International Research Institute of Disaster
Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University468-1, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-0845,
Japan
http://www.irides.tohoku.ac.jp

OutlineHaving ex perienced t he c atastrophic di saster i n 2011 , Tohoku U niversity has founded theInternational R esearch I nstitute of D isaster Science ( IRIDeS). Together w ith c ollaboratingorganizations from many countries andwitheIRIDeS
broadconducts
areas of specializat
world-leading research on natural disaster science and disaster mitigation. Based on the lessons
from the 2011 Great E ast Japan (Tohoku) ea rthquake and tsunami di saster, I RIDeS ai ms tobecome a world center for the study of disasters and disaster mitigation, learning from and building
upon past l essons in disaster management from Japan and around the w orld. Throughout, theIRIDeS will contribute to on-going recovery/reconstruction efforts in the affected areas, conducting
action oriented research, and pursuing effective disaster management to build sustainable andresilient societies. IRIDeS innovate the past paradigm of Japan’s and world’s disaster management
to catastrophic natural disasters, hence
tomitigation
become a foundat
management and sciences.

Research Achievements and Challenges

Enhancing the cooperation with the local municipalities and governments in the affected areas, andcontributing to their recovery and reconstruction efforts, the IRIDeS conducts the ac tion-oriented
research. We aim to create disaster-resilient societies to overcome the complex and diverse
processes o f forthcoming nat ural di sasters, n ot only by pr eventing but al so p reparing andresponding t o t hem, an d ac hieving r ecovery an d r enovation, hence to engender the culture ofdisaster-resiliency i ncorporating i nto our s ocial s ystems. The ac tion-oriented r esearch o f theIRIDeS focuses on;
1 Investigating the physics of global scale natural disasters such as mega- earthquakes, tsunamis
and extreme weather

2 Reconstructing disaster response and mitigation technologies based on the lessons of the 2011
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster3 Inventing "Affected Area Supportology" in the aftermath of natural disasters
4 Enhancing disaster-resiliency and performance of multiple-fail-safe systems
5 Establishing di saster m edicine and m edical s ervice s ystems t owards catastrophic na tural
disasters
6 Designing di saster-resilient s ocieties and dev eloping t he di gital ar chive s ystem t o pa ss t helessons from the disasters

In 2014, there a re t wo m ain pi llars t hat IRIDeS
must focus on. One is the promulgation andpropagation of “practical disaster prevention
studies” and the other i s deepeni ng di saster
research.
One s pecific par t o f our p ractical di sasterprevention s tudies i s our “ Kakeagare! J apan”,
evacuation t raining. Kakeagare! Japan is a p rojectthat ai ms to habi tualize evacuation behav ior i n
preparation for a tsunami w hile t ackling r egional
problems bas ed on t he l essons l earned from theGreat East Japan Earthquake. Tsunami evacuation
drill programs are being planned and implemented
in c ollaboration w ith i ndustry, government and ac ademia, i ncluding IRIDeS. We aim to haveevacuation training that residents can voluntarily participate in. Having people think about detailed
actions s uch as w ho t hey w ill ev acuate w ith a nd w hich r oute t hey w ill take enabl es peopl e tobecome ac customed to m ore pr actical ev acuation behav ior. E vacuation pl ans ar e an es sential
element of safe urban planning. I believe it is exactly what is required at the moment. I want us toalso focus our efforts on disaster prevention education. From last year, we have been overseeing areader on disaster prevention distributed to all elementary schools in Miyagi prefecture.
April 2014 we al so s tarted the “ YUI”
project f or disaster risk r eduction. The“YUI” p roject for d isaster ri sk mi tigation
was s tarted i n A pril 2014 asacollaboration between IRIDeS and Sendai
Television. A “YUI” po cket handkerchief
printed w ith knowledge on di sastermitigation and di saster m echanisms i sutilized t o c onduct school v isits atelementary and junior high schools. “Byconducting d isaster pr evention educ ation
for c hildren, w e c an r aise t he di sasterprevention aw areness o f families. We
want di saster risk p revention t o bec ome
common knowledge in society like traffic
safety i s now ." says Ms. M ari Yasuda,
who de veloped t he “ YUI” poc ket
handkerchief.
The “YUI” pocket
handkerchief w as di stributed t o al l fifth
year elementary students in the prefecturefrom mid M ay, and i s scheduled t o beutilized in t he di saster prevention educ ation at eac h s chool. We w ill continue t o support eac hschool in various ways so that they can conduct their own disaster prevention education.
Another pi llar t hat w e m ust focus on this y ear i s deepeni ng research i nto
the disaste
events from occurrence to recovery when a disaster occurs. Last year, we developed a 3D tsunami
simulation s ystem i n c onjunction w ith Fuj itsu. When a t sunami p enetrates i nland, i ts s hapechanges in a complex manner due to the buildings and geography. The 3D simulation enabled us

to view the inland movement of the tsunami in detail, which helps design evacuation buildings, etc.
At the s ame t ime, w e ar e c onducting research i nto the mechanisms t hat c ause ea rthquakes. Arecent paper jointly published by Tetsu Miura, professor in volcanic hazard research, and Takashi
Iinuma, professor in marine geodesy research of the Disaster Science Division, was awarded best
paper in 2013 by the Seismological Society of Japan. This research conducted a detailed analysisof tectonic fluctuation that occurred during the Great East Japan Earthquake based on GPS data.
By deepeni ng our r esearch i n eac h field, w e hav e s tarted to s ee op enings for new t ypes ofresearch. We can further increase cooperation between fields to conduct more comprehensiveactivities.

Disaster mitigation management aims to reduce or avoid the potential losses from natural hazards,
to a ssure p rompt as sistance to v ictims, t o a chieve r apid and e ffective recovery, and t o bui ld
disaster-resilient and sustainable societies, by five stages of the disaster m anagement cycle;
Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Reconstruction. The action-oriented researchof the I RIDeS i s a pu rsue o f eac h poi nt in the c ycle, i ntegrating and uni versalizing s cientificdiscoveries t o be dedi cated t o the w orld. I RIDeS c reates a new ac ademia o f di saster m itigationthat subsumes the lessons from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster and thefindings of the world-leading research into our societies with the aim of establishing social systems
capable to respond promptly, sensibly and effectively to natural disasters, withstanding theadversities with r esiliency, pas sing and exploiting the lessons to the forthcoming disastermanagement cycles.