ICUS NEWSLETTER

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

VOLUME 9 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2010

EARTHQUAKE COUNTERMEASURESFOR SAFER FUTURE IN KOREA
By
Waon-Ho Yi1
The devastating 1995 Kobe
(Hyogoken-Nambu) Earthquake
in Japan with more than 6,400
fatalities, the 1999 Chichi Earthquake in Taiwan with about 2,500
fatalities and the 2008 Sichuan
Earthquake recently in China
with more than 69,000 confirmed
fatalities have awakened the public

to a possible earthquake disaster in
Korea. After the Kobe Earthquake
in 1995, the Korean government
added “earthquake” as a disaster
item in the revised “National
Disaster Countermeasures Act”
and established the 1st Earthquake
Disaster Countermeasures Plan.
Continued effort has been madefor earthquake hazard mitigation
with the 1st to 3rd Earthquake
Disaster Countermeasures Plans
and Earthquake Disaster Countermeasures Act enacted on Mar.
28, 2008. A comprehensive plan
was drawn up in 1998 to establish
the mitigation countermeasures,
emergency response, and rehabili-

Seismic hazard map for Asia showing the seismicity of Korea(http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/gshap/eastasia)

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 2

2nd Phase of Earthquake Disaster Countermeasures Plan

tation for related agencies. In
this article, historical and recent
earthquakes in Korea and 1st to
3rd phases of the Earthquake
Disaster Countermeasures Planare introduced along with research
related to the Earthquake Disaster
Countermeasures Plan.
As shown on the seismic hazard
map on the previous page, Korea
is relatively safer than neighboring
countries located on the Pacific
Rim such as Japan and China.
However, Korea is not free fromearthquakes according to historical
records, which indicate that the
number of earthquakes increased
from the 15th to the 18th century.
In addition, frequency steadilyrose in the 20th century. Therefore,
it is necessary to prepare for futureearthquake events.
1ST PHASE OF COUNTERMEASURES PLAN
The 1st Earthquake Disaster
Countermeasures Plan of the
Koreangovernment
wasestablished on January 27, 1995,
with the participation of relevant
ministries and experts. In this plan,
seismic
performancelevel,

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

maintenance of the legal system,and the Earthquake Disaster
Countermeasures Act were mainly
focused on, with the following
goals:• Promotion of the Act for
Earthquake Countermeasures• Establishment of a practicalplan for the earthquake disastermitigation• Reduction of casualties bymaintenance of rescue andrelief system• Strengthening the relationshipbetween ministry and experts• Enhancing consciousness ofearthquake disasters throughpublic relations• Strengthening and developing
the seismic design code andprovision• Encouraging research anddevelopment for earthquake
damage mitigation

2ND PHASE OF COUNTERMEASURES PLAN
After the earthquake in Fukuoka,
Japan, on March 20, 2005,
the 2nd phase of Earthquake
Disaster Countermeasures Plan,
shown above, was establishedand reported on April 12, 2005.
After building a research anddevelopment (R&D) and policy
plan over five years, the 2nd phase
was started. The direction andgoals were planned as follows:• Enactment and maintenance of
the Act for earthquake disastermitigation• Support of early response byimproving the observation andalert system for the earthquake
and tsunami• Developing and strengthening
the education and training
program for rapid response to
the earthquake disasters• Improving
mitigation
bystrengthening the seismic
provisions and developing anearthquake hazard map

From the 1st phase, adaptationof the seismic design was widenedfor 20 kinds of facilities, andseismic design provisions were reestablished and applied. Throughthe evaluation of the 1st phase,
From the 2nd phase, thethe 2nd phase was established and earthquake/tsunami alert systemcompleted in December of 2005. and the Earthquake DisasterPage 3

Management System (EDMS)
were successfully developed.
Through the development of
EDMS, a national intensity map
and estimation of casualties andstructural damage were created.
The
Earthquake
DisasterCountermeasures Act (Act No.
9001) was enacted on March 28,
2008 and enforced from March
25, 2009, a related enforcement
decree(Presidential
DecreeNo. 21362) was enacted andenforced from March 25, 2009,
and an enforcement ordinance(Ordinance of Ministry Public
Administration and Security No.
72) was enacted and enforced
from March 26, 2009.

Precedence and Advanced Research on EDMS

3RD PHASE OF COUNTERMEASURES PLAN
To make and keep Korea safe
againstfutureearthquakes,
the 3rd Earthquake Disaster
Countermeasures Plan is underdevelopment from 2009. This 3rdphase, from 2009 to 2013, focuses
mainly on six subjects, including(1) seismic retrofitting of existing
structures which used non-seismic
Advancing the EDMS
design, (2) development andapplication of seismic hazard map,
• Strengthening public education(3) development of earthquake and Legal System Maintenanceand training program for
notification and response system, • Establishment of integrated
seismic performance level
earthquake disaster prevention(4) development of tsunami
countermeasures, (5) improving • Maintenance of organizations (3) Response and Recovery
for promoting the Earthquake • Development of earthquake
public education and training
DisasterCountermeasures
rapid response system
related to earthquake disasterPlan
In conclusion, it is urgently
prevention and (6) strengthening
necessary to prepare for future
and maintaining the legislation (2) Prevention and Preparationand organization dedicated to • Advancement of earthquake/ earthquakes. Lessons from pasttsunami observation system
disastrous earthquakes as wellearthquakes. This plan will beestablished with three main tasks • Development and utilization of as efforts for earthquake disasterthe earthquake hazard map and mitigation will be devoted toand eight subsidiary tasks, shown
active faults map
developingtheEarthquake
to the right, and the subsidiarytasks will be divided into a total of • Re-establishment of seismic Disaster Countermeasures Plan.
design provision and promo24 tasks. From the eight subsidiary1
Director, National Institute fortion of retrofitting for existingtasks, R&D projects are being
Disaster Prevention / Professor,
facilities
partially implemented in 2009
Kwangwoon University, Korea• Establishment of tsunami
with 58 detailed projects.
disaster countermeasures(1) Seismic Performance Level

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 4Integration of advanced technologies for construction,
environmental protection, and safety in the Yamate Tunnel
The 4.3 kilometer section of theCentral Circular Shinjuku Route“Yamate Tunnel” between Shibuya
and Shinjuku was opened on March
28th, 2010. This section followed
the completion of the 6.7 kilometer
section between Shinjuku andIkebukuro, which was finished in
December of 2007. The Yamate
Tunnel is intended to transfer traffic
which is not bound for the Tokyo
city center to the Central Circular
Route, thus greatly reducing
traffic congestion and enhancing
usage of the Tokyo Metropolitan
Expressway network.
YAMATE TUNNEL OUTLINE
The Central Circular Route is
47 kilometers long with a radiusof about 8 kilometers from theTokyo city center, as shown to theright, with roughly 37 kilometerscurrently in service. The Yamate
Tunnel is an 11 kilometer
expressway located in the westernpart and runs underground beneathcircular Route No. 6 in order topreserve the environment andmake effective use of limited urban
space. The alignment of the tunnel,
structural types and con-struction
methods have to consider various
constraints such as river crossings,
subways, trunk roads and railways,
and major existing public utilities.

methods” (STEMS) to construct
underground junctions and theconnection of ramp tunnels; “u-turntunneling operations” which rotatesa shield by 180 degrees in a shaft;and so on.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION MEASURESIn addition to environmental
improvement due to the alleviation of traffic congestion, an NO2
removal system for extracting
low concentrations of NO2 wasinstalled in nine ventilation
stations. The system is composedof an electric precipitator and NO2
removal equipment. The removal
performance such as removal ratio
for suspended particulate matter(SPM) and NO2 is more than 80%
and 90%, respectively, on a daily
average.
SAFETY AND DISASTER
PREVENTION SYSTEM
In order to secure safety andprevent disasters such as fire orother accidents, various equipment to achieve AA grading
such as emergency phones,
fire detection systems, water

Central circular route

INNOVATIVE TUNNELTECHNOLOGIESThe recently developed shieldtunnel construction technique
was utilized for roughly 80% of
the tunnel section. In response to
the application of shield tunnel
with such a large diameter,
numerous innovative construction
technologies were developed suchas the “shield tunnel expansion

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Shield tunnel expansion method

Page 5sprinklers, foam hydrants, and soforth were installed. In addition,
several advanced technologies
were employed due to the tunnel’slength. The tunnel is monitored 24
hours a day from a traffic control
room by CCTV cameras which can
immediately detect unusual traffic
incidents using image processing,and a loud speaker system canprovide evacuation information.
Furthermore, the Metropolitan
Expressway motorcycle patrol
corps, the first emergencydesignated motorcycle squad

operated by a private company in last section, the Shinagawa Route,
Japan, was founded to ensure rapid is under construction and scheduled
initial response to accidents.
for completion in 2013.
In the meantime, the innovative
construction and safety
FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
technologies
anddisaster
Early completion of the entire prevention systems developed byCentral Circular Route is highly the Metropolitan Expressway Co.,desired to provide an effective Ltd. will be expected to contributeexpressway network in the further to effective utilization
Tokyo Metropolitan area which and development of undergroundcan reduce traffic congestion as spaces in urban areas.
well as provide significant socioeconomic benefits and improve(by H. Dobashi, Metropolitan
environmental preservation. The
Expressway Co., Ltd.)Tour of the Uemachi Terrace, a potential disaster area
The Uemachi fault belt runs 42
kilometers from Toyonaka City
to Osaka City, passing throughKishikawa City. It is a reverse
fault, running primarily south tonorth, with the west side rising up
at an average velocity of roughly
0.4 meters per 1,000 years. The
estimated average activity interval
is around 8,000 years. According
to an estimation by the Central
Disaster Prevention Council,
the potential loss of life due to
Uemachi fault belt move may be
up to 42,000 people.
The Karahori area, which islocated on the Uemachi Terrace, isan unusual area where the scenery,such as old tenement houses(nagaya), and machiya utilize thegeographical features to create
alleys. I participated in a walking
tour of this area on January
19, 2010 with Mr. Hayakawa, amember of the Karahori Club.
This area is located near the moaton the southern side of Osaka
Castle, which was originally built
at the end of the 15th century. The
slope and cliff existed even at thattime, and the Karahori shopping
street still slopes downward.
The primary feature of this area isneighborhoods with old tenement
houses built closely together.
However, modern apartment
houses have also been recently
built here and the population is
rapidly increasing.
Although there is the potential

Old tenement houses

for earthquake disaster from the
Uemachi fault belt, effort is madeto preserve the historical valueof the tenement houses throughmaintanence. When considering
disaster prevention, however,there exists significant risk suchas collapse of the tenement
houses, poor space utilization,
fire disaster, and so forth, which
need to be solved before a futureearthquake strikes.
This area is a good example of thedual problems of how to preserve
historicalarchitectureandneighborhood atmosphere while
protecting against earthquake
damage.
(by M. Numada)

Coexistence of old and modern
construction

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 615 years after the Kobe Earthquake:
Basic steps for earthquake disaster reduction and the necessity
for an integrated disaster management strategy
UNFORGETTABLEJANUARY 17, 1995
Even now, I can still remember
clearly the morning of that day. I
was awakened in my hotel room
in Osaka at 5:46 am by strong
shaking. This shaking was due tothe 1995 Kobe (Hyogo-ken Nanbu)
Earthquake, with a magnitudeof 7.3 which lead to the deathsof over 6,400 people, damaged
650,000 structures, and caused
over US$ 100 million in direct
economic loss. The US-Japan
direct International Symposiumfor earthquake disaster mitigation
was scheduled to be held in Osaka,
just 30 kilometers east of Kobe
City, to commemorate the oneyear anniversary of the Northridge
Earthquake which struck the Los
Angeles area on January 17,
1994. But unfortunately, threehours before the opening of thesymposium, the Kobe Earthquake
occurred.
I took a taxi to Kobe andwandered around the affectedareas of Kobe for a couple of days
and nights, surveying the damage
from building collapse and fires.
I was shocked to see the large
gap between what I had learned
and reality, and that experience
became an unforgettable andformative part of my career as a
researcher in the field of disastermitigation.
WITH STRONG SHOCK AND
COMPLICATED FEELINGS
After coming back to Tokyo, I
was gripped by complicated andstrong feelings of responsibility,
powerlessness, apology, and more.
I felt that I had to do something, so
I worked with my research center,
INCEDE (International Center for

Disaster-Mitigation Engineering)on a full-color newsletter, as
shown below. This special-issue
newsletter was delivered to over
140 countries, and was the first
English report on the damage survey
conducted by Japanese specialists.
Other activities included theestablishment of KOBEnet, a
researcher network for supporting
restoration and reconstruction
after the Kobe earthquake, withcolleagues at the Institute ofIndustrial Science, the Universityof Tokyo, and publication ofdamage reconnaissance reports incooperation with many earthquake
disaster-related associations national
and local governments. The
importance of seismic retrofittingof existing structures was apparent
from these activities, but I feltthat focusing only on technicalproblems was not enough to solve
this issue – research on the policy

Cover page and contents of INCEDE Newsletter Special Issue reportingon the Kobe Earthquake disaster

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 7and social systems was also
necessary, so I proposed social
incentive systems to promote
seismic retrofitting activities.
Also, I worked to promote disastereducation through programs andmaterials for children and thegeneral public, utilizing picture
books, comics, maps, manuals,
and more.
CURRENT EARTHQUAKEDISASTER RISK IN JAPANthey believe that if they solvea problem in their field, they
can achieve the final goal? If
the problem is due to a lack ofpolitical power, they should makeefforts to have political power;
if it is due to economic or social
regulation problems, they shouldtackle them, and try to find theirown solution and implement
measures to apply that solution. It
is necessary for people to change
their mindset. We are not only
engineers or researchers, but also
citizens and taxpayers, so whatever
we do, we should always keep inmind the viewpoint of the citizens
and taxpayers. It is important to
conduct research and disseminate
information to the public keeping
in mind this viewpoint, by using
basic terminology and clear
explanations for the public.

Fifteen years after the Kobe
Earthquake, what is the mostimportant issue for minimizing
earthquake disasters in Japan inthis high-seismicity period? In
the coming 30 to 50 years, four tofive earthquakes of magnitude 8
or higher, and 40 to 50 magnitude
7 events (similar to The Kobe
Earthquake) may occur. The total
economic loss due to these events
IMPORTANT RESEARCH
is estimated by the national govTOPICS TO BE TACKLED
ernment at roughly 40 percent ofConsidering
theaboveGDP, with the number of collapsed
and burnt-out structures between mentioned points, I believe thatthe following research topics
one and two million.
are important for implementing
efficient earthquake disaster
KEY FOR EARTHQUAKE
countermeasures.
DISASTER REDUCTION• Record data of the Kobe
Earthquake disaster as much
It’s common knowledge that theas possible in order to fully
final goal of earthquake disaster
imagine the whole disaster (thecountermeasures is to minimize
record must have data structure
the negative impact due tothat enables us to analyze theearthquakes. Based on the current
data from various viewpoints)
situation, how many people havebeen working towards this goal? • Continuous promotion of
conventional, individual, andAre the people in this field satisfied
fundamental research (thewith only considering their own
topics described below can befield – for example, are scientists
implemented based on thesesatisfied focusing only on scientificresearch works)
mechanism; the engineer satisfied
with only tackling technical issues; • Shift from research focusing
on mechanisms to research on
do the administrators only discussdeveloping measures (fromissues in their own section? Whatfocusingonmechanisms
is the gap between their purpose
based on disaster experienceand society’s expectations? Do

to developing countermeasuresand predicting phenomenon
which have not yet been observed in past disasters)• Promoteresearchonquantitative evaluation of theusefulness, social impact, andlong-term effect of the social
system and regulation related todisaster reduction (without this,
it is impossible to implement
systems and regulations that
can truly contribute to reducing
disasters in the whole country
and maintain accountability
with the taxpayers)• Establish a promotion system, research promotion, andimplementation system forcountermeasures on huge,
longterm,
andcomplexdisasters which haven’t been
experienced yet, such as large,
multi-event disasters• Establishacooperation
system among universities
and academic associations
working on disaster researchand implement a system forcoordinating activities throughresearchorganizations,mass media, administrative
organizations, and politicians• Develop a disaster education
program and materials for all
generations, from infants toadults• Create and promote theattractive business of disaster
reduction• Establish a system for getting
support from other countries
in case a large earthquake
disaster occurs during the
21st century (this is necessary
due to the shortage of humanresources, construction laborand engineers necessary forrecovery and reconstruction)(by K. Meguro)

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 8

Visit to Ohashi junction before the public opening
Prof. Meguro, Dr. Kuwano, Dr.
Miyazaki, and other ICUS members
visited the Ohashi Junction site
in the Central Circular Route of
the Metropolitan Expressway inTokyo on January 29, 2010, justbefore opening of the expressway
to the public.
The junction is located be-

tween the Shinjuku route andShinagawa route (which is still
under construction), as explainedin Dr. Dobashi’s article on page4, and has a double loop structure
between the Central Circular Routeand the connecting route. The
latest technology was fully used toreduce environmental impact, andGroup photo taken on the roof-top of Ohashi Junction

the roof of the junction structure
will be utilized as a garden. It willsoon become part of a new urban
landscape.
(by R. Kuwano)

Schematic of Ohashi Junction(http://www.c2info.jp/ohashi-summary.php)

15th anniversary forum of the Kobe Earthquake
Fifteen years have passed sincethe Hyogo-ken Nambu (Kobe)
Earthquake, which oc-curred on
January 17, 1995, at 05:46 JSTin the southern part of Hyōgo
Prefecture, Japan. To mark the 15th
anniversary, 14 academic groups
organized a commemoration
forum at the international congress
center in Kobe. Its purpose was tolook back on past activities, clarify
the role of the academic groups,
and determine future courses ofactions, including research andcommunication with society.
In the keynote speech, Prof. Kenzo
Toki (Ritsumeikan University) gave
a lecture on the fire seismic hazard
and also on cultural heritage;
following that, Prof. Masanori
Hamada (Waseda University)
gave a presentation on the role ofresearch institutes after the Kobe
Earthquake and reducing future
seismic risk.
During the panel discussion,
topics such as the problems be-

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

fore and after the disaster, ideal
disaster prevention education,and the means for announcing
research results to the public werediscussed. The director of ICUS,
Prof. Meguro, was a member of thepanelists.
In Kobe, around 20 percent of
the current population did notexperience the Kobe Earthquake.
Therefore, problems related todisaster prevention education

including its implementation werediscussed. Another discussion
pointed out that the researcher’s
activities may not be easily
understood or distributed to thesociety, yet it is important to getsocial feedback regarding the
research and the effectiveness ofthe education methods.

During the panel discussion(by M. Numada )Page 9Ground-breaking ceremony of BUET-JIDPUS

Unveiling of the foundation stone of BUET-JIDPUS

Dignitaries at the opening ceremony

The ground breaking ceremonyof the Bangladesh Universityof Engineering and Technology(BUET) and the Japan Instituteof Disaster Prevention and Urban
Safety (JIDPUS) was held on
March 20, 2010 in the seminarroom of the Information AccessCenter at BUET. The welcome
speech was given by Dr. Raquib
Ahsan, Deputy Project Directorof BUET-JIDPUS. First, Dr.
Ahsan introduced BUET to theinvited guests, then gave a brief
description and overview of theobjectives of the institution:
to strengthen the capacity ofengineering professionals in
the fields of infrastructure
management
andstructural

healthmonitoring,disastermanagement and prevention,and urban safety by developing
research infrastructure, libraryand computational facilities; tostrengthen other local agencies
through training and dissemination of knowledge; to promotecollaboration with other national
and international universities andresearch organizations; and toprovide testing and consultancy inthe field of disaster prevention andurban safety.
In the opening ceremony, Air
Vice-Marshal (Rtd.) Mr. A.K.
Khandaker, Honorable Minister,
Ministry of Planning, Govt. of
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
was the chief guest. He said that

Bangladesh is a developing country
with a large budget deficiency for
infrastructural development. At thesame time, Bangladesh is highly
disaster-prone, but there is no
institution to monitor infrastructuredevelopment. The chief guest
claimed that BUET-JIDPUS
will strengthen the capacity of
infrastructure development anddisaster prevention.
The Japanese ambassador,
his Excellency Mr. Tamotsu
Shinotsuka, was also invited asa special guest. He discussed therelationship between disastermanagement and infrastructuredevelopment. He believes that thisnew institution will help improve
the infrastructure in Bangladesh
through research and practicalexperience. Prof. Taketo Uomoto,
Professor Emeritus, the Universityof Tokyo and Mr. Takao Toda,
Chief Representative, JICA wereother Guests of Honor.
Prof. A.M.M. Safiullah, ViceChancellor of BUET was thechair for the ground-breaking
ceremony. He said that Dhaka isa megacity for which urban safety
is a necessity, and it is of great
importance to give more priority
to this sector. He addressed thisinstitution as the first-ever capableof monitoring urban safety issues
in Bangladesh. The chair of theceremony also added that BUETJIDPUS will boost the capacityof people in construction, disasterprevention and mitigation, andthat this institution will carry out
research activities for assuring
quality infrastructure development. Finally, the chief guests
unveiled the foundation stone of
BUET-JIDPUS.
(by M.A. Ansary, BNUS)

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 10Workshop on urban safety held at BUET
BUET-JIDPUS, in collaboration with ICUS, the University ofTokyo, organized the Workshop
on Urban Safety from March 20 to
21, 2010, at the BUET Information
Access Center. This was the firstsuch workshop organized by
BUET. Fifty five participantsfrom several institutions attended
this workshop, mainly from thecivil engineering, architectural,and urban planning fields. Four
researchers from BNUS (Md.
Kamruzzaman, Md. Saidur Rahman, Ripon Hore, Sharmin Ara)
also participated.
The workshop was divided
into six sessions with lectures
given by experts on the subjectsof urban safety issues anddisastermanagement.
Prof.
Kimiro Meguro, Director of
ICUS,
presented“Towards
ImplementationofDisaster
Safer Built Environment.” This
lecture consisted of two issues:“implementation of earthquake
safer housing by combinationof technological and social
approaches” and “integrated
disaster information system andinformation management.”
Mr. Yasuyoshi Ichihashi, visiting

professor of ICUS, presented“Framework/MechanismofInternational Cooperation for
Disaster Risk Reduction andJapan’s Contribution.” This lecture
briefly reviewed the process andaccomplishments so far in thetitle areas, focusing on Japan’scontribution.
Prof. Haruo Sawada, professorof ICUS, presented “Global
Changes and Disaster Events
Observed by Satellite Remote
Sensing.” Primary knowledge on
remote sensing, its applicationin the field of land use change
detection, disaster management
and global climate change werecovered in this lecture.
Prof. Taketo Uomoto, Professor
Emeritus, the University of Tokyoalso delivered a lecture on “TheImportance of Overall Evaluationof Civil Structures to Maintain
Safety.” The lecture explained
what sort of problems are faced
by structures such as buildings,
tunnels, and roads and what kindof maintenance is required forreinforced concrete structures.
Different practical examples werealso given to show the overallsituation in Japan. This lectureGroup photo of workshop participants

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

was intended to help the concrete
engineers who are trying to design,
construct, and maintain concrete
structures.
Another lecture was given by
A.S.M. Woobaid Ullah, Professor,
Department of Geology, Universityof Dhaka, on “Geophysical Survey.”
In this lecture, he gave different
informationongeophysics,
methods of geophysical survey,
techniques of geophysics, andimplementation in the field.
Prof. Mehedi Ahmed Ansary,
Project Director of BNUS, presented a lecture on “Recent
Earthquake-Related Activities in
Bangladesh (1996-2008).” This
was the last session of the workshop
and, in this lecture, he discussed
activities and research undertaken
in recent years in Bangladesh
related to the title topics. He also
gave a short description of theongoing and completed research
activities conducted by BUET.
Finally, certificates were given
to the participants of the workshop
by Prof. A.M.M. Safiullah, ViceChancellor of BUET.
(by M.A. Ansary, BNUS)

Page 11

BNUS Activities
BNUS has been busy withseveral research projects. The
first is evaluation of the seismic
vulnerability of buildings in Dhaka
using non-destructive tests such as
FERROSCAN and Microtremor.
These methods were applied
to establish the configuration
and response behavior of theinvestigation’s target structures.
Another investigation is being

conducted to evaluate the firefighting system in high-risebuildings in Dhaka in cooperation
with the Department of Fire
Service and Civil Defense. The
purpose of this investigation is tocheck the existing fire systems aswell as raise awareness about fire
hazards and earthquake-related
issues among people.
Research activities funded by

the Ministry of Science and Information Technology include
a project focusing on urban
vulnerability to earthquakes in
unplanned areas in old Dhaka
and structural health monitoringof reinforced-concrete bridges in
Bangladesh.
(by M.A. Ansary, BNUS)

Order of the Rising Sun to Dr. Tsuneo Katayama
Dr. Tsuneo Katayama received
the honor of the Order of the Rising
Sun (gold rays with neck ribbon)
from the Japanese government.
He graduated from the Universityof Tokyo in 1962, received his
Ph.D. from the University of
New South Wales, and served as
director of INCEDE (predecessor
to ICUS). This honor is the resultof his continuous contribution
to establishing friendship andscientific communities around theworld. His research field is very

wide, spanning the fields of socialand safety systems engineering
considering materials, disasters,
maintenance, and more. He often
attended international workshops
held by ICUS and is a collaborator

with IIS. He is now working for
the Tokyo Denki University in
the Department of Architecture.
We congratulate him on this prestigious decoration.
(by K. Meguro)

Prof. Katayama(third from right)

ICUS Activities● Prof. Meguro, Prof. Sawada, andVisiting Prof. Ichihashi vi-sited
Bangladesh from March 17th
to 22nd for a ground-breaking
ceremony and workshop on
urban safety at BUET.
● Prof. Meguro went to Indonesia

from March 12th to 16th to promote
low-cost retrofitting methods.
● Prof. Sawada had a meetingwith the Cambodian Forestry
Administration, a researchmeeting at AIT, and conducted
field research in last December

and February.
● Prof. Sawada also attended
an international workshop in
Beijing from February 26th to
28th, and also visited RNUS and
GISTDA from March 22nd to
25th.

Awards● Mr. Makoto Hosoo, graduate
student of Kuwano Laboratory,
received the Best Presentation
Award at the 44th annual

conference of the Japanese
Geotechnical Society.
● Mr. Kotaro Sakurai, graduate
student of Meguro Laboratory,

received the Best Presentation
Award at the 7th annual international conference on Urban
Earthquake Engineering.

ICUS Newsletter Vol.9, No.4

Page 12
Editor’s Note
During the period of this volume,
there were many events held tocommemorate the 15th anniversaryof the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. As
reported on pages 6 and 7, I was in
Kobe from the morning of the day ofthe earthquake and had a formative
experience as disaster researcher. I
was 32 years old at that time and I
gave the name ‘Nozomi’ to my firstdaughter who was born one monthafter the Kobe Earthquake. Her name
“Nozomi” means hope in Japaneseand I chose it because I wanted her
to live a life of hope and give hopeto others. I strongly recognized theimportance of hope for life as I saw
many people who couldn’t find hopein the affected areas.
Soon after coming back from
Kobe, I prepared INCEDE Newsletter, Special Issue, and distributed it all over the world. Also weestablished KOBEnet and KOBEnet
room to support recovery activities
through information sharing, andmany people from Japan and morethan 500 people from 34 countries
visited it. We received many thankyou letters from those countries
who improved their disaster systems
using the information collected from
KOBEnet. Korea, reported in themain article of this volume, is one of

the typical examples.
Fifteen years is a relatively long
period, but the time since the Kobe
Earthquake has passed quickly,
and my working period left at the
University of Tokyo before retirement
is less than that. Now Japan hasentered a high seismicity period, andwe may have many big earthquakes
in the near future. Considering thecurrent situation and the time remaining to me at this university, I
keenly feel the importance of efficientuse of time and selection of research
topics and activities for disaster
reduction to let people have lives
with hopes, ‘Nozomi’.
(By K. Meguro)

Call for papers: USMCA 2010 (Kobe, Japan)
The 9th International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia (USMCA
2010) will be held in Kobe, Japan, on October 13th and 14th, 2010. The symposium is co-organized by ICUS andthe United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), and marks the 15th anniversary of
the Kobe Earthquake of 1995 and International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 13th. The deadline for
abstract submission is June 30, 2010. Please visit the ICUS website for more information.
If you would like to contribute an article to ICUS newsletter or have any comments or suggestions,please contact the editorial committee at icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp. Any article within the scope of urban
safety engineering and management will be considered for publication after internal peer review by
the editorial committee. To know the scope of ICUS activities, please visit ICUS homepage at http://
icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
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/

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