I C U SNewsletter
Volume 15

Number1

Apr. to Jun. 2015

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

Reconnaissance Survey Reportof the 2015 Gurkha, Nepal, Earthquake
By K. Meguro
Director / Professor, ICUS, IIS, The University of Tokyo
Outline of Damage
At 11:56 local time on 25th April,2015, an earthquake with magnitude
7.8 and focal depth of 15 km happened.
Its epicenter was located 77km NorthWest from Kathmandu, the capital
city of Nepal. Total death toll officiallyreported as of 15th May 2015 was
8,567 including 8,460 in Nepal, 78 inIndia, 25 in China, 4 in Bangladesh.
Many old and low earthquake
resistant structures including World
Heritage buildings were damaged(Photo 1). However, considering themagnitude, focal depth and directivity
effect, seismic intensity of the groundmotion in Kathmandu was much
lower than expected. It was surprising
to see that there were many weak
masonry structures still standing
after the quake, many water tanks
installed at the top of the buildings
stayed undamaged (Photo 2, left)
and many objects on narrow shelves
such as photo stands, ornaments, andfigures did not move or fall down
(Photo 2, right). In affected areas,
seismic capacity of structures varies
based on main structural materials,
such as stones (regularly-shaped orirregularly-shaped), adobe (unburned,
just sun dried clay brick), and burned
brick (with low and high temperature)and based on joint material, such as
mud, mud and lime, poor cement, andcement mortar as shown in Figure 1.
Structural damage due to theearthquake was seen only in masonrybuildings made with irregularlyshaped stones, adobe, and low
temperature burned bricks using
mud, mud and lime, poor cement
mortar. For reinforced concrete (RC)structures, damage was observed tothe structures that have poor beamcolumn joints (Photo 3).
There were many damages to roadfacilities in mountainous areas due
to landslides, but in urban areas,
damage was limited to certain areas.

Photo 1: Damage to vulnerable masonry structures including World Heritage structures

Damage to bridge was also limited toonly shear failure of RC stoppers forbridge girder (Photo 4).
Damage to non-engineeredbuildings and PP-band
retrofit method
Based on the damage due tothis earthquake, it was recognizedthat collapse of non-engineeredbuildings, which were constructed by
the local people with no engineering
background using locally available
materials, without following seismiccode of structure, was major causeof casualties. In developed countries
like Japan, after many structures weredamaged by earthquake, seismiccode of structure was revised to
improve the structural capacity basedon the results obtained by survey andinvestigation of damage. However,in many developing countries,
revision of the code cannot be asolution because there are many nonengineered structures constructedwithout following the code.

Photo 2: U ndamaged weak water tanks installed at the top of the buildings (left)
and unstable shaped photo stands, ornaments, and figures that didn’t
move and fall down from the narrow shelves (right)

Figure 1: Seismic capacity of unreinforced masonry structures

Photo 3: D ue to weak joint between column and beam, RC
column and beam could not contribute seismic
capacity of structure.

Photo 4: D anage to bridge: RC stoppers for bridge girderwere failed.

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ICUS Newsletter Vol. 15, No.1

Photo 5: Adobe with mud mortar masonry house retrofitted
by PP-band method in 2009 (top) could stand against
earthquake (bottom) in spite that surrounding
stronger brick masonry houses are damaged.

Understanding this actual situation,
I have been developing many
retrofit methods and their promotion
systems that local people can apply
with locally available materials
without changing their life style.
PP-band retrofit method is one ofsuch methods. With this method,
polypropylene band (PP-band),normally used for packing, is used asreinforcing material. PP-band meshes
are installed on the both sides ofmasonry wall and they are connectedwith each other by PP-strings set inholes made with some intervals on
the masonry wall. After installationof PP-band meshes, cement mortar or
mud mortar are pasted on the surfaceof the wall to prevent Ultra Violet ray
attack.
In the affected area by the Gurkha
earthquake this time, there is a twostory adobe masonry house with mud
mortar which was retrofitted by PPband method in 2009 (upper one in
Photo 5). Due to lack of electric power
and welding machine, PP-band mesh
was prepared by wave form without
welding at cross points of PP-bands.
However, the retrofitted house hadmuch less damage compared toother much stronger masonry houses
built nearby, such as burned brickmasonry with cement mortar houses
that were damaged severely. The
cost for retrofitting the house wasabout 50 USD and it was provedby the Gurkha earthquake that PPband method could increase seismic
capacity of weak masonry structures(bottom one in Photo 5).
Characteristics of strong
ground motion recorded
At the location of 60 km fromthe epicenter, US Geological
Survey (USGS) has installed one
seismometer in Kathmandu valley
and it recorded time history of theacceleration of ground motions inthree directions. The duration of the

Figure 2: T ime history of the ground motion (acceleration) recorded at USGS
Kathmandu station

Figure 3: Displacement response spectrum

ground motion was more than two
minutes, maximum acceleration ofhorizontal two directions were about
160 gals, and vertical was 190 gals asshown in the Figure 2. These values
were smaller compared to those bysimilar earthquake. But velocity anddisplacement were very large. Peakground velocity (PGV) were 107,
86 and 60 kine in EW, NS and UD
directions, respectively. And peakground displacement (PGD) were
117, 140 and 59 cm in EW, NS and

UD directions, respectively. As forthe characteristics of frequency, theground motion did not have powerin short period of time range lessthan 1 sec comparing with past wellknown earthquake ground motions.
However, long period components
with more than 4 sec, it has verystrong power.
According to velocity anddisplacement response spectrum(damping coefficient: 2 and 5 %), themaximum velocity response spectrum

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to Jun. 2015

Page 3

in case of damping coefficient of 2 %was 500 kine with around 5 sec andover 400 kine from 4 to 6 sec in EW
direction. In NS direction, it was
about 400 kine with 5 sec and over
300 kine from 4 to 7 sec in case that
damping coefficient was assumed 2%. Moreover, about displacement
response spectrum, it was 400 cm
with 5 sec and over 300 cm from 4
to 7 secin EW direction. Also in NS
direction, it was over 300 cm from 5
to 7 sec as shown in Figure 3.
Fortunately, there was no problem
in Kathmandu valley since there was
no facility and structure with natural
period of over 4 sec. But in Japan
where there are many structures withlong natural period, such as super highrise buildings, long span bridges, andlarge capacity storage tanks, there will
be severe damage if a strong groundmotion like Gurkha earthquake
motion attacks them.
School earthquake safety
project by NSETNSET (National Society for
Earthquake Technology-Nepal) is
one of the major organizations thathave been playing important roles
for promotion of preparation ofearthquake disaster. The NSET is an
NGO established in 1994 as a resultof activities by WSSI (World Seismic
Safety Initiative) that was establishedby Dr. K. Katayama, Professor
Emeritus of The University of Tokyoand Dr. Haresh C. Shah, Professor
Emeritus of Stanford University, etc.
WSSI was established for the purposeof promotion of earthquake disaster
preparation in developing countries
in terms of earthquake engineering
and I have been supporting it since
its establishment. Among thecountries with which WSSI has beenworking together, Nepal is one of thegood examples that WSSI activity
can be well implemented. I havereceived some students from NSET

Page 4and trained them to understand the
locally applicable disaster reduction
technologies and social systems
including Dr. Ramesh GURAGAIN,
deputy director general of NSET.
Activities by NSET are notable
when we discuss the damage due tothe Gurkha earthquake. NSET has
been actively carrying out many
activities for earthquake disaster
reduction, such as retrofitting weak
structures,training
techniciansin order to construct earthquake
resistant structures, setting up
national earthquake safety day andweek, a series of events and regularTV programs for promotion of
preparedness for earthquake disaster,
lectures for high-level governmental
officials and the general public, andso on. I have been working together
with them for over twenty years andvisited Nepal every year in recent
years. School earthquake safety
program (SESP) is one of theirsuch activities. SESP is a disasterwarning activity through retrofitting
weak school buildings and educationof students as well as the generalpublic living around the school. Dr.
Ramesh GURAGAIN is one of the
key persons who have carried out
SESP. About 200 weakest schoolbuildings were retrofitted before theearthquake by SESP, some of whichwere retrofitted by full jacketing
method and some were by splint andbandage method. Among all these
retrofitted school buildings by SESP,
only four buildings have minor
cracks but all structures can be used
after the quake as evacuation centersholding over 300, while about 6,000
un-retrofitted school buildings wereseverely damaged or collapsed within
Kathmandu valley and in all affectedareas.
Summary
Becauseofthefrequency
characteristics of ground motion by

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 15, No.1

the earthquake, seismic intensity inaffected areas were relatively mild
considering the magnitude, focal
depth, and directivity effect of theearthquake. But, many vulnerable(masonry) structures including World
Heritage structures were severely
damaged and over 8,500 people were
killed. It is very difficult to save thepeople trapped under the damaged
structures by search and rescue
activities. Based on the damage, it isrecognized that retrofit of vulnerable
structures before an earthquake isan essential countermeasures forearthquake disaster reduction.
When the JICA seminar was held in
Kathmandu City one month after thequake, I was invited to give a speech
and I explained that earthquake
disaster was an unfortunate event,but it should be used as a important
opportunity to change the affectedsociety. This is ‘Build Back Better(BBB)’ and BBB is a way not towaste valuable lives of victims andsocial loss.
As tourism is a major industry in
Nepal, it is important to reconstructaffected areas to become attractive
areas from the tourists’ viewpoints.
Key words are ‘Clean and Safe’.
Kathmandu
Cityshouldbereconstructed as ‘Clean and Safe
City (CSC).’ For implementationof CSC Kathmandu, followings areimportant.
1) 
Recovery and reconstruction planconsidering long term development
and changes of the city and country2) Establishment of functional garbage
treatment system
3) Stable power supply system
4) Comprehensive disaster management
system in seven phases of disaster life
cycle by each player, self-help effort,
mutual assistance, and public support5) Quality control system of retrofit andnew construction for both engineered
and non-engineered structures6) Change the mind for disaster countermeasures ‘from Cost to Value’External evaluation of ICUS conducted in June 2015
By K. Meguro

An external evaluation for new-born
ICUS (International Center for Urban
Safety Engineering) was conductedon June 10th 2015 as it is reaching its
five-year term since April 2011 when
it started its activities as a new-born
research center. ICUS was establishedwith an objective to find issues andcome up with solutions in order torealize safe and rich urban environment
for the people in our country withcharacteristics, such as decreasing
and aging population, financial strain,
high–tech society, environmental load
reduction, decentralization of powerand balanced contraction.
These
activities are also important for theinternational community as Japanis considered to be an “advanced
country on issues” and is facing
issues that many other developing
and developed countries will facein the future. Based on previous
activities, with three newly defined
research fields of Social InfrastructureManagement Division, Urban Safety& Disaster Mitigation Division andEnvironmental Informatics Division as
its core, a new-born ICUS conducted
research activities that would
achieve above-mentioned objectives
through promotion of leading-edge
researches, establishment of network,and collection and dissemination of
information.
There were three members ofevaluation committee, namely Dr.
S. Nishikawa, a board member ofJapan Water Agency, an Incorporated
Administrative Agency, Dr. M.
Kanatani, a director of Civil
Engineering Research Laboratory ofCentral Research Institute of ElectricPower Industry and Dr. H. Shimoda, aProfessor of Tokai University Research& Information Center. During theevaluation, Prof. Meguro, the directorof ICUS gave a presentation about the
purpose of the evaluation and activities
and future vision of ICUS, followed bypresentations by the representatives ofthree divisions about their activities
and overall discussion as shown in the
Photo.
Evaluation points include I. activities
of ICUS from its establishment topresent, 1) outcomes of leading-edge
researches on urban safety engineering,

Overall discussion during the external evaluation committee2) activities related to networking
including international relationships,
3) activities related to the collection
and dissemination of information; II.
whether ICUS is achieving its objectiveof establishing a research center; andIII. Opinions about future vision.
As a result of the evaluation, a newborn ICUS was highly evaluated for its
active development. During the last
external evaluation conducted in 2009,
an individual research activity was
highly evaluated while strengtheningof collaboration among academia
and governmental organizations
as well as active participation in
the governmental activities wereindicated as needed and this time itwas evaluated as greatly improved
since the start of new-born ICUS in
April 2011. It is important to continue
having a dialogue with members of
the society and the accumulationof human network and amount ofresearch conducted in the last fifteen
years since the establishment of ICUS
are highly valuable assets consideringinternational development of thisfield of study in Japan. It is a greatoutcome that ICUS has establisheda relationship that allows thoseresearchers that once belonged to
ICUS or participants of USMCA(anunal International Symposium on
Urban Saflty of Megocities in Asia
held by ICUS) to consider ICUS as
their teacher in case they face a big
problem in their own country.
Following opinions were expressedin regard to the situation that ICUS
is no longer able to continue as a
research center according to a current
rule of the Institute of Industrial
Science, The University of Tokyo(UTokyo). In urban mega-cities in

Asia, there are a number of issues suchas rapid urban development without
safety countermeasures, the needs
for appropriate urban planning witha long-term vision, maintenance of
aging infrastructure and issues as ahost country to carry out 2020 Tokyo
Olympic and Paralympic Games, andICUS has been conducting researcheson these topics.
Therefore, it is too good to give up
the brand name of ICUS which wasestablished based on various activities
in the past fifteen years for both
UTokyo as well as for our nation. It
will be greatly encouraged if its mission
supports a long-term research topic,
ICUS would be acknowledged for
its continuing activities as a research
center with a different operational
style that is not a short-term focused on
accomplishing objective and contributeactively to the society.
In addition to the results ofevaluation by the external evaluationcommittee members, ICUS members
consider it is not appropriate to closethe center considering a number ofreasons, such as the importance ofrelationship among the emerging
issues of our nation and neighboring
countries and the objective of
establishment of ICUS, continuationof relationship of mutual trust withinternational research institutes andthe responsibility for pursuing ongoing research projects. Since April
1st 2016, ICUS plans to continue its
activity as a research center using
competitive funds from big research
projects such as SIP (cross-minisrerial
Strategic
Inoveation
Promotion
Program) and SATREPS (See page 6)
and not depend on special assistancefrom IIS. Kind understanding andcooperation is sincerely appreciated.

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to Jun. 2015

Page 5

SATREPS: Progress report
By A.Kodaka

We are pleased to announce that
Record of Discussion (R/D) was
singed as of April 9, 2015, between
Myanmar and Japan: Myanmar
signers were U Kyaw Zwa Soe,
Director
General,Departmentof Technology Promotion and
Coordination, Ministry of Scienceand Technology, and Prof. Dr.
Aye Myint, Rector, Yangon
Technological University (YTU),
and Japan signer was Mr. Masahiko
Tanaka, Chief Representative,
Myanmar Office, Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA). R/D isa contract which signals the official
start of the project based on mutual
agreement on governments ofboth countries. The project will be
operated and managed under theframework of Project Design Matrix(PDM) and Plan of Operation (PO)with 6 research groups: 1) Waterrelated disaster, 2) Earthquakerelated Disaster, 3) Geospatial
Technology,
4)
InfrastructureManagement, 5) Transport andMobility, 6) Disaster Management.
We will keep you updated with
our project activities through the
TCUS Newsletter. In this volume,
following 3 groups’ activities arepresented.
Geospatial Technology
Geospatial technology group will
carry out two activities: 1) Collectland use, population, buildings,
infrastructures, and geotechnicalinformation in Yangon area, 2)
Analyzecollected
geo-spatial
data and develop urban expansion
simulation by cellular automaton

Lecture on LULC

Outcomes: Digital terrain map

Activities of Geospatial Technology groupmodel. For a capacity developmentof YTU graduate students in the
research field of the group to facilitate
the activities, the group conducteda special lecture at YTU campus
from June 9 to 11, 2015. The lecture
provided a basic knowledge of thescience and technology of remotesensing (RS), how to generate landuse and land-cover (LULC) map,and field data collection to validate
LULC map. A total of 35 students
took the lecture and they have gottena certificate when they submitted an
assignment report as a completionof the lecture. The special lecture
will be continued as a series sothat YTU graduate students canstrengthen their knowledge and gain
further understanding in the field ofgeospatial technology, especiallyin RS, and contribute the project’s
activities with us.
Transport and Mobility
Transport and mobility group willconduct an activity that collects
and accumulates aggregated mobile
phone base station usage data andprobe vehicle GPS data to project
people movement with people

activity model in Yangon area. On
July 16, 2015, 5 group members
will visit Myanmar Posts andTelecommunications (MPT), andhave a discussion with a staffs of
MPT and KDDI to gather a mobile
phone base station data; KDDIis current joint venture partner of
MPT. Although the group obtained asample data from MPT, it will keep
having a close discussion with themto obtain a series of data needed
for the project. On the same day,the group will also conduct about
1.5 hours lecture to 17 students
from Transportation department
of YTU to introduce the contentsof the group’s research activities.
In addition, on July 17, the groupwill visit Ma Hta Tha, Yangon
Region's public transport regulatory
and supervisory committee, with 5
YTU research members (3 faculty
members and 2 students), and 3
Japanese members, to conduct anexperiment of bus location service
system installing a smartphone asa GPS sensor. The experiment will
be conducted with three buses fromdifferent service lines from July 18
to 19, 2015.
Water-related disaster

Experiment on trial of bus location service system(red square shows the smartphone and trial screen of the system is shown in right)
Activities of Transport and Mobility group

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ICUS Newsletter Vol. 15, No.1

Water reated disaster groupwill
conduct two activities:1)
Gathers information and data in
the Bago river and water resource
management, and builds integrated
database in the Bago river basin todevelop seamlessly integrated riverand coastal hydraulic- models, 2)analyzes disaster management planof central and local governments andinvestigates needs on the integrated
water-related disaster response
system. The group conducted fieldsurvey from 28 June to 2nd July,
2015 to understand characteristicof natural environment and river
structures, and socio-economic
characteristics of residents locatedin frequently inundated areas in
Bago river basin. The survey was
jointly perforwed by Myanmar andWeir at upper Bago river

Japan teams with 35 participants intotal; they are from the Universityof Tokyo, Keio University, YTU,
Myanmar Maritime University,
Myanmar Port Authority, Irrigation
Department Ministry of Agriculture
and Irrigation.

Investigation of the Bago river by a boat

Activities of Water-related disaster group

Downstream of the Yangon riverInterview to a monk who leads
evacuation in flood prone area

Report on Guided Tour in IIS Open Campus
By T. Kato

Annual IIS Open Campus washeld on June 5th, and 6th in 2015.
ICUS provided “Guided Tour” forexperts, which started as a pre-event
since the last year. The theme was“Technology for Social Resilienceand It’s Implementation”. Over 10
experts selected from many fields
related to social infrastructureattended the tour. After introductionof recent research activities of eachdivision of ICUS by Prof. Meguro,
Dr. Matsumoto, and Prof. Oki,demonstration of experiment by
Prof. Kuwano and exhibition ofsocial or urban simulation related
to urban safety, such as evacuation
simulation by Dr. Kato, Dr. Iryo,
and Dr. Honma, were conducted.

Dr. Kato coordinated discussion
perspective of technologies for Social
Disaster Resiliencewithparticipants
as the final session
and importance ofcooperation between
business sectors anduniversities and interand transdisciplinary
discussion
wereshared. Over 90
persons in total
visitedICUS
room to exchange
information in the
period of Open
Campus. We arelooking
forwardto discussing new topic with more
people next year.

Photo of guided tour

ICUS welcomes
By Prof. K. Meguro

Drs. Yosuke Nakaso and Hideomi
Gokon have joined ICUS from 1st
April 2015 as Assistant Professor
and Ms. Tomoko Matsushita has
became a project researcher from16th April 2015.
Dr. Nakaso received his Doctor
al Degree from UTokyo in 2015.
His major is architectural structural
engineering, especially the safety
against ceiling collapse.
Dr. Gokon received his Doctoral

Degree from Tohoku University
in 2015. He has studied tsunami
and remote sensing for 5 years
at Tohoku University, including
a collaborative research with theGerman Aerospace Center (DLR).
He contributed to develop a method
for estimating tsunami-induced
damage by integrating tsunami
numerical modeling and remotesensing technology.
Ms. Matsushita received Master
Degree of Civil Engineering fromof UTokyo in 2010 and Bachelor
degree in Architecture from the
University of Washington in 1999.
She is a registered architect and an
active member of an NGO working
in disaster field since 2004. Her
main field of study is post-disasterhousing reconstruction. She will beworking mainly on the SATREPS
project in Myanmar.
We expect new members tocontribute to ICUS activities.

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to Jun. 2015

Page 7

Editor’s note…
The main mission of ICUS is tocreate safe urban societies frominternational newpoint throughthe incorporation of advanced
technologies. This newsletter includes
our damage survey of the 2015 Gurka
earthquake and the launching of the
SATREPS project in Myanmar.
The 2015 Gurka earthquake hit
on 25th April, 2015 causing over
8,500 death toll. We visited theaffected sites to investigate damage
and discuss how the affected areas
can be assisted for their recovery
and reconstruction. The damaged

structures were mainly unreinforced
masonry stratures, most of which were
designed and constructed without
adequate engineering considerationof potential earthquakes. Observed
ground motions during the Gurka
earthquake revealed a displacement
response spectrum of 400 cm at
5 sec and over 300 cm from 5 to 7
sec. These strong ground motions
should be considered as a warning toJapan, especially long natural periodfacilities, such as super high risebuildings in urban areas. Details areavailable in the main article of thisvolume entitled “Reconnaissance
Survey Report of the 2015 Gurka,
Nepal, Earthquake”.

The
SATREPS
project,“Development of a Comprehensive
Disaster Resilience and Collaboration
Platform in Myanmar”, started
in April 2015 with six researchgroups. This newsletter introduces
the activities of the three groups,
Geospatial Technology, Transportand Mobility, and Water-related
Disasters. We are looking forward
to conducting research that will
ultimately contribute to solveinternational problems related tourban safety and to provide ideas forcreating a new and vibrant society in
Myanmar.
by M.Numada

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS)
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3) 5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3) 5452-6476
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS) is a research
center located at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo.
The purpose of ICUS is to identify, investigate, and resolve issues towards therealization of sustainable urban systems for the prosperity and safety of society
considering challenging socio-economic problems.