selected to validate the model is Imwon Port in Korea. The deterministic approach includes numerical modeling of tsunami propagation in the East Sea following an earthquake on the western coast of Japan. The model is based on the linear shallow-water equations (LSWE) augmented with Boussinesq approximation to account for dispersion effects in wave propagation, and coastal wave run-up is modeled by non-linear shallow-water equations (NLSWE). The output from the deterministic model comprises inundation depth. The numerical output is used to perform fragility analysis for buildings vulnerable to flooding by tsunamis in the port area. Recently developed fragility curves—based on the ordinal regression method—are used for damage probability estimates. The extent of structural damage in the areas under a tsunami hazard is identified by the numerical modeling of tsunami features. Our numerical model offers high bathymetric resolution, which enables us to capture flow features at the individual structure level and results in improved estimation of damage probability. This approach can serve as a measure of assessing structure vulnerability for areas with little or no records of tsunami damage and provide planners with a better understanding of structure behavior when a tsunami strikes.

Application and Comparison of Tsunami Vulnerability and Damage Models for the Town of Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

Siracusa is one of the most important cities of the eastern coast of Sicily, which according to historical records and to the present knowledge of the tectonic setting, is exposed to tsunamis generated by landslides on the Malta escarpment and by local and remote (e.g., Eastern Hellenic Arc) earthquakes. For this reason, the area of Siracusa has been selected as one of the test sites to conduct specific studies within the European FP7 project ASTARTE. In this frame, this work focuses on the assessment of tsunami vulnerability of (and damage to) the building stock of the town. The analysis is carried out following two different models, namely the SCHEMA and the Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA-3) methods. Topographic and building stock data in the potentially flooded areas are taken from detailed digital databases produced by the region of Sicily, integrated with satellite and photographic imagery from Google Earth and further validated by field surveys. We have explored three inundation scenarios corresponding to a constant-level tsunami flooding with assumed sea level rise of 1, 3 and 5 m, and evaluated the damage to the town buildings using both methods that make use of a 5-degree scale. The main result is that the level of damage of both models is not consistent, and that consistency may be improved if one changes from a 5- to a 3-degree damage scale.

Tsunami damage assessment and monitoring of reconstruction in Nagapattinam area using multispectral images

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a new remotely sensed solution for monitoring the recovery of a tsunami-affected area. Nagapattinam province of Tamilnadu, which was strongly attacked by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, is selected as the demonstration site. IKONOS sets acquired on 10 June 2003 (pre-tsunami), 29 December 2004 (immediate-tsunami) and 31 October 2005 (post-tsunami) are used in this study. This proposed architecture worked in three tier architecture. In the first level, registration and removal of clouds are carried out. In the second level, object-based terminology is used to segment building, land, sand, vegetation and water. In the third level, change in the detection of object-based operation was performed. This method has given the solution for the building and infrastructural damages and monitoring of reconstruction work carried over the Nagapattinam area. The results proved that the proposed work has produced a higher accuracy assessment (99%). The change in detection results revealed a significant change in building after the tsunami as 25.5%, an increase in soil exposure as 21.4% and an increase in water within the soil and land as 8%, when the results are compared with the ground truth (GT). GT was obtained by manual analysis through field visits. The maximum sea water inundation distance of 486 m was observed in an Elancheran Nagar village which is located in the coastal Nagapattinam. We observed from the results that 18% of buildings were built by the government.

Bayesian tsunami fragility modeling considering input data uncertainty

Empirical tsunami fragility curves are developed based on a Bayesian framework by accounting for uncertainty of input tsunami hazard data in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Three fragility modeling approaches, i.e. lognormal method, binomial logistic method, and multinomial logistic method, are considered, and are applied to extensive tsunami damage data for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. A unique aspect of this study is that uncertainty of tsunami inundation data (i.e. input hazard data in fragility modeling) is quantified by comparing two tsunami inundation/run-up datasets (one by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation of the Japanese Government and the other by the Tohoku Tsunami Joint Survey group) and is then propagated through Bayesian statistical methods to assess the effects on the tsunami fragility models. The systematic implementation of the data and methods facilitates the quantitative comparison of tsunami fragility models under different assumptions. Such comparison shows that the binomial logistic method with un-binned data is preferred among the considered models; nevertheless, further investigations related to multinomial logistic regression with un-binned data are required. Finally, the developed tsunami fragility functions are integrated with building damage-loss models to investigate the influences of different tsunami fragility curves on tsunami loss estimation. Numerical results indicate that the uncertainty of input tsunami data is not negligible (coefficient of variation of 0.25) and that neglecting the input data uncertainty leads to overestimation of the model uncertainty.

Evaluation of the Reduction of Tsunami Damages Based on Local Wisdom Contermeasures in Indonesia

<p>Local wisdoms such as a traditional ethics, land-use system and others had sometimes mitigated tsunami damages in Indonesia. The effective use of those local wisdoms is strongly desired especially in developing countries, because it is quite difficult for those countries to allocate enough budgets for constructing hard type of countermeasures against tsunami. Among local wisdoms against tsunami hazard, this study evaluates the efficiency of a hollow topography which can be seen on the beach along Lampon village in Indonesia. Artificial hollows are arrayed on the beach as one of the local wisdoms in Lampon village to reduce the intensity of inundated tsunami flow. The numerical simulation of tsunami inundation is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of this hollow topography. Furthermore, this study evaluates the efficiency of some contrivances, such a combination of vegetation area and a multiple-use of hollow and embankment topography, in order to enhance the performance of countermeasure based on the local wisdom.</p>