ICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

SPECIAL ISSUE
January 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Central Part of Niigata Prefecture, Japan
was Striken by M 6.8 Earthquake on October 23, 2004
By
Kimiro MEGURO
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake, with a focal depth of 13 km, stroke the central part of Niigata
Prefecture, Japan, at 17:56 on October 23, 2004. Due to this earthquake, strong groundmotions up to 1.7 g were recorded. Forty people were killed and 2,800 houses collapsed or wereheavily damaged. Many landslides and liquefied sites were observed. Civil infrastructure suchas highway facilities, bullet train system, and many other lifeline systems were also damaged.
ICUS dispatched reconnaissance teams to the affected sites several times to investigate various
damage due to the earthquake. This is a quick report summarizing these site surveys.
On October 23, 2004, at 17:56, amagnitude 6.8 earthquake, with a
focal depth of 13 km, stroke thecentral part of Niigata Prefecture.
The Japanese Meteorological
Agency (JMA) named this event the
2 0 0 4 M i d - N i i ga t a P r e f e c t u r eEarthquake. Due to this earthquake,strong ground motions with JMA
seismic intensity, I J M A , 7, whichcorresponds to the highest intensity
in this scale, were observed. This is
the first time since the JMA changed
its intensity def inition, from ahuman perception based definition
to an instrumental observation based
one, that this intensity was observed.
Peak ground accelerations up to
1.7g and peak ground velocities up
to 133 kines were observed. These

are much higher than those of theground motion recorded during the
1995 Kobe Earthquake. IJMA 7 wasobserved at Kawaguchi town andOjiya city. Yamakoshi village andOguni town experienced I JMA 6+
while I J M A 6- was obser ved at
Nagaoka city, Tookamachi city,
Tochio city, Koshiji town, Mishimat ow n , a n d H o r i n o u c h i t ow n .

(Urasa-agaoka, Joetsu-Shinkansen, Nagaoka city, 25/10/2004)

The bullet train derailed for the first time since it started operations in 1964.

page 2

Very strong ground motion was observed...
Number and intensity of aftershocks as of December 17, 2004
by the Japan Meteorological Agency

Distribution of JMA Intensities atthe earthquake hit area during themain shock on October 23, 2004,
5:56PM
Hirokami village, Sumon village,
Irihirose village, Kawanishi town,
Nakasato town, Kariwa town, and ave r y w i d e a r e a f r o m To h o k u(Northeast part of Japan) to Kinki(Mid-west part of Japan) registered
IJMA, ranging from 1 to 5+. Becauseof this earthquake, 40 people were
killed and 4,500 were injured.
This earthquake was the firstevent in which the derailment of abullet train was observed since they
entered service in 1964. Fortunately,
no fatal victims were reported. This
service line is not very congested
and at the time of the earthquake
only one of the lanes was being used.
One of the most impor tantcharacteristics of this earthquake ist h e h u g e n u m b e r o f l a rg e
aftershocks. On the same day of themain shock, three aftershocks withmagnitude 6 or more stroke. The
first occurred at 18:03, just sevenminutes after the main shock, andhad a M6.3 and a maximum recorded
IJMA 5+. Eight minutes after, at 18:11,
a M6.0 event with a maximum
recorded IJMA 6+ was felt. At 18:34,
a M6.5, maximum IJMA 6+ stroke thesame region. Beside these three
events, three more with IJMA 6+ werefelt on October 23, 19:45, M5.7,
maximum IJMA 6-, on October 27,
10:40, M6.1, maximum IJMA 6-, andon November 8, 11:15, M5.9, IJMA 5+,
as shown in the table at the top of
this page. This table shows thenumber of aftershocks and thecorresponding maximum recorded

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

intensities. Because of a large
number of aftershocks, landslides
and structural damage graduallyp r og r e s s e d a n d c o n s e q u e n t ly
affected the life of the people livingin the area.
The statistics of human casualties
and structural damage are
introduced in the table on the next
page. Because of this earthquake,
40 people were killed, 9 of them due
to structural collapse. The othervictims died for other reasons suchas shock, exhaustion, stress, and theeconomy class syndrome. The latter
was caused by the long periods thatpage 3the residents had to sleep in theircars, in uncomfortable positions,because of the insecurity of theirhouses and their fear due to the huge
number of aftershocks. The numberof collapsed, moderately damaged,
and slightly damaged houses were
2,800, 10,600, and 88,500,
respectively.
The ground motion due to the 2004
Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake
was ver y large. Peak groundaccelerations (PGA) up to 1.7g andpeak ground velocities (PGV) up to
133kines were obser ved. The
response spectra depicted below
shows the earthquake high power inthe high frequency, or short period,
range, from 0 to 1sec. Response
accelerations over 6,000 Gals areobserved. This is much higher thanthe power of the ground motion
during the 1995 Kobe Earthquake
for a similar frequency range.
However, on a longer period range,from 1 to 2 sec, the Kobe groundmotion power was higher. The
frequency content characteristics oft h e M i d - N i i ga t a P r e f e c t u r eEarthquake may partially explain therelatively small structural damage
observed as compared to that during
the Kobe Earthquake. However,other reasons such as the highstructural strength of the dwellings
should also be taken into account.

Due to the severe winter and hugesnow fall that is common in this area,
houses are built with small openings,
to keep them warm, and robust
foundations and structural elements,
to resist the snow weight. Thesef e a t u r e s i n c r e a s e t h e ove r a l l
structural strength. It is not surprise
to observe that most of the collapsed

houses were either old or presented
soft stories in the 1st floor were open
spaces were allocated. On the other
hand, the extremely high power inthe high frequency range may explain
the huge number of rock falls andlandslides, non-tensile material
structures, which are more affectedby this type of excitations.

Casualties, damaged buildings, and fires
caused by the earthquake at different prefectures(as of December 24, 2004 by Fire and Disaster Management Agency)(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)

Graveyard at Kawaguchi town where IJMA was 7

Strong ground motion recordedat the K-Net Ojiya station(PGA: 1500.7gal, PGV: 133.4kine, IJMA: 6.73)

Response spectra corresponding to the 2004 Mid
Niigata Prefecture and the 1995 Kobe Earthquakes

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 4Landslides and rock falls blocked roads...
The 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture
E a r t h q u a ke o c c u r r e d i n a
mountainous area which was hit byheavy rainfalls and typhoons justprior to the earthquake occurrence.
These previous events saturated andloosen the soil, and therefore whenthe earthquake stroke the mountainslopes where particularly vulnerable.
For this reason, the geotechnicalrelated damage was widespread andmuch more considerable than the
structural damage.

Geotechnical related damage to people and buildings.
(as of November 26, 2004
by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

Route 291 which connects Ojiya to Yamakoshi was blocked. (Yokowatashi, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

Route 291 which connects Ojiya to Yamakoshi was blocked. (Kawai, Ojiya city, 9/12/2004)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 5(Myoken, Nagaoka city, 25/10/2004)

Huge landslide on the riverside of Shinano River
View from the riverside opposite to the landslide(Myoken, Nagaoka city, 25/10/2004)(Myoken, Nagaoka city, 24/10/2004)© JAPAN SPACE IMAGING CORPORATION

Satellite view of the area before (left) and after (right) the earthquake(Myoken, Nagaoka city, 26/10/2004)

View of the landslide from the riverside where it occurred

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 6Landslides also blocked riverbeds
forming natural dams and causing flooding...

(Higashi-Takezawa, Yamakoshi village, 24/10/2004)(Higashi-Takezawa, Yamakoshi village, 29/10/2004)© JAPAN SPACE IMAGING CORPORATION

Satellite image of the area one (left) and six (right) days after the earthquake(Higashi-Takezawa, Yamakoshi village, 24/10/2004) KOKUSAI KOGYO CO., LTD.

Aerial view of the landslide affcted area

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 7

(Tanesuhara, Yamakoshi village, 24/10/2004) KOKUSAI KOGYO CO., LTD.

(Iketani, Yamakoshi village, 24/10/2004) KOKUSAI KOGYO CO., LTD.

Aerial view of the landslide affcted area

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 8(Uragara, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

House turned into dam due to a landslide that blocked the river flowing next to it before the earthquake(Uragara, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

Uragara, Ojiya city was flooded due to over flowed water from the dam shown in the photo on the top of this page.

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 9Liquefaction induced severe damage...
Numerous manholes uplifted by theincrease in the pore water pressure
associated with liquefaction induced by
the earthquake(Wakaba, Ojiya city, 27/10/2004)(Katada-cho, Nagaoka city, 29/10/2004)

In the left photo, the concrete belt
along the centerline of the road is asnow melting water system. Thissystem is widely used in the affectedarea and together with other lifeline
systems, it was also severely damaged
due to liquefaction.
(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)

The photo on the right shows a temporary
snow melting system prepared for winter.
(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 09/12/2004)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 10

Weak houses collapsed...
B e c a u s e o f s eve r e w i n t e r
condition in the affected area, suchas cold temperature and heavy snow
fall, houses are built with small
openings, to keep them warm, androbust foundations and structuralelements, to resist the snow weight.
The roofs are made of light materials
to prevent snow accumulation.
Furthermore, due to the weather
conditions in the area, there is lessdeterioration of wooden structures(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 11...but, new strong houses remained intact.
due to termite attack. These features
increase the overall structural
strength against earthquake motion.
Most of the collapsed houses
were old and had soft first story,
without enough walls, used forparking or shop. Relatively new andtypical houses, constructedconsidering the winter weather
condition in the affected area,
remained intact even at the locations
where very strong ground motion
was recorded.

(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 07/12/2004)(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 27/10/2004)(Shimojima, Horinouchi town, 26/10/2004)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 12

Bullet train derailed and its service
was disrupted...

(Urasa-Nagaoka, Joetsu-Shinkansen,
Kawaguchi town, 29/10/2004)

A bullet train viaduct pillar with little transverse reinforcement
failed in shear.

The 2004 Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake was the firstevent in which the derailment of abullet train, Shinkansen in Japanese,
was observed since they enteredservice in 1964. Fortunately, thisservice line is not very congested
and at the time of the earthquake
only one of the lanes, the one boundfor Niigata, was being used. No fatal
victims were reported. If two trains
had been r unning in opposite
directions when the earthquake
stroke, most likely the consequences
would have been more severe. The
photos show damage to the pillars of
the bullet train viaduct. At several
columns, concrete cover spalling
was observed at the points where a
portion of the longitudinal rebars
were cut. On others, the few amountof transverse reinforcement caused
column shear failure.
The Urgent Earthquake Detection
and Alar m System, UrEDAS,
system, whose objective is to stoprunning bullet trains before the major
earthquake wave reaches them, wasin operation during this earthquake.
This system is very useful when the
distance between the epicenter andthe running train is long enough so

Bullet train viaduct pillars
exhibited concrete spalling at
the sections where longitudinal
rebars were cut.
(Urasa-Nagaoka, Joetsu-Shinkansen, Kawaguchi town, 26/10/2004)(Urasa-Nagaoka, Joetsu-Shinkansen, Nagaoka city, 25/10/2004)

The bullet train derailed for the first time since it started operations in 1964.

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 13...other train
facilities were also
disrupted.
that the alerting signal arrives before
the earthquake motion. However,when the train is too close to theepicenter, as in this event, the
UrEDAS system cannot accomplish
its objective.
Not only the bullet train but alsol o c a l l i n e s we r e d i s r u p t e d .
Landslides blocked railways,
embankments settled and left
railways hanging, and pillars
constructed according to oldstandards failed.

(Echigo-Kawaguchi-Uchigamaki, Iiyama-line, Kawaguchi town, 29/10/2004)

Pillars constructed according to
old standards failed.

Embankments settled and left
railways hanging.
(Echigo-Kawaguchi-Uchigamaki, Iiyama-line, Kawaguchi town, 29/10/2004)(Kita-Horinouchi-Echigo-Kawaguchi, Joetsu-line, Horinouchi town, 26/10/2004)

Railway facilities were damaged at many locations by landslides.

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 14Highways and roads were damaged...

(Ojiya-ohashi bridge, Route 17, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

A bridge pillar suffered concrete spalling at the location where the longitudinal rebars where
discontinued and where there was a drastic change of the pillar cross section.

(Ojiya-Tokamachi, Route 117, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

Settlement of the bridge abutment caused damage to the bridge access section.

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 15

(Horinouchi-Echigo-Kawaguchi, Kanetsu Expressway, Horinouchi town, 24/10/2004) KOKUSAI KOGYO CO., LTD.

(Ojiya-Yamakoshi, Route 291, Ojiya city, 26/10/2004)

Geotechnical related damage caused disruptions at several locations
along highways (top) and national roads (bottom).

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 16

Lifelines were disrupted...
Another feature of the MidNiigata Prefecture Earthquake is thelarge number of evacuees if theextent of the structural damage isconsidered. The main reason fort h i s i s t h e l a rg e n u m b e r o f
aftershocks, which caused 100,000
people to flee to evacuation centers.
The graph below shows that after
lifelines were restored, the numberof evacuees dramatically decreased.
The city with the largest number of
evacuees was Nagaoka.
As mentioned in the previous
paragraph, this earthquake evacuees
were people who flee to evacuation
centers due to fear of theaftershocks and lifeline disruption.
After these factors were eliminated,most of them were able to promptly
return to their homes. During theKobe earthquake, evacuees werepeople whose houses collapsed andtherefore had no place to go. As
result, the earthquake indirect
victims were numerous. Thisphenomenon will most likely not be
obser ved for the Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake.

The Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake
also put in evidence theimportance of
coordination among
lifeline recovery
activities for efficient
recovery operations.

(Misawa, Nagaoka city, 01/11/2004)
THE JAPAN GAS ASSOCIATION

Gas pipe line was filled with leaked waterfrom damaged or under reparing water supply system

Relation between number of evacuees and recovery
ratio of lifeline system in Nagaoka city

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE(Echigo-Kawaguchi Station, Kawaguchi town, 30/11/2004)
NOMURA RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LTD.

Damage to power supply system

page 17... but life continues in the affected areas

Quick inspection of buildings
was carried out to determine
damage levels. Seals - red,
yellow, and green, in order ofdamage severity - were posted
accordingly.
(Honcho, Ojiya city, 27/10/2004)

A center for collection of reliefmaterial sent to the affected area
(Tamugiyama Branch of Higashii-Kawaguchi
Nursery, Kawaguchi town, 07/12/2004)

A disaster relief operation centerat Nagaoka city hall
(Nagaoka city hall, Nagaoka city, 07/12/2004)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 18

Life of the victims in the affected areas

Portable kitchen
facilities prepared by
Self Defense Force(Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi town, 07/12/2004)

Tents prepared by
Self Defense Force(Asahi-cho, Ojiya city, 07/12/2004)

Temporary housing
for the people
displaced by theearthquake was set
up before the arrivalof the winter season.
(Tamugiyama, Kawaguchi town, 07/12/2004/)

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 19

Geographic Information System greatly
contributed for damage assessment,
quick recovery and reconstruction activities
In the aftermath of the Mid-Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake, Geographic Information System, GIS, waseffectively used to support relief operations. GIS databases
were fed with information of building damage, landslides,
road disruption, refugee centers, relief operations, etc.
Location, characteristics, photos, etc. were easily accessed
through the INTERNET. Cooperation agreements among
national and local governments, academic institutions andthe private sector were established to provide assistanceon damage assessment evaluation and recovery/
reconstruction efforts.

(http://chuetsu-gis.nagaoka-id.ac.jp/)

GIS database was quickly set to assist the relief operations.

ICUS Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE

page 20
Editor’s Note
The 2004 Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake wascharacterized by high seismic
intensities and a large number ofaftershocks. In spite of this, theobserved structural damage wasrelatively minor. This is clearly
showing us that structural strength is
the key issue to reduce overall
earthquake damage. Obviously,
other issues, which have not beenpreviously discussed, such as the
economy class syndrome, wereobserved. However, if the structural
damage would not have been so
minor, these issues would have notbeen highlighted.
Because the stricken area wasmountainous and huge number oflandslides occurred, many areas andits residents were isolated. Under
these circumstances, the use ofhelicopters proved to be essential. In
the future, similar situations will be
faced in mountainous areas andtherefore we should device
procedures to deal with them.
Another lesson learnt from thisearthquake is related to how to
perform recovery activities when asevere winter season is very close to
the earthquake occurrence. In thiscase, there is a very short time period
to perform reconstruction activities
and furthermore, heavy snow loads
acting on already damaged structures
are enough to cause their collapse. In
the case of the Mid-Niigata Prefecture
E a r t h q u a k e , a l l re c ov e r y /reconstruction activities have been
postponed until spring. Up to thattime, how to maintain the remaining
structures and how to prevent moredamage needs to be addressed.
Lifeline recovery, especially the water
snow melting system, which iscurrently stopped, should also begiven careful consideration for future
events. As observed during the Kobe
Earthquake, coordination among theentities in charge of repairing different
lifelines was essential for an efficientand prompt service restoration.
Another point that needs to beaddressed is the issue of housedamage certificates. According to thecurrent system in Japan, the authority
in charge of emitting damage

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineeringcertificates is different from the onethat provides the f inancial
compensation to the house owner. The
amount of the compensation isdecided according to the damage
certificate. Because two entities are
involved in this process, it is difficult
to conceal their approaches. This may
eventually lead to an unrealistic large
number of highly damaged structures,
which are eligible for huge financial
compensations. Because damage waslimited during the Mid-Niigata
Prefecture Earthquake, this problem
did not cause a huge burden to thegovernment. However, if a larger
scale event strikes Japan, the financial
compensation system may collapse.
The photos shown in this special
issue were taken by members of ICUS
unless otherwise stated. The
institutions that kindly granted
permission for using their materials
are gratefully acknowledged.
Dr. Paola Mayorca, Post Doctoral
fellow, and Mr. Shinya Kondo, Ph.D
candidate of Meguro research groupof ICUS contributed to the
preparation of this special issue.
(K. Meguro)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

International Center for

FROM 2001 - 2006

Urban Safety Engineering

REGULAR ISSUESICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1
APRIL - JUNE 2001

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

TOWARDS SAFER URBAN CITIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
By
Taketo UOMOTO
I take pleasure in greeting you
on behalf of the Inter national
Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS) created at the Instituteof Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo in April, 2001 with theobjective of carrying out researchand disseminating information related to different aspects related tourban safety engineering and creating a safe urban environment in
the 21st Century. The Center was
created after the International
Center for Disaster-Mitigation Engineering (INCEDE) completed its
ten-year term, during which it
served as a major driving force ininternational cooperation in areas
related to disaster mitigation engineering, disaster preparedness, andfield surveys, especially in the aftermath of floods and earthquakes.
There is an urgent need to develop a more responsive system for
urban safety that comprehensively
encompasses areas such as, evaluation of urban infrastructure, management of disasters such as earthquakes or floods, and effective utilization of available information for
preparedness. Besides seeking
cooperation from researchers fromother countries, efforts are being
made to involve the Japanese Government agencies, consultants andconstruction companies, and local
bodies, in the research activities of
the center.

ture in the event of natural disasters such as earthquake, flood, etc.,
long term implications of urbanization, and use of techniques such as
Remote Sensing in creating a safe
urban environment.

The central objective of the International Center for Urban Safety
Engineering (ICUS) is to develop
new technologies for evaluation ofsafety and integrity of structures taking into account the deterioration of
the materials used and changes in
the required performance levels, inservice maintenance and management systems for structures to ensure the safety of urban infrastruc-

The following three groups havebeen created at the ICUS to promote research work in different
related areas:
S u s t a i n abl e E n g i n e e r i n g
Group for the development of newtechnologies for in-service maintenance and management systems
for evaluation of structural safety,
repair and rehabilitation measures.
Urban Safety and Disaster
Mitigation Group for the development of management technologies to ensure the structural safetyof urban infrastructure in the eventof natural disasters such as earthquake, flood, etc., development anddissemination of information relating to prediction of disasters andtheir effects on social and economic
activities.
Infrastructure Information
Dynamics Group for the development and evaluation of technologies
for monitoring information related
to urban infrastructure. The group

Professor Taketo Uomoto
Director of ICUS/INCEDE

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1

page 2will also work on applications oftechniques such as Remote Sensing, Geographical Information System, Global Positioning System, Information network, space data
analysis, etc. in urban safety.
Activities of the ICUS will be
carried out using Grant-in-aid andother projects funded by the Departments of Education, Scienceand Technology, etc of the Government of Japan. Funding is also being sought from other sectors for
specific projects. I would like to invite suggestions from you also andlook forward to formulating joint research projects, which could thenbe processed for funding and execution. A workshop was held at
Bangkok recently and an effort
made to identify areas of common

areas between researchers at ICUS
and the Asian Institute of Technology and other Universities in Thailand.
This newsletter also gives a briefbackground of the faculty and staffof the center at present. In addition
to their responsibilities to ensure asmooth working of the center, thefaculty members are also engaged
in normal academic activities, including teaching and research. I hope that
more manpower will be available tobe able to expand the activities of
the center.
In order to better understand theneeds of the society, and provide
publicity to the activities of the Centre, it is proposed to hold national andinternational seminars, etc. andregularly update the website of thecenter, in addition to giving brief
details in the Newsletter. I invite you
to join our members' Network andparticipate in formulating new
programmes.
Though there was a delay in getting this f irst newsletter off theground, I hope to keep you informed of our activities throughregular newsletters and updates on
our website (http://icus-incede.iis.
u-tokyo.ac.jp). The ICUS is fortunate to have inherited a strong international network of researchers
and academicians in different partsof the world and I look forward to
your cooperation in helping thecenter achieve its goals

Introducing the staff of ICUS/INCEDE
The staff at the International
Center for Urban Safety
Engineering at present comprisesof two Professors, two Associate
Professors and two Research

Associates, besides supporting andadministrative staff. There is also a
provision to have three Visiting
Professors and graduate students towork at the Center.

Dr. Sudhir Misra is currently a
Visiting Professor at the Centerfrom the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kanpur, India.

ICUS/INCEDE staff members
Sitting from left: Ms. Chiharu Murakami, Ms. Noriko Shiuchi, Prof. Taketo Uomoto, Ms. Akiko Nagashima, Ms. Kaoru Iwata
Standing from left: Dr. Shirou Ochi, Prof. Kimiro Meguro, Prof. Ryozo Ooka, Dr. Vasanthadevi Aravinthan, Prof. Yoshifumi Yasuoka,
Dr. Dushmanta Dutta, Prof. Sudhir Misra

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1

page 3

1st ICUS/INCEDE Open Lecture
ICUS organized the first Open
Lecture May 22, 2001 at the Institute of Industrial Science of the
University of Tokyo as the continuation of the series of Open Lectures
initiated by INCEDE 10 years ago.
The main objective of the initiationof the Open Lecture has been to
share the knowledge and informa-tion with general public directly. During the period of INCEDE, the major emphasis was to share the knowledge on natural disasters andunderstand what happens during andafter hazards. With the intent of continuing this innovative method ofsharing knowledge with people on
i s s u e s o f u r b a n s a f e t y, I C U S

organized the first open lecture.
The open lecture was inaugurated by Prof. Taketo Uomoto,Director of ICUS. In his introductor y remarks, Prof. Uomoto
outlined the objectives and briefly
discussed the current and future
activities of the Center. He wasfollowed by Prof. Ken Sudo,
former Director of INCEDE, whoshared his vision of ICUS futurefrom his vast experience of workin INCEDE and UN for IDNDR
a c t iv i t i e s . Fo l l ow i n g t h e s epresentations Prof. Yoshifumi
Yasuoka, Dr. Kimiro Meguro and
Dr. Ryozo Ooka, who are involvedin the activities of the three maingroups of ICUS, spoke on theirpresent and planned research activities. Over 140 persons attended the Open Lecture.
(by D. Dutta)

Prof. Uomoto, Director of ICUS welcomes the audience.

ICUS/INCEDE participated at the IIS Open House
Every year IIS organizes anOpen House for two-day period in
the first week of June. During thesetwo-day period, all the laboratories
and research centers of the institutedisplay their activities to the visitors.
On average about 5,000 people visit
the institute for the Open House in
two days, including people fromvarious research organizations, industrial sectors, academic organizations from high school to university levels as well as Tokyo based
international organizations. With
great enthusiasm ICUS participated for the first time in the OpenHouse of Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo
during June 7-8, 2001.
ICUS divided its display booths
in the Open House into four categories: general information; sustainable engineering; urban safetyand disaster mitigation andinfrastructure information dynamics.
The center demonstrated to thevisitors some of the on-going
research activities of three divisionsof the center as well as the futureg o a l s . I C U S m e m b e r s we r e
encourged by the interests ofmany visitors in the activities of
the center and by their invaluablecomments in various aspects of
its planned activities.

A graduate student explains ICUS activities to a visitor.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1

page 4
Editor’s Note
Urban safety has attracted a
lot of attention in the recent years.
Major concern has been
expressed for a proper evaluationof the capability of existing
infrastructure, and enhancing it
whenever required. There is also
a n e e d t o s t u d y p o s s i bl e
application of developments inother fields such as GIS, Remote
Sensing, Material Science andEngineering, Earthquake
Engineering, etc. in Urban Safety
Engineering. There is an urgent
need to develop a responsive
system that understands theneeds of the society and work
towards creating a safe urban
environment.
The International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering(ICUS) has been created at theInstitute of Industrial Science (IIS),
University of Tokyo to serve as a
nodal center for car rying out
research and disseminating
information in areas related to Urban
Safety. This center, created after theInternational Centre for DisasterMitigation Engineering (INCEDE)
had completed its ten-year term, hasembarked on an ambitious
programme to involve people fromdifferent walks of life in research
related to different aspects of Urban
Safety. For example, efforts arebeing made to involve people infinancial and social sectors in research related to urban disasterand safety.
It has been decided that the center
will endeavour to expand theactivities of the INCEDE and seek
active cooperation and support
from the network members. The
Newsletter that you are now
reading is the first issue from the
new center. While wishing you andyour family the very best for the
New Year, I take this opportunityt o r e q u e s t yo u t o a c t iv e ly
participate in formulating future
research activities of the center.
You may send in your comments
and suggestions by post or email.
Of course, you are most welcome
to drop in and meet us in person!!
With your cooperation, we hopeto create a niche for the center inthe emerging area of Urban-Safety
Engineering.

ICUS/INCEDE, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering(K. Meguro)ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 2
JULY - SEPTEMBER 2001

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Traditional Architecture in Saint Lucia
and Seismic Responses
By
Anne L. D. French
Deputy National Disaster Coordinator, Saint Lucia

INTRODUCTIONSaint Lucia is an island country
located in the southern section ofan archipelago of volcanic islands,
which comprise the Lesser Antilles.
The island is about 500 km northof Venezuela and is 616 km2 in size.
A mountain range forms the backbone of this volcanic island with thehighest point at Mt. Gimie (height=1040m).
The island is 30 km long and ismade up of pliocene to recent
basalts and andesitic basalts, which
originate from largely unknown
and strongly dissected centers. Thismeans that the island is made up
predominately of igneous rock. The
other rock type to form the island
is sedimentary. This type of rockshows distinct layering and can befolded or fractured by movement of
the earth's crust. The stratificationand layering of permeable and impermeable beds is frequently responsible for slope instability.

Over 43% land of the island has
a gradient of more than 30o. As a result, much of the island's structures
are on stilts. This design feature ispopular for its ability to provide additional storage on the underside or
to allow for expansion at a later date.
SEISMIC ACTIVITY
IN SAINT LUCIAThe Caribbean plate runs throughGuatemala in Central America to theeast between Jamaica and Cuba,around Hispaniola and Puerto Ricoin the Caribbean, joins the boundary east of the Caribbean islands andfollows the archipelago. In theSouthern Caribbean near Trinidad,
the eastern boundary joins the southern boundaries along the pacific sideof Central America.
Tectonic plate boundaries are notneatly cut lines of activity, but dispersed zones of movement. Of thethree types of motion: 1) sliding pasteach other; 2) converging and 3) di-verging where the plates moveapart; the islands of the eastern Caribbean, are an example of plates
that are sliding past each other.
The Caribbean plate is moving
slowly eastward, in relation to theNorth and South American plates.
These plates are made up of land(continental crust) and ocean (Atlantic Oceanic crust) masses. As
the Atlantic Oceanic crust is denser
than the Caribbean crust, the Caribbean along the eastern Caribbean
chain of island is driving down the
Atlantic. This movement gives rise
to earthquake and volcanic activity. The primary cause of damage
to buildings by earthquake resultsfrom the ground shaking which is
generated by the movement of tectonic plates.
The historical records of Saint
Lucia contain many references totremors and earthquakes felt by theisland as the written records coin-page 2Rodney Bay Gros
Islet

Grande Cul de Sac Bay

PUERTORICONORTH AMERICA

Babonneau
La Caye

LeewardIslands

Anse la Raye
Canaries

SAINT LUCIA
PraslinSoufriere

Choiseul

SAINT
LUCIA

MicoudDesruisseaux
Choiseul
Hewanorra Intl. Airport

Viexu Fort

SOUTH AMERICA

Maria Island

Location Map of Saint Lucia
cided with the arrival of Europeans in the mid 1600s. Although, theinstrumental records are less than
100 years old, and they carry strong
evidence of seismic activities in theregion.
Damage due to earthquakes israther small in Saint Lucia whencompared to other neighbouring islands. A quick examination of past
events indicates that Saint Lucia's
concern should be for the cumulative effects of frequent tremors.
History shows that the island is notexempt from major earthquakes. A
7.0 magnitude earthquake had hit
the island on February 16, 1901,
another earthquake of magnitude
7.5 occurred on March 19, 1953.
In recent period, between 1990 to
1995 the island has experienced
continuous earthquake activity
with the highest registering earthquake of magnitude 4.5 on May 19,
1990 (refer to the tables in the rightside and next page).

salfataric and funarolic activity has
continued at a fairly constant level
through historic time.
The one-recorded incidence ofgreat disaster was observed in 1789.
It seemed to have been a small
pheratic eruption. Because the last
explosion of this volcano dates backover 20,000 years ago, it is consid-

ered less likely to erupt in the near
future as in the case of volcanoes
in Saint Vincent, Martinique andGuadeloupe.
Despite the lack of recent explosive activities, there is evidence ofactivity at shallow depths below theregion. This gave rise to the occurrence of several earthquake activi-

Earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 and above occured between February
1990 and November 1995 in Saint Lucia

VOLCANIC HAZARD RISK
The most active volcanic centeron the island is the Qualibou
Caldera, which is located in theSouthwest. This Caldera wasformed over 35, 000 years ago.
There are several volcanic domes
within the Caldera Region. The
only site of historic activity is at
the Sulphur Springs. All descriptions of this area indicate that

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

Year

Month and dateMagnitude

1990

February 5

4.0

1990

May 194.5

1990

May 23

3.6

1990

July 2

3.5

1990

July 25

3.5

1991

July 18

3.9

1991

November 27

3.5

1992

May 5

3.8

1992

September 20

3.6

1992

September 20

3.6

1992

November 1

3.5

1993

July 30

3.7

1993

September 23

3.7

1994

January 5

3.6

1995

March 5

3.7

1995

November 8

4.3

1995

November 25

3.8

page 3ties through out the decades. The
most recent one started in May
1990 and went on afterwards forabout 14 months.
Several thousand people actually
live within the Caldera and a few
k m away f r o m t h e S o u f r i e r eSprings. The population of
Soufriere at the 1990 census was
7683. The vulnerability factor
therefore is high. The hazards
posed by the volcano are all associated with its violent eruptions.
EXISTING HAZARDMONITORING SYSTEMThe Seismic Research Unit in
Trinidad maintains four high sensitivity seismographic stations on
the island. While Le Observatoire
Volcanoloqiue de la Montagne
Pelee in Martinique maintains one
station. These are sufficient to detect initial abnormal conditions. Bymeans of this system, the relevant
authorities can be provided with advanced notice so as to evacuatethreatened population.
TRADITIONAL
ARCHITECTURE
The traditional architecture,
though lacking in pretensions, arecollectively a monument no lessimportant to a once strong nativebuilding tradition which we havevirtually lost. The architectural tradition of Saint Lucia and her sister
islands come from many sources
through a long period.
One of the main sources was
Amerindian people. Amerindians
were sea faring people. The modern fisherman's hut, canoe, fishingnets and baskets of Saint Lucia are
all influenced by Amerindian culture. Their construction style madetheir houses cool, rainproof andflexible, which were the elements
needed on an island that can experience constant earth tremors, sweltering heat and hurricanes. This
construction style is referred to as"fuchette en terre" this is where a'Y' shaped piece of wood was dug

deep into the ground and the 'Y' end
support the roof.
Next comes the influence of Europeans. The time frame of influenceof the Europeans ranges approximately from 1600 to 1950. This covers about three hundred and fifty
years of European architectural influence. Saint Lucia became morevaluable as the years went by, mainly
because of the magnificent natural
deep-water harbor at Castries, which
was and still is protected on threesides by hills. Today the areas surrounding Castries are dotted with
nu-merous military buildings. These
once impressive and imposing structures have been converted and absorbed into civilian life.

The earliest Churches on the island were usually built of timberwith a thatch roof and stone paved
floor, reminiscent of Amerindian
construction. These Churches
were damaged or destroyed by thedevastating hurricane of 1780 except the Church at Dauphin,which was constructed of stone.
The Churches were rebuilt usingstone to resist hurricanes and theearth tremors. Despite this precaution, cracks occur red in many
Churches due to tremors.
Not long after the Europeans
settled themselves in the Caribbean, the slave trade began. The
Africans were discouraged frombringing with them their languages, religions, music or anything remotely cultural. In reviewing the architectural aspect of theisland's African heritage, it is amiracle that anything remotely
African remained to influencesociety. At the time of emancipation, many of the slaves were not

The main building material of historical structures in Saint Lucia werestone. They have withstood wars,
fires, hurricane and earthquakes.
However, the combined onslaught
has begun to have an effect on the
structures.
Earthquakes of 1990 in Saint Lucia

Month and dateMagnitude

February 5

4.0

March 18

3.0

April 16

3.3

May 183.4

May 194.5

May 233.0

May 23

3.6

June 1

3.3

July 2

3.5

July 7

3.9

July 25

3.5

August 1

3.2

August 25

3.4

September 9

3.3

September 30

3.2

October 13

3.3

October 25

3.2

October 26

3.0

November 4

3.0

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

page 4
directly from Africa, but born andraised in Saint Lucia. In 1838,
when slavery was finally and completely over, two-thirds of Saint
Lucia was under virgin soil belonging to the crown. Land was readily
available for the people for construction.
The hillside houses (known as
Tapia) evolved and remains an
identifiable feature in Saint Luciansociety. These structures are madeof timbers. Small saplings made theframe of the structure while mature
trees were held in place by the deadweight of the structure, forming thefoundation. The splitting of further
trees provided the cladding. The
floor, which is also of timber, israised slightly off the ground to allow for ventilation of the beams
and to avoid moisture penetration
while accommodating the gradientof the island. The material of
choice was timber not stone, as timbers were readily available. Without the proper tools, stone is a difficult material to manipulate, whiletimber is fairly malleable and canresist both hurricane and earthquake forces. As time moved on,
hand cut saplings were replaced bymachine cut lumber and piles ofstones were replaced by concrete
blocks or reinforced columns. Individual lots became hamlets andthen communities. With each newbuilding erected, the design of thestructures became more sophisticated. Interestingly, timber remained the material of choice. The
Tapia dwelling can be seen almost
everywhere on the island, from
Gros Islet in the north to Vieux Fortin the south, even in developed areas such as Castries.
With the advent of modernism,
many buildings on the island aremade of reinforced concrete withflat roofs and large glazing. The
design of most of the office buildings in Saint Lucia are influenced
by this modern style. Due to large
destruction of hurricane Allen August 1980, the Saint Lucia had tobe rebuilt in a short period. Due tothe short period of constructions,many schools were constructed ofpre-stressed concrete slabs. Most ofthese new buildings were groundfloor structures, which are considered to be relatively safer during anearthquake. However, many of the
new buildings in the city are of reinforced mass concrete erected on reclaimed land. These new buildings
are very much vulnerable to earthquake and soil liquefaction.

RECOMMENDATIONS
A disaster upsets infrastructureand ecosystems and puts strain on
the already limited resources of adeveloping State like Saint Lucia
and her citizens. Such a situation
can set dangerous precedents of dependency and underdevelopment.
Sustainable development for a society like ours is not possible without addressing the damage done todevelopment as the result of a disaster, particularly earthquakes incase of Saint Lucia.

PROBLEMS
The tendency to build on reclaimed land is increasing in Saint
Lucia, although the trend is not yet
rampant. Such land heightens
ground movement e.g., the vibrations of heavy goods vehicle can be
felt by the occupants of nearby structures. Therefore, the effects of anearthquake on structures placed onsuch soil are magnified many times
over.

How one responds to or during
an earthquake is not something to
be decided during the event. Preplanning or preparedness is the key.
Mitigation against any disaster requires cooperation. As such, there
should be cooperation between social, economic and political actions
from local, regional and international governments. Also the communities and their corresponding
groups can play an important roleand so must be encouraged to takepart in such actions.

Destruction from earthquakes inSaint Lucia could be worse than it isat the moment given the lack of seismic design standards for virtually all
construction. Added to this deficiency is the probability of major
landslides being triggered by thesequakes.
Another concern is design ofstructures in areas prone both to hurricane and earth tremors, with two
kinds of movements. Hurricane
forces move in a horizontal fashion
while earthquake forces move in a
vertical fashion. It is difficult to design a structure for both. Therefore,
despite the inevitable earth movement, Saint Lucians have decided
that the annual hurricane season,
from June to November, is more ofa threat. Despite statistics, which
could prove otherwise, the reality ofSaint Lucia's situation is that residents do not consider the island as "earthquake country" and therefore
they design for the perceived threat
from hurricanes and not from earthquakes.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

Some approaches that can betaken to mitigate earthquake effects
are:Culture: The mitigation activities
of a community must be acknowledged and incorporated into any action plan. Many people execute a
tradition without knowing why.
Traditional buildings have the ability to withstand both earthquake
and hurricane forces. In addition towhich it is cheap and easy to build
and in many cases, this is the mainconcern of individuals. Mass concrete or concrete blocks replace
many timber structures as thesematerials are perceived as stronger
and are used as a measure of anindividual's financial success.
Information: It must be ensured
that the public is aware of alternate
traditional construction practice,
emergency plans, what they entail
and what their role is in the plan.
Attempts have been made to edu-

page 5cate and inform the various publics
on response actions to an event.
One must ask though is it enough?
Does the public know how to react
during an earthquake? Creating theposters and flyers and distributing
them may not necessarily mean thatthe message is being perceived or
received. Sectors such as the media, construction industry, schoolsetc., must be sensitised. Is interest
in an event only triggered by theevent? In other words, will members of the population only be interested in earthquakes the nexttime a series of quake occurs?
Preparedness: It must be acknowledged that the successful management of a risk is dependent on thelevel of preparedness of the area tobe affected. Many craftsmen are
still available in the community andare willing to hand down the skills
as they were handed down to them.
This should be encouraged.
Cooperation between Sectors:
Disaster Managers need to be incorporated into the planning process while Planners should be involved in disaster reduction in aneffort to forge a closer working relationship for a more comprehensive and holistic approach to development.
Development Control: The examination of landslide prone areas
should become a material consideration for developments. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

are already required for certain developments, however governmental
EIA for state property would provide
a representation of the risk factor of
the area under consideration for development.
Landuse: Development of areas
should be based upon hazard andmitigation plans. Development inhigh-risk areas should be firmly discouraged. Should such land need to
be developed, it should be reservedfor projects considered as least critical facilities.

Insurance: Insurance should be relatedto the level of hazard underconsideration and the mitigation
steps being taken. The important
issues such as proper considerationof building regulations in structure
design are to be incorporated ininsurance policy. Such policies will
motivate people to adhere the strictbuilding design codes in construction practice.

Building Codes: In the absence ofa national building code, a suitablecode for interim use is the Caribbean
Uniform Building Code (CUBiC).
CUBiC places Saint Lucia in a Z
factor of 0.75, which equates to azone 2 and 3 of the USA Uniform
Building Code (UBC). The level ofactivity is Saint Lucia is thus moderate but not to be ignored. A structure built using seismic building
codes is expected to fare better then
one that does not. One of CUBiC's
many recommendations are that thebuildings should be symmetrical.
This is a feature common among thevernacular architecture of Saint
Lucia and a practice that of late is
being exercised less and less.

CONCLUSIONSaint Lucia has been blessedwith infrequent fatal events ofearthquakes. However, it experiences frequent tremors of low magnitude. The last earthquake of significance was in 1990 when the island experienced a quake of magnitude 4.5. It caused the collapse ofa bridge. Due to long intervals
between major earthquakes, developments spring up in areas which
are vulnerable against major earthquakes. Awareness of citizens
should be increased against such
infrequent but catastrophic events.
Design codes should be improved
to consider such adverse affects.
There are lessons to be learnt fromthe traditional construction practices and these lessons should be
utilized in present day constructionof the fast paced modern world.

Government Control: Land withhigh landslide risk should be declared to potential investors. Suchdeclarations would have resulting
consequences in the banking andinsurance sectors.

From Editor's Desk: This article
was originally submitted to INCEDE
Newsletter by Dr. French, Who is our
network member. Due to unavoidable
circumstances, it remained unpublished. We have decided to publish it
in ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter.

Second ICUS/INCEDE Open Lecture on January 24, 2002
On January 24, 2002, ICUS/
INCEDE is going to organize an
open lecture titled 'Towards the
Safe Cities in 21st Century' by inviting some prominent Japanese
researchers and decision makers as
speakers. The main speakers in thisevent will be Dr. T. Katayama, Director General, National ResearchInstitute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention; Mr. T. Takahashi,

Director for Disaster Management,
Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (and Visiting Professor at ICUS/
INCEDE) and Prof. S. Murai, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo. The speakers will focus on various aspects of urban risk management in their presentations.
The Lecture will be held from13:00 - 17:30 at the Seminar Hall of

the Institute of Industrial Science,
University of Tokyo. This will be
the second Open Lecture organized
by ICUS/INCEDE. The series ofOpen Lectures are organized withthe aim at building a forum for sharing knowledge and information between experts and general public.
You are most welcome to participate in the second ICUS/INCEDE
Open Lecture.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

page 6

ICUS/INCEDE Workshop on Urban Safety Engineering in Thailand
ICUS/INCEDE organized aworkshop on 'Urban Safety Engineering 2001' at the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT), Thailand
during September 21-22, 2001. The
workshop mainly focused on threeareas: 1) the tools: Remote Sensing, GIS, GPS, etc., 2) the objectof risk of urban structures, and 3)
the management and mitigation
policy of disaster. The major objectives of the workshop were: 1)
promoting better understanding between the researchers from prominent research institutes in Thailand
and ICUS/INCEDE in the areas ofurban safety engineering and environment, and 2) identifying possible areas for future collaborative
research. The future collaborative
research works are expected to emphasize on: a) development of theinspection method and enhancement of durability of urban structures; b) preparation of synthetic
hazard map and development of thereal-time monitoring technology;
and c) preparation of the effective
disaster-prevention manual.
The first day of the workshop
was designed as plenary meetingwith distinguished speakers fromthe University of Tokyo, AIT,
Chulalongkorn and Thammasat
Universities of Thailand. The
workshop was kicked off with twoProf. T. Uomto, ICUS/INCEDE Director, during his opening speech
opening speeches from Prof. Worsak
Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean of Schoolof Civil Engineering, AIT and Prof.
Taketo Uomoto, Director of ICUS/
INCEDE. It was followed by technical presentations. A total of 14
technical papers were presented by
the researchers from Japan and Thailand. The workshop was attended byabout 50 participants including the
researchers and students from AIT.
At the end of first day of the technical sessions, a technical visit was arranged for the participants to thelaboratories of the School of Civil
Engineering and Asian Center for
Research on Remote Sensing(ACRoRS) for demonstration on thetheir research facilities and ongoingprojects.

The second day was devoted fora close consultation on proposed
activities of ICUS/INCEDE forcollaboration with Researchers
from Thailand, which hopefully
can be extended to include a fullinternational network in future.
First, the participants introduced
the research topics of their own interests and it was followed by alengthy discussion to identify themost important research issues inurban safety engineering in Thailand where ICUS/INCEDE canparticipate as a collaborative organization and can suppor t intransfer of knowledge and technology. The areas identif ied as the
focal areas for future collaboration
are grouped into three categories:

Participants pose for a group photo at the end of the workshop

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

page 7
1) improvement of sustainability ofurban structures, 2) prediction, assessment and management of natural and artificial disasters, and 3)
information technologies and systems for urban safety.
Finally, a resolution was madeby the workshop participants where
it was agreed that continued cooperation between researchers andpractitioners in participated insti-

tutes be encouraged, and mechanisms for improved technology exchange and sharing be explored, andbased on the results of this workshop, opportunities for collaborative
research and information sharing
should be further explored, and potential funding sources for such collaborative research should be identified and contacted within Japan and
Thailand. The participants recognised the need to closely monitor thework identifying joint projects andshare information. To this end, it
was resolved that the next meeting of the research team may beheld in 2002.
A report of the proceedings of
the workshop is currently being
prepared at ICUS/INCEDE. Those
who are interested to receive a
copy of the report may contact us.
(By D. Dutta)

International Events participated by ICUS/INCEDE Staff
Prof. T. Uotomo, Director of
ICUS/INCEDE participated in two
international conferences: 1) International Conference on Fibre Reinforced Plastic for Reinforced
Concrete Structures (FRPRC-5)
which was held in Cambridge during July 15-20, 2001, and 2) Second International Conference on
Engineering Materials held in San

Jose, California, USA during August
16-21, 2001.
Prof. Y. Yasuoka participated in
the Eighth Asia-Pacific Regional
Space Agency Forum held during
July 23- 25, 2001 in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. In this forum, he chaired
a session "Earth Observation - Integrated Monitoring System", andgave a special lecture "Integrated

Monitoring System for Environment and Disaster Managementwith Earth Observation Satellite".
Dr. K. Meguro participated inthe "Peru-Japan Joint Workshop on
Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster
Mitigation in the Asia and PacificRegion" held during July 19-20 inLima, Peru and carried out site investigation of Atico earthquake.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2002

Best Wishes for
A Happy New Year 2002
to all the Readers
from
ICUS/INCEDE Staff
ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

page 8
Editor’s Note
By the time this newsletter
reaches you, we will step into thedawn of 2002. I would like to takethis opportunity to express my best
wishes to all the readers for a happy
and prosperous new year.

members around the world. The
main article of this newsletter was
originally submitted for INCEDE
newsletter by a network member. We
hope to receive the contributions of
the network members to this newsletter as before.

With a decade long experienceof INCEDE in disaster mitigationengineering, ICUS/INCEDE expands the center activities to urban
safety issues. Together with the
expanded research areas, we arecontinuing many of the activities
initiated by INCEDE, one of thoseis the publication of this quarterly
newsletter. We also continue the
INCEDE networking with various

Many of us have the illusion thatonce the buildings and infrastructures are built, they will last long
without any maintenance. In reality,
urban structures are not safe and long
lasting without proper maintenance.
We have got the proofs in Japanthrough many recent incidents suchas, falling of concrete in tunnels, etc.
With the rapid urbanization, our cities are getting full of structures. We

have to find out the ways to maintain the safety of our urban environment. ICUS/INCEDE carriesout research on finding innovative
methods for urban safety. Recently,
we have organized a workshop on
Urban Safety Engineering in Thailand. Through this workshop, we
have identified many common areas of interest for future collaboration with the researchers from Thailand. We would like to work together to share our experienceswith the research communities
from other countries too. We encourage you to write your ideas tous. Let us work together for urban
safety.
(D. Dutta)

ICUS/INCEDE, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 3
OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2001

Earthquake Safety of Existing Dams
for Irrigation and Water Supply in Rural Areas
By
Dr. Martin Wieland*
Up to now no incidents havebeen reported in the literature,
where people have been killed dueto the failure of a well-engineered
dam during an earthquake. This isvery encouraging, indeed. However, this favourable performanceof dams does not necessarily meanthat dams are inherently safe

against earthquakes. For example,
during the Bhuj earthquake of January 26, 2001 in Gujarat Province inIndia, about 200 earth dams weredamaged and need repair and/or
strengthening. Because the reservoir
levels were extremely low during thetime of the earthquake, no catastrophic release of water took placefrom the reservoirs of the severely
damaged dams.
Despite the fact that these earth
dams with a height of less than 30m, which are often built by local
communities, are different from the
we l l - e n g i n e e r e d d a m s f o rhydropower projects, we have to

Cracks along the crest and vertical settlement of the Suvi dam damaged
during the January 26, 2001 Bhuj earthquake (Mw 7.7) in Gujarat, India (courtesy: JSCE, Japan)

page 2
recognize that plenty of similardams exist all over the world. The
water stored behind these earth
dams is mainly for irrigation andwater supply.
Moreover, there are very few
large dams, which have been exposed to ground motions that may
be expected during the maximum
credible earthquake (MCE), an
event which a dam must be able toresist successfully according to thecurrent International Commission
on Large Dams (ICOLD) guidelines prepared by the Committee on
Seismic Aspects of Dam Design(CSADD), which is chaired by theauthor of this paper.
The Bhuj earthquake has also
shown that in countries with inadequate earthquake preparedness,strong earthquakes can cause large
number of casualties and huge economic losses. The problem is thelargely unknown and often insufficient earthquake safety of the existing buildings and infrastructure
projects as earthquake actions may
not have been taken into accountproperly in the design. Earthquake
regulations exist in most countries.
If they are followed properly, they
apply to new structures only andthe earthquake safety of the manyold structures is essentially ignored.
Unfortunately, the same applies tothe existing irrigation dams in mostparts of the world. Although it may
be known that these relatively small
dams do not comply with today's
rigorous design criteria, the owners and dam safety authorities arestill reluctant to look into the safetyof these dams as long as no catastrophic incident has occurred.
In the subsequent part, the reasons and justification for a programof earthquake safety evaluation andseismic upgrading of existing irrigation dams are given, which wehope, will encourage the dam owners and dam safety agencies to address this issue.
If we ignore the call for in-creased safety of the existing infrastructure projects with large damage
potential - dams belong to this category of projects - the many groups,
who are already opposing new dams,
will use the earthquake safety as oneof their arguments. This is alreadytrue for quite a number of large dam
projects.

ronmental damages exceeding billions of US$. Earthquakes may
cause failure of dams, with inherent weaknesses. These weaknesses are often not known. But thestatistics on dam incidents showthat quite a number of deficientdams fail during the first few years
after construction.

Background
The majority of the older dams
were built using methods of seismic
analysis and seismic design criteria,
which, today, are considered as obsolete or outdated. Therefore, inmany cases, it is not known if an old
dam complies with the current seismic safety guidelines published by
ICOLD (1989). Therefore, at theAnnual ICOLD Meeting in Antalya,
Turkey in September 1999, CSADD
was given the task to address theissue of the earthquake safety of existing dams. This is also one of thesubjects, which will be discussed during the forthcoming ICOLD Congress in Montreal, Canada in 2003.

During the last decades, significant progress in the assessment of
the seismic hazard at a dam site andthe dynamic analysis of dams has
been achieved. The trend goes towards higher intensities of theearthquake ground motion at damsites, which is usually characterized
by the peak ground acceleration(PGA). To illustrate this problem:
most dams were designed against
ear thquakes using a so-called
pseudo-static approach and a PGA
of 0.1 g (g: acceleration due to gravity). An MCE with a magnitude oflarger than 6 can generate (locally)a PGA of more than 0.5 g, i.e. avalue, which is five times larger thanthe design value. Because of thislarge discrepancy between the design acceleration and the PGA values to be expected during the MCE,
it is often not possible to make areliable statement about the earthquake safety of an existing dam.

According to the current ICOLD
guidelines, large dams have to beable to withstand the effects of theso-called MCE. This is the strongest ground motion that could occur
at a dam site. In practice, the MCE
is considered to have a return periodof several thousand years (typically
10,000 years in countries of moderate to low seismicity).
Because of the very long return
period of destructive earthquakes inmany parts of the world and because
relatively few dams have been severely damaged by strong earthquakes, it is rather difficult to convince the dam owners and decision
makers of the benefits of a seismic
reassessment and upgrading of deficient dams.

The main conclusion that can bemade is that the earthquake safetyof most existing dams is unknown
and some may even be unsafe. If adam should turn to be unsafe, thenthe easiest way to comply withsafety standards would be to lower
the reservoir level or decommission
a dam. Because there are very few
viable alternatives to dams in many
developing countries, decommissioning of dams or lowering thereservoir level would be the last resort.

Risk analyses, carried out for several dams in industrialized countries,
have shown that the failure of a large
dam and the resulting flood wave
may cause a large number of casualties and huge economic and envi

Based on our experience with theseismic safety evaluation of damsin countries of high and moderate
seismicity like Iran and Switzerland
respectively, we can state that welldesigned dams will also satisfy to-

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

page 3
day's seismic safety criteria. We
feel that it would be appropriate toaddress this important subject andtake adequate action as structuralsafety stands in the first place ofany dam project, i.e. way ahead of
economic, environmental, ecological and socio-political concerns.
This fact may have been overlookedin the recent debate on benefits andconcerns of dams.
It is also in the interest of the dam
community to have a clean record,
as the failure of a single large dam
may increase opposition against any
new dam projects worldwide.
Proposed plan for action
Investments in the seismic safetyof dams generally receive low priority as there is no visible immediate return on the investment. Thishas been a problem with all projects
related to natural disasters with avery low probability of occurrence.
These investments into the future do seldom reap benefits for
those, who have taken the decisions, as the horizon of politicians
may be a few years and that ofmanagers is often even much
shorter. A long-term view in suchprograms is a prerequisite for sustainable safety improvements of theexisting dams.
As there is a steadily increasing
demand for water, flood protection
and clean energy, safe operationand dam safety are prerequisites.
Unfortunately, seismic safety ofdams (and other infrastructure
projects) has been an area, which
has been neglected despite the factthat the decade 1990 to 2000 was
declared by the UN as the International Decade for Natural Disaster

From Editor's Desk
Half a year has past since thestarting of ICUS/INCEDE. With thetime, the center is expanding its activities to cover broad aspects of urban safety engineering. We arepleased to see that our network is
expanding as well, which gives us a

Shi-Kang water supply weir damaged during the Chi-Chi earthquake(Mw 7.5) of September 21, 1999 in Taiwan (courtesy: K. Meguro)
Reduction, in which earthquake haz- means to raise awareness in thisard played an important role. Earth- problem and a first step towards aquake safety of a dam is a must, as comprehensive program for theit seems that strong earthquakes can- seismic upgrading of existing dams.
not be predicted in the near future. Such a program has, for example,
By means of water alarm systems already been implemented sucfor critical dams, a large number of cessfully in California in the 1990s.
people could be saved from a flood During these seminars, the optiwave but economic and environmen- mum methods for the reduction oftal losses cannot be avoided in the the seismic risk posed by deficient
case of a dam breach.
dams could be discussed as well.
The main benefits of a seismic
safety evaluation program for large
dams are as follows:i) Compliance with current safety
requirements: all parties responsible for the safety of a dam canbe ensured about its safety during
very strong earthquakes (legal protection of owners against claimsof negligence).
ii) Socio-economic and political acceptance of dam: the safety of thepeople living in the downstream
area of the dam and their property can be guaranteed.
iii) Sustainable economic benefits: thedam and the reservoir can be used
as initially planned.
Awareness is the first step towards improved earthquake safety.
Seminars would be a cost-effective
broad platform to share our views andoutcomes with the members around theworld. In this newsletter, we include
the articles on our expanded activities regularly along with the researchoutcomes. We welcome the articles on
various activities of network members
on urban safety in this newsletter so

As the first step, this issue shallbe put on the agenda of dam safety
agencies and dam owners. Next,
seismic re-evaluations of the older
dams, especially those located inseismically active regions shall be
performed and f inally measures
shall be taken to improve the safetyof any deficient dams.
Finally, we have to realize that
we have not yet solved all seismic
problems completely. Every time
there is another strong earthquake,
we have to improve the earthquake
standards and guidelines.
* Chairman, Committee on
Seismic Aspects of Dam Design,
ICOLD, Tel: (+41-76) 356 28 62;
E-mail: martin.wieland@ewe.ch
and ICUS Network Memberthat other members can share yourviews. Please feel free to send us yourarticles on your activities, yourachievements anytime by e-mail or
mail. We shall put effort to include
it in newsletter in time. Let us share
our activities among our network
members for our common goal.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

page 4

Analyzing "Heat Island" from Space
By
Yoshifumi Yasuoka
Prof. Yoshifumi Yasuoka, a professor at the Division of Information Dynamics of ICUS/INCEDE, has theresarch specialization in the field of remote sensing. As a part of the research of his team, a MODIS
receiving station was installed at IIS last year. In this article, Prof. Yasuoka introduces the expanded
research activities of his team on heat island phenomenon using data from MODIS receiving station.

In December 18, 1999, NASAlaunched the Terra satellite, whichis the first Earth Observing System(EOS) platform and provides global data on the state of the atmosphere, land, and oceans, as well as
their interactions with solar radiation and with one another. MODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM)
and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites.
Terra's orbit around the Earth istimed so that it passes from northto south across the equator in themorning, while Aqua passes south
to north over the equator in the afternoon. Terra MODIS and Aqua
MODIS are viewing the entire
Earth's surface every 1 to 2 days,
acquiring data in 36 spectral bands,
or groups of wavelengths.
To monitor the environment anddisaster parameters around the East
Asia as a part of our research, two
MODIS receiving stations were installed by our research team, one
at the Institute of Industrial Science(IIS) of the University of Tokyo andanother at the Asian Institute ofTechnology (AIT), Thailand, fromThe Tape Archiving System for Satellite Data at IIS
which we started receiving data
since May, 2001. In addition to ourexisting satellite receiving systems of
NOAA HRPT and GMS S-VISSR,a new X-band satellite reception facility was installed in IIS, Universityof Tokyo, which has been initiallyused to collect data from MODIS.
The dish has been placed on the roofof the 8-storey IIS building. In orderto acquire Terra data for expanded
continental-scale change researches
into the Southeast Asian sub-region,
the IIS has provided Asian Center
for Research on Remote Sensing

MODIS receiving antenna on the roof of IIS

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3(ACRoRS), AIT one identical
MODIS receiving facility. That station is managed by the Joint Management Committee composing of
ACRoRS, Geo-Informatics andSpace Technology Development
Agency (Thailand) and IIS. The
MODIS raw data from AIT receiving facility is transferred to the IIS
archiving system as well throughInternet in real time.
MODIS has 3 different modesof spatial resolutions - 250m, 500m
and 1000m - with 36 spectral bands

Satellite coverage by IIS and AIT receiving stations

page 5in total. The IIS Station covers theeast part of Asia including the east
Siberia, and the AIT Station covers
the southeast Asia including India,
a part of Pakistan and Tibet Plateau. At present, our research groupis preparing satellite data products
relating to the global and regional
environmental studies.
As a part of our research activities using the MODIS data, wehave carried out a research project
to monitor "Heat Island" byanalyzing the land use/land covercharacterization and heat parameters around cities. For conducting
the research study, we have selected five cities in the East Asia
region, those are: Tokyo (Japan),Seoul (South Korea), Pyongyang(North Korea), Beijing and Shanghai (China), which are within therange of IIS receiving station coverage.
In the study, the land cover characterization and the "Heat Island"
intensity are analyzed by comparing the images of summer versus
winter, and day versus night time
for the cities. The first step of thestudy is to make the land cover classification of the areas using 250m
resolution optical images. Build up,
forest, grass, water body and baresoil are classified in order to givethe emissivities of the land covercategories. The emissivity is thenused to estimate the land surface
temperature from the brightness
temperature value in the thermalband image with 500m resolution
data. Finally the "Heat Island" impact is analyzed. The land surface
temperature is of course influenced
by the geographic condition such as
the climate and whether at the timeof the area. In order to compare
the "Heat Island" impact among thecities, the standardized surface temperature images are prepared byequalizing the temperature valuesof forested region in suburbs wherethe "Heat Island" effect is supposed
to be unrelated. As the intermediate report, the study concludes that

MODIS 250m optical and 500m thermal images covering
Tokyo, Seoul, Pyongyang and Shanghai (from top)
the intensive of the heat island im- thermore, some more cities frompact is ordered by Tokyo, Seoul, South East Asia such as Bangkok,
Pyongyang, Beijing and Shanghai.
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta,
Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, covered
Continuous observation will be by AIT broadcasting station will bemade for more quantitative analysis added for the study.
using more stable satellite information which avoid the temporal error
For further information on thissuch as whether condition and sen- particular research topic or on
sor anomalies. Our group expect that any of our research activities, thethe study can define the vegetation author can be contacted by e-mailfunction to the "Heat Island". Fur- at yyauoka@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

page 6

Bridging between Policy and Research
By
Takefumi Takahashi
ICUS welcomes Mr. Takefumi Takahashi, the Director General for Disaster Management at the
Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan, as a Visiting Professor to the Urban Safety and Disaster
Mitigation Division. In this article, Prof. Takahashi introduces his new activities at ICUS.

I have been serving as a Visiting Professor in the Urban Safety
and Disaster Mitigation Division of
the International Center for Urban
Safety Engineering since 1st December, 2001. In my official capacity as the Director General for Disaster Management of the Cabinet
Office, I am responsible for coordinating disaster-related administrative activities in the national government of Japan.
As you may know, Japan is very
susceptible to natural hazards because of its geographic location, topography, climate and other conditions. Thus, it is subject to frequent
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,floods, typhoons, etc. Furthermore,
50% of population and 75% of theproperty are accumulated on alluvium plains which cover 10% of thecountryís total area and are at avery high risk of suffering floods.
Due to such land use patterns, Japan is very vulnerable to natural
disasters. Although we can not
avoid such natural hazards, weshould have countermeasures inplace in order to mitigate potential
damages.

Miyake Island near Tokyo erupted.
They brought economic losses, but
no one was killed or injured. The
absence of human casualties can be
attributed to the coordinated efforts
made by researchers, administrative
organizations and citizens. In particular, three factors are worth mentioning. First, an accurate prediction
prepared by continuous observation
made a great contribution. Second,an effective network among research organizations and national andlocal governments enabled proper information dissemination and timely
evacuation orders. Third, a good response on the part of local residents
facilitated swift evacuation. With
these three factors in a good combination, the whole system proved to
be functional and negative impacts
were minimized.
It would be possible to further re-

Two years ago, Mt. Usu in
Hokkaido and Mt. Oyama in theProf. T. Takahashi

duce negative impacts caused bynatural hazards if we prepare
proper countermeasures based ona good understanding of potential
disaster risks. Towards this goal,
many hazard maps for ear thquakes, volcanoes, floods, geo-hazards, etc. have been developed inrecent years. They have been disseminated to citizens and relatedorganizations who understand theirimportance.
I would like to investigate how
to disseminate disaster-related information, such as observated information and research outcomes,
so as to implement effective disaster countermeasures. I would
also like to examine how to prepare proper disaster manual to be
distributed among administrative
offices, representative persons andcitizens. Being in charge of disaster management, I will do my utmost to improve coordination between the research organizations
and administration.
I would like to have many opportunities to exchange ideas.
Therefore, it is my strong wish thateveryone works together for disaster management in Japan as wellas other countries.

ICUS ACTIVITY RECORDS
Model Code for Asia (ICCMC)* Prof. Y. Yasuoka attended theheld in Kuala Lumpur, Malay22nd Asian Conference on
sia during December 3-4, 2001.
Remote Sensing held in Singapore from November 5-9, 2001. * Dr. S. Ochi attended the 1st
Asian Eco-Seminar held in* P ro f. T. Ta k a h a s h i j o i n e dKathmandu, Nepal from DecemICUS as Visiting Professor on
ber 3-5 , 2001.
December 1, 2001.
* Profs. T. Uomoto and S. Misra * Dr. D. Dutta attended International Hydrological Programme
attended the International(IHP-5) regional meeting at
C o m m i s s i o n o n C o n c re t e

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

Hanoi during November 1820, 2001. After the meeting,he carried out a field survey
in the lower Mekong basin
together with his colleagues
from IIS.
* ICUS held the Civil Engineering Seminar on Urban Safety
at the Komaba Campus of IIS
on 11 December, 2001.

page 7

ICUS held Civil Engineering Seminar on Urban Safety
The 8th Civil Engineering
Seminar, organized by the Comprehensive Research Foundationand the School of Civil Engineering of the University of Tokyo,
was held on December 11, 2001
at IIS with about 60 audiences.
The theme of the seminar was"Urban Safety Engineering" andthe speakers were the five faculty members of ICUS, who presented on the following themes.
Prof. Y. Yasuoka presented alecture on "The Assessment of
Safety and Amenity of Urban Infrastructure using Information
Technology" in which he explained that Remote Sensing
technology and Image Processing can be a powerful tool todescribe the quality of the urban
environments.

Prof. Uomoto, ICUS Director, presenting his views on urban safety
Assoc. Prof. K. Meguro presented on "Towards Tokai Earthquake -Balancing Structural andN o n - s t r u c t u ra l M e a s u re s fo r
Minimizing Earthquake Damage"in which he stressed the importance to retrofit existing weaker
houses and to have proper disaster manuals for implementing goodcountermeasures.

Assoc. Prof. R. Ooka presented on "Urban Climate Simulation Model for Urban Planning" in which the mechanism ofHear Island phenomenon was
Prof. T. Takahashi presented on
explained and a simulation model "National Policy and Counterfor urban climate analysis was measures of Japan for Urban
introduced.
Safety and Disaster Reduction" inwhich the strategic idea of Government of Japan was introduced.
Prof. T. Uomoto presented on"Current Status and Future of
Non-destructive Inspections forConcrete Structures" in which
several advanced technologies
to assess the safety of the concrete structures were introduced.
Further details of this seminarare available at the home pageof ICUS.
(By Ochi)International Symposium on Geoinformatics in September 2002
An International Symposium on
Geoinformatics for Spatial Infrastructure Development in Earth andAllied Sciences (GISIDEAS' 2002)
is going to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam during September 25-28, 2002.
It is organized by the Japan-Vietnam Geoinformatics Consortium.

ogy tools for the development of spatial databases and the utilization of
spatial data for mathematicalmodeling and computer simulation ofprocesses related to our natural andsocial environment. It aims not only
to serve as a forum for scientificexchanges but also as a conduit fortechnology transfer through short
The Symposium will focus on in- courses that will be organized withintegration of Information Technol- the framework of the symposium. In

order to promote a better understanding of specific needs, field excursions and visits are also being
planned.
The further details of the Symposium information are available in
web site http://gisws. media.osakacu.ac.jp/gisideas, which provides
on-line registration facilities forparticipating in the Symposium.

Visitors to ICUS
During the period of OctoberDecember, 2001, ICUS received
the following visitors.
- Mr. Raffaele Raja, Regione
Lambardia
Unita
Organizzativa Protezione Civile, Italy (Oct. 24).

- Mr. Jia Kunji, Chinese Embassy,
Tokyo, Japan (Nov. 15).
- Dr. Bui Ta Long, Director of Institute of Applied Mechanics,
Vietnam (Nov. 19).
- Dr. Jorge F. Meneses-Loja, Assistant Scientist, University ofCalifornia, San Diego, USA(Nov. 21).
- Prof. Tso-Chin Pan, Directorof the Protective Technology
Research Centre, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore (Nov. 27).

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

page 8

Four students from ICUS won the prize at JSCE conferenceThis year, the annual conferenceof Japan Society of Civil Engineers(JSCE) was held at the Kumamoto
University, Kyushu during October
2-4, 2001. In the conference, about
4,000 technical papers were presented in seven sessions and over
7,000 research engineers and university students participated. From
ICUS/INCEDE, the faculty memEditor's Note
Not only researchers for urban
safety, but also the most citizens
are conscious of comprehensive
safety of our society and its functions, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, USA.
The affair awoke us that it is actually impossible to go on without risks in this complex and international society. We, Japanesebers and students attended the conference and made their presentations. Our center's research outcomes got good impression from theparticipants as the result of that four
students listed below won the prizeof best presentation by young researcher. Comparing the average
ratio of the prize winners with thatof our center, our center's winner ra-

tio was very high. It showed thehigh quality of ICUS/INCEDE's researches and high performance ofthe center.
Names of the winners are: Ms.
Ema Tsukahara (supervised by
Prof. Uomoto), Mr. Ms. Misaki
Enomoto, Mr. Muneyoshi Numada
and Mr. Suguru Fujita (supervised
by Prof. Meguro).

also remember our experience ofthe sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway system in 1995.

as an expert of disaster politics
from the Cabinet Office of theGovernmentent of Japan on December 1, 2001. By his joining
to ICUS, we expect ICUS cancontribute more effectively to thestrategy preparation of domestic
as well as international disaster
policies lead by the Japanese
Government.

ICUS does not directly target on
the researches for the counter-terrorism at this moment, however, itaims to develop systems to preventsocial emergency and the countermeasures for them from engineering aspects. ICUS has timely welcomed Prof. Takefumi Takahashi

ICUS/INCEDE, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering(S. Ochi)ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 4
JANUARY - MARCH 2002

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Maintenance of Concrete Infrastructure- A New Challenge for Civil Engineers by
Taketo Uomoto and Sudhir Misra
Civil Engineers have been
traditionally involved in design andconstruction of infrastructure road networks, buildings, bridges,
industries, or any other structure.
Even as engineers have endeavored
to develop innovative design
methods, materials andconstruction techniques, a lot moreneeds to be done. Shown below areclippings from the local press
expressing alarm at some of thedeterioration observed in concrete
structures. Also shown is a now

well-known collapse of a section of
the Hanshin expressway, after the
Kobe earthquake of January 26,
1995. Such failures of engineered
structures and the public outcry
associated with that, only highlightthe effort that still needs to be put
in to create a safe environment.
Now, creating a safe urban
environment needs,- a better understanding of the forcesof nature,- building the structures in a mannerthat their performance remains

satisfactory during the service
life, and,- m e t h o d s t o eva l u a t e a n dstrengthen existing structures interms of their ability towithstand loads. Initiation of
appropriate maintenance action
is a necessary corollary to this.
Traditionally, a civil engineer istrained to deal with forces of naturein terms of structural loads andadopt appropriate tools for designand construction. A new dimension

Warning of safety problems of concrete structures in Japan (left)
and failure of Hanshin Expressway due to Kobe Earthquake of 1995

page 2- n o n d e s t r u c t ive t e s t i n g a n devaluation of existing structures,
initiating appropriate maintenanceaction,understanding
environmental conditions in termsof ‘loads’, and trying to better
understand the performance ofstructures over the period of time,
is being added to the
responsibilities of a civil engineer.
Efforts are being made all over
the world to train civil engineers forthe new role, and given Japan’sv u l n e r a b i l i t yt oearthquakes,typhoons, etc. theissue has been taken up on war
footing here. This article briefly
discusses some of the actions being
taken, citing examples in the areaof concrete structures.
Developments
in concrete engineeringThough concrete has been usedin the last 50 years in various
str uctures - bridges, tunnels,
nuclear power plants, dams, roads,
and of course buildings, better
construction materials andtechniques along with an improved
understanding of its mechanicalbehavior, has only widened its
applications as a construction
material.
Use of fibre-reinforced plastic
materials, as a possible
replacement for steel reinforcementin cases where corrosion could not
b e a l l owe d, o r i n ex t e r n a lprestressing especially in the caseof repair of deteriorated structures,is an example of use of alternative

Shotcreting using
automated equipment

Use of FRP rods along withconventional steel reinforcement

construction materials for
specialized use. There have also
been advances in the use of concrete
reinforced with short discrete fibres
when cracking in concrete needs tobe controlled and to improve thepost-cracking load-carrying
capacity of concrete. Air por t
runways and tunnel linings areexamples where fibre-reinforced
concrete has been often successfullyused.
H i g h p e r fo r m a n c e s e l f consolidating concrete is anotherdevelopment that has contributed to
improve the quality of concrete
construction, especially in areas
wh e r e i t wo u l d o t h e r w i s e b e
extremely diff icult to ensure
adequate vibration andconsolidation of concrete. Though
use of such concretes is still less than
5%, it is increasing rapidly. The
figure above shows an example ofshotcreting using automatedequipment, and utilization of FRP
rods in conjunction withconventional reinforcement in aparking lot (where presence of steel
reinforcement hampers the workingof operating equipments).

Development in nondestructive
testing and evaluation methods
The construction of structures at
any time reflects the state-of-art indesign and construction at thattime, and the construction during
the 50s and 60s in Japan is no
exception. These structures werebuilt with only limited knowledgeof the effect of different
environmental conditions. Viewed
in that light, it is not surprising thata lot of these structures have begun
to show signs of deterioration.
Efforts are being made to develop
new techniques for an accuratea s s e s s m e n t o f t h e l ev e l s o fdeterioration, so that corrective
steps, as may be required, can beinitiated.
Given that concrete structures
are often quite large, it is importantto nar row down smaller areas,
which could be used for‘representative’ testing. Use of
i n f ra re d t h e re m o g ra p h y i s
emerging as a valuable tool in thisarea. An example of a photographic
and thermographic images of abuilding is shown below. The
presence of air pockets under the

Application of infrared thermography in non-destructive testing and evaluation of buildings

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

page 3surface causes a difference in theheat absorption and conductivity
characteristics of the concrete
leading to a difference in thesurface temperatures in portions
with voids and delaminations,which is captured in at h e r m og r a p h i c i m a g e . T h etechnique can also be used toindentify areas that may have voids
behind an apparently smoothconcrete surface. The two figuresin righthand side show examples
where infrared theremography has
been used to ‘look’ at an H-shaped
void in a 150 mm thick concrete
block. It may also be pointed outthat in this study, the depth of thevoid (in the regions A, B and C,
the thickness of the concretebehind the smooth surface), isvarying, and that is also reflectedin the varying ‘clarity’ with which
the void is mapped.

- extent of removal of concrete
required (all loose concrete, or that
contaminated with chlorides, etc.,
should be removed)

Use of infrared thermography to detect voids hidden bihind smoothconcrete surfaces- n e e d t o p r ov i d e a d d i t i o n a l used by doctors during the period
reinforcemento f a l l ow i n g b r o k e n b o n e s t o- properties of the material to be used repair!!
and method of repair- compatibility of the repair material
An extensive repair material
with the parent concrete
evaluation programme involving- b e h av i o u r o f t h e r e p a i r e d m o r e t h a n 1 5 c o m p a n i e s i s(composite) structural member presently in progress. The figure
under the action of loads
on the next page is a view of the
exposure site where specimens
In the last about 15-20 years, prepared under varying conditions
several method have been developed and using different materials arelargely on a ‘trial and error’ basis. being tested to test the durability
From among those documented in of repair materials.
literature, the following methods
have perhaps been more commonly
Steps by professional bodies
used:
The Japan Society of Civil- reinforcement with a steel plate
Engineers and the Japan Concrete- reinforcement with continuous Institute are among the several
fibre-reinforced plastic sheets
professional bodies in Japan, that- application of (cementitious or have taken steps in the recent past
epoxy based) repair mortar or i n r e s p o n s e t o t h e n e w
concrete by shotcreting
responsibilities that civil engineers- jacketing the affected members or are being asked to shoulder increasing the cross-section
whether they work for construction
companies, government and semiThe figures below show examples g ove r n m e n t o rg a n i z a t i o n , o rof using external prestressing cables consulting organizations. Several
as a means for strengthening beams publications brought out in the lastin a bridge deck and an example of ten years dealing with testing andusing flexible sheets made of u s e o f n ew m a t e r i a l s a n dcontinuous f ibres woven in two t e c h n i q u e s . T h i s s h ow s t h e
directions around columns in several i m p o r t a n c e b e i n g p l a c e d o nlayers and applying binder material development of specifications andin much the same manner as making standardization of use of new
a rigid cast in the case of a plaster materials and methods.

Using external prestressing
for strengthening structures

Jacketing of columns with continuous fibre sheets
for strengthing structures

Development of repair
and rehabilitation methods
Minor repair and maintenanceaction are often undertaken locallyand with locally available materials
and expertise. However, in addition
to such minor actions, for mal
rehabilitation works are needed
when it is desired to extend theservice life or upgrade theperformance level of the structure,
or at the time of change in the(design) loading for the structure,o r d u r i n g p o s t - ev e n t ( e . g .
earthquake) rehabilitation. In suchcases, it is impor tant that thefollowing are carefully examined:

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

page 4

Two photographs of the Izu exposure site showing a bird's eye view and the specimens in place
Design of new structures
In the Standard Specification for
Design and Construction ofConcrete Structures (JSCE)
presently in force, a performancebased durability design approach has
been adopted. Most standards in the
wo r l d l ay d ow n l i m i t s f o r
parameters, such as, the maximum
flexural crack width, g rade ofconcrete used and cover to thereinforcement, which are known toplay a part in the susceptibility of astructure to future deterioration.
H oweve r, t h e n ew a p p r o a c hsuggested in the Japanese standards
provides a framework to model
deterioration processes in a mannerthat during the service life of thestructure, a predetermined level ofdeterioration is not exceeded.
In other words, as recognition of
the fact that concrete structures are
not maintenance free, a certain
amount of deterioration has been‘allowed’. Now, on the basis ofquantitatively defined parameters, acertain critical level of (acceptable)
deterioration has been fixed (Alim).
Thus, the designer is required tocheck that the extent of likely
deterioration during the service lifeof the structure, Ad, (called ‘designed
deterioration’, because, that is theamount or extent of deterioration,
estimated to occur over the sevicelife at the time of design) does notexceed this critical level. Further, theextent of difference between thedesigned deterioration and thecritical deterioration needs to berelated to level of importance of thestructure. In other words, it should
be ensured that,γi Ad <1.0
Alim
wh e r e , γi i s a c o e ff i c i e n t
representing the importance of thestructure. It may be taken to be 1.0
in most cases, but may be increased
to 1.1 in case of important structures.
Efforts are now being made to
publish some of the important
standards in English, to enable nonJapanese speaking professionals
better understand the thinking
among Japanese designers, andpromote a fruitful exchange of ideas.
It is hoped that the volumes will beavailable for wider circulation by
May 2003.
Introductionof professional examination
A s m e n t i o n e d a b ove , a nunderstanding of nondestructive
testing and evaluation is f ast
becoming ver y impor tant forpracticing civil engineers. The work
i nvo l ve s a k n ow l e d g e o f t h edeterioration mechanism operating
i n c o n c r e t e u n d e r d i ff e r e n t
conditions, awareness of the varioust e s t s ava i l a bl e , a n d a c l e a r
understanding of the limitations
associated with different tests. Witha view to impar t the required
professionalism and promoteawareness among the engineers, in2001 the Japan Concrete Instituteintroduced an examination to‘qualify or license’ engineers in the

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

area. This exermination has beencalled the ‘concrete shindan shi test’.
Interstingly the japanese (kanji)
character used for shindan are thesame as used in the term ‘kenko(health) shindan (chek up)!!’In other words, the effort isdirected to creating awarenesstowards the fact that,(a) much like our health, concrete
structures should be subject to aregular check up, so that any
symptoms of deterioration, can becaught early and appropriately
rectified, and,(b) such examination and decisions
for further action should be
carried out by appropriately
qualified personnel.
Concluding remarks
Repair and rehabilitation of
concrete structures has become amulti-billion dollar industry in theworld, and all out effort is required toensure that not only new structures aredesigned and constructed withadequate care, even the existing
structures are appropriately modified
to be safe. Some of the steps taken in
Japan in this direction have beenbriefly discussed here. However it isclear that closer cooperation between
researchers and designers in the world
would go a long way in a more
effective utilization of the limited
resources.

Editor’s note: Readers may also
refer to an extended version of thisarticle at our website (http://icusincede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp).

page 5

2nd ICUS/INCEDE Open Lecture
The second ICUS/INCEDE
Open Lecture was held on January
24, 2002 at the Institute of Industrial Science of the University ofTokyo with major focus on issues
to be considered in urban safety. It
was attended about 100 participants from Tokyo and its neighboring cities.
There were four speakers in thelecture. Two of them were renowned Japanese technocrats; Dr.
Tsuneo Katayama, the Director
General of National Institute ofEarth Science and Disaster Prevention and Prof. Shunji Murai of
Keio University, both of them arealso Professor Emeritus of the
University of Tokyo. Other two
speakers were Profs. T. Takahashi

and M. Setojima, both are the visiting professors at ICUS/INCEDE.
Dr. Katayama presented a lecture on the purpose of earthquake
disaster prevention research in Japan in which he elaborated the history of earthquake disaster prevention research in Japan and its expected future development.
In his talk, Prof. Murai presented
a proposal to wealthy urban planning the role of space information
technology. He covered various
aspects of this proposal during thetalked and emphasized that role ofspace information technology was
important to estimate and realize
the proposal.
Dr. M. Setojima spoke on evalu-

ation of urban environment using
remote sensing technology inwhich the importance of evaluation of landscape was emphasized
and remote sensing technology
was expected as a powerful tool
for such evaluation.
Prof. T. Takahashi presented on
administration for earthquake
disaster prevention of Japan. He
talked in detail the various counterm e a s u r e t a k e n by J a p a n e s eGover nment towards disasterprevention.
The following two ar ticles
s u m m a r i z e t h e t a l k s o f D r.
Katayama and Prof. Murai in thislecture.
(R. Ooka)

Dr. T. Katayama (left) and Prof. S. Murai during their talks in the 2nd ICUS Open Lecture

Smallness Can Be a Culture
by Dr. Tsuneo Katayama
ICUS/INCEDE is small, and I
know that the INCEDE part of it iseven smaller. Encountered withsuch a difficult problem as disastermitigation in developing nations,one often feels that it is almost impossible to single-handedly do anything significant.

We saw very recently that a single
individual can change the future ofa nation. Aung San Suu Kyi, leaderof the pro-democracy movement of
Myanmar, has been released after ayear and seven months under housearrest. It has already been 12 years
since Suu Kyis National League for
Although almost six years have Democracy won the general election
passed since I left INCEDE, I by a landslide in 1990, but the genstrongly remembered those days in erals refused to cede power. Now
which we worked so hard to inter- neighboring countries clearly sugnationally establish INCEDE. It is gest that the only way for Myanmar
true that the work was hard because to develop of its situation is to adopt
the organization was small. But democracy.
don’t be discouraged.

Smallness is undoubtedly one of
the important attributes of the Japanese culture and I do believe that it
is also one of the vital characteristics of ICUS/INCEDE.
You can do whatever you believe
is right, because ICUS is small, andyou can strongly show your identity,
because you work in a small organization. Shortcomings can be madeinto strong points. Best wishes forthe bright future of ICUS/INCEDE.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

page 6

Safety vs. Disasterby Prof. Shunji Murai
As a former professor of Intituteof Industrial Science, theUniversity of Tokyo, first of all, I
congratulate ICUS/INCEDE for agood start with the well organizedteam works.
I would like to propose myviewpoints with respect to safety
vs. disaster for the consideration of
future direction. As different fromthe existing definition, I think thatdisaster will be a negative effectincurred before and after a natural
phenomenon or a human activity.
I n o t h e r wo r d s , d i s a s t e r i s anegative change. Therefore in myview, if an urban planning anddesign was not done properly that
resulted in traffic jam, ugly city

landscape, dirty streets, etc., it is adisaster.
On the other hand, safety in mydefinition will be a positive effectto be guaranteed for future.
Regardless of safety or danger in thecurrent condition, it could become
safety if one can guarantee thefuture. In spite of my view, safety is
considered by many people to be in
the condition of no danger. My
thought is that it should be a positive
promise. Therefore a safe city willb e e nv i r o n m e n t a l ly h e a l t hy,
beautifully scenic, making people
happy and comfortable, free fromfear, etc.
As I deliver this lecture at ICUS

workshop in January this year,
most of the Japanese cities are adisaster with spider nets of electricpoles and not a safety to me. The
reclaimed coast, which replaced abeautiful beach, is a disaster andnot a safety to me. I hope that thereaders may understand my view
points.
I wish all the best for ICUS
and I am sure that ICUS is not adisaster but a safety to all. Lastly, I
myself should be careful that I do
not become a disaster but a safety.
The photographs presented below
are kindly provied by the GreenBench Research Group-Chairman:
Prof. Shunji Murai

February 1995: The construction
with steep slopes was a disaster

April 1998: The slope was not yet safein spite of the plantation of trees instead of grasses

September 1998: The slope was much improved
with trees growing

August 1999: Green Bench Method certified how tochange from disaster to safety condition

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

page 7

International Symposium on

NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR URBAN SAFETY OF MEGA CITIES IN ASIA
This one-day symposium is beingorganized by the Center (ICUS) at
the Grand Pacific Hotel, Bangkok, incollaboration with the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT), Thailand, on
October 28, 2002. The objective is tocreate awareness towards issues
related to urban safety engineeringand disseminate information about useof latest techniques such as Remote
Sensing, GIS, GPS and othercomputational tools, in creating

databases and inventories of urban
i n f ra s t r u c t u re . A d d i t i o n a linformation about the schedule, andother details will be available at thecenter website (http://icusincede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp).

Tenth International Conference on Structural Faults and Repair
An International Conference on
Structual Faults and Repair will beheld in Commonwealth InstituteKensington, London, UK during July
1 - 3, 2003. It is organized by
University of Edinburgh.
The main theme of this conferenceis extending the life of bridges,
concrete, composites, buildings andcivil structures. The deadline of theabstract (within 200 words) is August
31, 2002.
The adress for futher information
is as follows. Prof. M. C. Forde, Schoolof Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of
Edinburgh, The King's Buildings,
Edinburgh EH9 3JN, Scotland, UK
FAX +44-131-452-8596, E-mail :m.c.forde@ed.ac.uk.

The Fifth International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC-5)
The Fifth International Conference
on Urban Climate (ICUC-5) is going
to be held in Lodz, Poland during
September 1 - 5, 2003. It is organizedby the International Association for
Urban Climate (IAUC) and the
University of Lodz in co-operation with
the World Meteorological Organization.
ICUC-5 is the continuation of aseries of similar conferences starting in
Kyoto, Japan in 1989, followed by thosein Dakha, Bangladesh in 1993, Essen,
Germany in 1996, and Sydney, Australia

in 1999. The success of this series helped
to create a cohesive international
community of urban climatologists that
led to the formation of the IAUC ( http://www.geography.ohio-state.edu/
UrbanClimate/ ) in 2000. ICUC-5 is thefirst conference to be organised by the
new Association.
The aims of the conference remain
as before, to provide an international
forum where the world's urban
climatologists can meet to showcase anddiscuss modern developments inresearch, and the application ofclimatic knowledge to the design ofbetter cities. ICUC-5 wishes to caterto the interests of a diverse communityof meteorologists, climatologists,hydrologists, ecologists, engineers,architects and planners and others
interested in these topics.
The futher details of this conference
information are available in web site
http://www.geo.uni.lodz.pl/~icuc5.

The United Nations World Disaster Reduction Campaign
Disaster Reduction for Sustainable Mountain Development
As every year since the earlynineties, the United Nations iso rg a n i z i n g a Wo r l d D i s a s t e r
R e d u c t i o n C a m p a i g n , wh i c hculminates on International DisasterR e d u c t i o n D ay, t h e s e c o n dWednesday of October,9 Octorber
this year. The World Disaster
Reduction Campaigns are organizedby the Secretariat of the International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction,
located in Geneva, Switzerland.
The first aim of the 2002 World
Disaster Reduction Campaign istherefore to increase globale
awareness of successful disaster
reduction efforts in mountain areas sothat vulnerable mountainpopulations can benef it fromalready existing experiences. The
second aim of the 2002 Campain is
to raise awareness more generally on
disaster reduction, so that past andnew solutions in vulnerability andrisk reduction can be explained andshared.

Visitors to ICUS
Some of the visitors to ICUS/
INCEDE during Jan. - Mar. 2002;* Prof. D. K. Paul, Department
of Civil Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology (Feb. 19).
* Dr. Pennung Warnitchai,

School of Civil Engineering, Asian
Institute of Technology, Thailand(Mar. 21-22)* Dr. Somnuk Tangtermsirikul,
Sirindhorn International Institute ofTechnology, Thammasat University,

Thailand (Mar. 21-22)* Dr. Marek Rebow, Institue of
H e a t E n g i n e e r i n g , Wa r s a w
University of Technology, Poland(Mar. 26)

ACTIVITY RECORDS

Prof. Yasuoka visited AIT toparticipate in a research meeting.
(Mar. 21-23)
Prof. Meguro visited New York to
study the on-going rehabiliation
activities aftermath of the WTC
disaster. (Feb. 24-Mar. 3)

Dr. Dutta visited Switzerland toattend the international
conference on Flood Estimation
in Bern. (Mar. 4-9)
Dr. Dutta also visited Thailand toparticipate in a field survey forflood modeling. (Mar. 13-17)

During the period of JanuaryMarch, 2002, ICUS staff haveparticipanted in various international
research activities including filed
surveys, conferences and project
meetings. Some of those are listed:

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 4

page 8
Editor’s Note
As a research center, ICUS/
INCEDE is involved in various
research activities towards urban
safety. The word safety has a broad
meaning. There is no doubt that it
is most important to protect ahuman life from natural disasters,such as earthquakes, floods, etc.,
which is dealt with in theconventional disaster-preventionengineering field. However, that is
not enough to secure safety for asociety. There are equallyimportant other issues to be dealt
with to attain that. For example, inrecent years the global

environmental problem has becomea very serious issue. This problem
has occurred because the humanactivities exceed the environmental
capacity of the earth. This hascaused many adversed effects, suchas climate change on an earth scale,broader-scale air pollution, sea
pollution, a change of ecosystem,
exhaustion of natural resources andenergy, etc. These phenomena arethreatening the safety of humanbeings after all. The similar thing has
occurred also in urban scale. In order
to secure urban safety, we must pay
attention not only to natural disasters
but also to environmental and social
problems widely.

ICUS/INCEDE has beendeveloped and reorganized fromINCEDE with the aim of carryingout intense research for tackling
various issues towards urban safety
covering such broad aspects.
As ICUS/INCEDE is a small
research organization, it is
impossible for it to tackle all these
problems alone. However, We wantto aim at such a large target.
Moreover, in order to tackle suchlarge research domains,
cooperation of many people relatedwith these problems is expected.
(R. Ooka)

ICUS/INCEDE, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 1
APRIL -JUNE 2002

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

SEPTEMBER 11 2001 EVENT AND
LESSONS FOR DISASTER REDUCTION
By

Kimiro MEGURO
On the morning on September 11,
2001, terrorists destroyed the World
Trade Center Buildings 1 and 2 using
two hijacked airplanes as missiles.
Over 2800 people were killed and
135-million m 2 of off ice space
destroyed. Rescue operations werecarried out for several days anddemolishing activities at Ground
Zero lasted eight months. Though thisevent was not caused naturally, theresponse activities after the event,including rescue and relief
operations, information collection,actions for prevention of secondary
damage, etc. were very similar to
those usually carried out after alarge-scale urban natural disaster.
The economic damage inflicted bythis event was the worst in US
history. Besides structural damage,the effects due to the disruption ofoperations and businesses at theorganizations and companies that had
offices in the collapsed structures
were considerably large. Indicessuch as the NASDAQ and Dow
Jones were affected. Considering

the situation explained above, we
identified this event as a new typeof urban disaster, which was broughtby the concentrated vulnerability ofcomplicated urban functions. We
visited New York to go over thelessons learnt and study the methodsof using them for better futurepreparedness. Over 40 members
having various specialties from manyorganizations joined the survey team.
This article gives a brief outline of
the findings of the group A, which I
had the opportunity to lead and also

Photo by O Murao, Tsukuba University

WTC Complex, Lower Manhattan, New York, Before (Left) and After (Right) September 11 2001 Attack

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

page 2
presents the results from our study
on the failure mechanism of high-risebuildings. The report of the group( i n J a p a n e s e ) i s ava i l a b l e a t
http://infoshako.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/~toshiw3/Labo/murao/wtc/.
STUDY GROUP VISITS NY
From February 25th to March
2nd, 2002, I had the chance to visit
New York on a survey after theWorld Trade Center attack. I waspart of a team assembled for the
purpose of evaluating the damage
inflicted by the collapse of the Twin
Towe r s a n d t h e s u b s e q u e n t
response/recovery actions. Disastermitigation cannot advance throughtheoretical approaches only but also
through investigation into actual
damage. The main objectives of ours u r v e y we r e t o a s s e s s t h e
preparedness, response, recovery
and reconstruction processes
surrounding the World Trade Centerattack, and, to understand theinfluence of the elements of theurban environment in the magnitudeof the disaster.
The team consisted of members
coming from different Japanese
Governmental Agencies, universities,
research institutes, and privatecompanies. The members wereexperts in a variety of fields such ass t r u c t u r a l c o l l a p s e a n a ly s i s ,e c o n o m i c l o s s ev a l u a t i o n ,i n s u r a n c e , eva c u a t i o n , s o c i a lsciences, etc. The team, led byProfessor Yoshiaki Kawata from
Kyoto University, was composed offour groups, whose responsibilities
are briefly described below.
Group A) Structural damage and its
effects on City functions, andrecovery process

General Objectives of the Team Survey (Group A)
Japanese companies andJapanese tourists
I had the privilege to be appointed
as head of Group A. We gathered
information related to the World
Trade Center Towers facilities andsurroundings (structures andutilities), damage to undergroundstructures and lifelines, impact onneighboring buildings, quick

inspection results, evacuation,
disaster response activities among
others. For this purpose, we visitedmany off ices and sites as listed
below: Con Edison, Inc., UnitedStates Environmental Protection
Agency, Fire Department, MTA
New York City Transit, FEMA
Regional Office, NYC Long-Term
R e c ov e r y O ff i c e , D i s a s t e r
A s s i s t a n c e S e r v i c e C e n t e r,

Debris processing at Fresh Kills. All debris was checked for objects that
could help in identification of victims

Group B) Fire-fighting and rescue
operation activities at the site,and disaster management
system of City, State andfederal levels of organizations
Group C) Overall impact of theevent, including that onworld finance, etc. over timeGroup D) Crisis management andr e s p o n s e a c t iv i t i e s o f

A fire fighter truck smashed by falling debris of the collapsed tower

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

page 3M e t r o p o l i t a n Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n
Authority New York City Transit,
Po r t A u t h o r i t y o f N Y / N J,
Emergency Mapping Center of NY,
Fresh Kills at Staten Island, etc. On
the final day of survey trip, we had
a half-day joint workshop with US
researchers.

building when exposed to fire in the
9th floor, and in the 6th and 7th floors.
It can be clearly observed that the
failure mechanism is quite

different. It may be mentioned thatthe collapse through the stages
shown in the figures was complete
within about 7 seconds of the time

FAILURE OF HIGH-RISE
BUILDINGS
Currently, we are working on themodeling of the collapse behavior of
the Twin Towers. In this study, thekey issue is to identify the processof collapse and the most criticalelements in the structure that led tothe complete collapse. Once theseobjectives are accomplished, themechanism of chain action, theeffect of different environmental
conditions, and the effect around theWTC can be discussed.
At present our research efforts
are directed to better understand thereal behavior of the phenomena,
which will help in developing a new
type of disaster related database.
With this tool, we can discuss the
problem from different points ofv i ew : t i m e , l o c a t i o n , l e a d e rorganization, etc. Using this databasecombined with a new generation ofinteractive disaster manual, which
is being developed in our researchgroup, an efficient course of action
to follow in a disaster situation, witha great potential for disaster
reduction, can be designed. The
second task of our research groupis the simulation of the WTC
s t r u c t u r e c o l l a p s e . I f we c a n
understand the failure mechanism,
we can discuss measures to protect
the structures from any attack orways to prevent the complete
structural collapse and to prolong
the time upto total collapse for
evacuation. For this type of analysis,
the Applied Element Method, which
has been developed within our
research group, has been adopted.
Although the complete model is notready yet, the adjoining f igures
show some preliminary results,
which correspond to the collapse
mechanism of a 15 storey steel

Dynamic analysis of failure mode in case of firein the 6th and 7th floors by AE Simulation

Dynamic analysis of failure mode in case of firein the 9th floor by AE Simulation
AE Simulation: The AE simulation is a new method develop at our researchgroup that allows the analysis of structures from the initial stages of load
application until complete collapse. In the simulation shown above, the thermal
effect on the steel structure is considered in the collapse process analysis.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

page 4that the first members 'collapsed' asa result of changes in stiffness fromthe simulated heating. This type ofanalysis is helpful to identify themost critical structural elements
whose failure should be avoided toprevent the total collapse of thestructure.The adjoining f igure
shows an example of using thelatest tools in remote sensing, GIS,
and available information, records
and experience to have a higher
degree of disaster preparedness.
NATURAL AND MAN-MADE
DISASTERS
The study discussed above ismainly oriented towards structuralcountermeasures against a possible
terrorist attack. Though it can bea rg u e d t h a t t h e r e a r e s eve r a limportant points of difference in thetwo situations, I would like toemphasize that although man-madedisasters and natural disasters havequite different triggers, the scenario
is basically the same, once a disastersituation arises.
For instance, an ear thquake
strikes all the population, including
those who should take disaster
response actions whereas in aterrorist attack the affected target
group is more limited, and theaffected geographical area may also

from FEMA HP

By combining 3D-GIS and past disaster survey reports, lessons and/or
Newspaper articles, a new style disaster information database that canreally contribute increase disaster reduction capability is beeing preparedbe smaller. However, a situation
similar to the tragedy arising fromthe gas-leak in the town of Bhopal
in India, or a major terrorist attack
as September 11, 2001, thoughsurely not a natural disaster had
severe implications and called for
massive relief and rehabilitation
operations.
Thus, it may be appropriate toconsider that the countermeasuresand response actions are similar inboth cases. This is the reason why
we should take this opportunity tolearn valuable lessons, understandthe process and evolution of adisaster situation, and improve our
preparedness and response capacity
under these situations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wo u l d l i k e t o t a k e t h i sopportunity to express my deepest
sympathies to the people of New
York as well as my gratefulness to
all the institutions and off icials,
e s p e c i a l ly D r. Ko z o A oy a m a ,Institute of Public Administration,
NY University who kindly shared
their experiences and information
with us during our interviews.
(Kimiro MEGURO)

ICUS/INCEDE Annual Report -----2001----In the first year of activities ICUS/INCEDE
faculty published about 270 papers and reports,
and an approximate break-up is given in theadjoining figure. Besides, four open lecturesfrom experts in different fields and workshops
were held to provide a forum for experts to
exchange views and information on latest
research and development efforts, and, bringprofessionals in different sectors closer.
A workshop held in Bangkok, Thailand has
set the pace for closer international cooperation
between researchers in the region. Closer links
are also being established with the AsianI n s t i t u t e o f Te c h n o l og y, B a n g k o k f o r
collaborative research. More information can beo b t a i n e d f r o m o u r we b s i t e h t t p : / / i c u s incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

3%

3%

15%

36%

3%

19%
21%
Seisan Kenkyu＊
Professiona magazines
Japanese Journals/Conf
OthersBooks/translation
International Journals/Conf
Reports＊Journal of the IIS, the University of Tokyo

ICUS/INCEDE research papers

page 5

ICUS/INCEDE participates at the IIS Open House
The SEIKEN KOKAI (OpenHouse) is an annual event during
which all the research facilities at
the Institute of Industrial Science(IIS), University of Tokyo arethrown open for the people. Panels
showing ongoing and completed
projects are displayed, and faculty
and staff are available for directinteraction. Typically, professionals
from different companies andorganization use the Open House as
an opportunity to obtain information
about the latest directions in researchat IIS. Groups of school children
also visit the campus during theOpen House.
This year the event was held at
the Komaba Research Campus on
6th and 7th June. About 4,600 persons
from private enterprises, academic
and research organizations, visitedthe campus during the two days.
Groups of junior and senior highschool children also came on a tour
to the Campus.
The theme of the results
exhibited by the ICUS/INCEDE
this year was "Role of a researchorganization of university for
urban safety design". The threegroups of the center exhibited theirresults under the following banners:

Sustainable Engineering"Non-Destructive Inspection
and Evaluation of Existing
Concrete Structures" - thisconcentrated on the developmentof software to evaluate the degreeof deterioration in existing concrete
structures. This software is being
developed using principles of
database generation and management
and expert-system design to help
professionals obtain and interpret
data using nondestructive tests
without direct participation ofexperts.

Visiting Professor Setojima explains to visitors

Entrance of ICUS/INCEDE

Urban Safety and Disaster
Mitigation" A g a i n s t C o m i n g To k a iEarthquake, Hazard and Software
B a s e d M e a s u r e s f o r D a m a ge
Reduction" - several groups drawn
from government departments, andpublic and private sector, areengaged in planning for disastermitigation in the event of the Tokai
earthquake, which is likely to hit
the eastern parts of Japan any time.
The group at ICUS presented amanual based on user-needs forresponse at the time of the disaster.
The manual also describes optimum
management of resources including
personnel in event of disaster.
Infrastr ucture Infor mation
Dynamics"RemoteSensingforEnvironmental Monitoring and
Measurement & Sustainable

Urban Space Design" - proposesa new methodology for collection
and analysis of information about
urban structure, development ofurban 3-D model using Three Line
Scanner (TLS), and a system forsupporting decision making for urban
environmental management using
GIS technology.
About 150 persons visited theCenter’s panel display during theopen house, with about 80% of thevisitors being drawn from privatecompanies. This only goes to showthat the private sector has highexpectations from the Center andwill look forward to the impact on
the efforts towards creation of asafer urban environment. We will
do our best to attract a wider
audience in the coming years!!

ICUS/INCEDE secretaries
Ms Shiuchi(L) and Ms Murakami(R)ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

page 6

Industry - ICUS/INCEDE Interaction (RC-39)----- Research Committee (RC-39) ----A new Research Committee(RC-39) titled "ResearchCommittee on Sustainable
Engineering for Urban Safety"
has been established by the ICUS/
INCEDE. Besides the members of
the f aculty of the Center, thecommittee comprises of 16 privatecompanies
andresearchorganizations. (The complete list ofparticipating companies and themembers is available at our website
http://icus-incede.u-tokyo.ac.jp/).
The broad spectr um of the
primary activities of the member
organizations is proof of the keeninterest the Center has evokedwithin the shor t period of its
existence. The committee will work
for a two-year period and address
issues related to:
1. Difference in the response ofdifferent structural systems

to an urban disaster
2. Optimum method(s) for
carrying out monitoring andevaluation of structure
3. Appropriate methods forrepair and retrof it ofdeteriorated structures
4. A p p l i c a t i o n o f n e w
technologies for Urban Safety
Engineering
The first introductory meeting of
RC-39 was held on June 26 at
ICUS, where the faculty of the
ICUS made brief presentationsa b o u t t h e a c t iv i t i e s c u r r e n t ly
underway in their groups, and theirperspective of the needs of further
research and development activities
in order to realize the goal ofsustainable urban development.
In order to make optimum use of
the available expertise and time, it
was decided to constitute smaller

Professor T Uomoto, ICUS/INCEDE Director,
at the introductory meeting of RC-39'working groups' to examine thefollowing issues in greater detail.
1. Methods to handle an aging
infrastructure, including
nondestructive testing andmonitoring, retrofitting, etc.
2. Global environment including
levels of carbon dioxide, etc.
3. Study of the phenomenon offormation of heat islands inurban environments
4. Disaster prevention andresponse, including development and dissemination ofsuitable literature
5. Developments in sensingt e c h n o l og y a n d i t sapplications in studies
related to urban safety
Throughexchangeofinfor mation and interactions,
efforts will be made to identify
common areas of interest andinitiate joint studies.

The introductory meeting of RC-39 in progress

Visitor to ICUS/INCEDE
Ms Chada Narongrit, Departmentof Geography, Faculty of Social
Science, Kasetsart University,
Thailand, arrived at the Center for a

six month stint (April 1-September
30, 2002) to carry out research
work on “Estimation of daily
evapo-transpiration from rice

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

paddy
field
by
using
TERRA/MODIS data”. She
belongs to Yasuoka Laboratory.

page 7

Dr. K. Meguro Awarded from ISSS
Dr. K. Meguro, ICUS/INCEDE
won the prize for the Best Paperof the Year from the Institute ofSocial Safety Science, Japan, on
the 1st of June 2002. In this paper,
he proposes a new system forpromotion of retrof itting of low
earthquake resistant houses. With
this new system, both house owners
and government at national andlocal levels would greatly benefit
and the total damage that would
occur in case an earthquake strikes
c o u l d b e d r a s t i c a l ly r e d u c e d .
A l t h o u g h r e t r o f i t t i n g we a k
structures is the most importanti s s u e f o r e a r t h q u a ke d i s a s t e r
reduction, in reality, its importanceand usefulness is not popularly
understood. Moreover, the national
government cannot compel owners
to strengthen their houses because
they are private property. As aconsequence, only very few people
have retrof itted their houses. In
Japan, there is the principle thatpeople affected by natural hazards
should recover by themselvesand governmental money cannot bes p e n t i n p r iva t e p r o p e r t y.
Paradoxically, when the earthquake
strikes and houses collapse, theg ov e r n m e n t i nv e s t s a l o t o f
resources to take care of theaffected people. Most of this money,
however, would not be spent if theDr. K. Meguro
houses were not damaged or did notcollapse. This post-earthquake
investment can be more efficiently
used in pre-earthquake
preparedness. Currently, Japan isfacing a population decreaseaccompanied by an increase in theelderly population ratio. In thiscontext, the only way to preservea high quality housing stock is bybuilding long-lasting houses. Thesehouses should be built at suitablelocations and be given proper
maintenance and/or retrof it if
needed so than they can be used
for long time. In this way, theefforts of successive generations
will be added and each person's
individual contribution will be
reduced and focused on keeping
the quality of the housing stock. By
recognizing this situation, Dr.
Meguro proposed a scheme forpromoting the retrofitting of houses
a n d h e i s c u r r e n t ly t r y i n g t oestablish a legal system based on
it. Dr. Meguro sincerely hopes thatin the near future, this system
becomes a national law that will
help Japan to ensure the highquality of its housing stock as wella s t o s ave h u m a n l ive s wh e nfuture earthquakes strike.

Forthcoming Conferences of Interest to ICUS/INCEDE
The Ninth East Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction (EASEC-9)
EASEC-9 to be held in Bali, Indonesia (December
16-18, 2003) is organized by the Dept. of Civil Engineering,
Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. The main themeof the conference is Embracing the Challenges in 21stCentury. It highlights the needs of immediate regional
cooperation to meet the demand of free market andglobalization. Further details and information can beobtained from http://si.itb.ac.id/ easec9/.

The 4th International Conference on Concrete
Under Severe Conditions of Environment and Loading (CONSEC-04)
CONSEC 04 to be held in Seoul,
Korea from June 20 - 23, 2004 will
h av e p r e s e n t a t i o n s o n l a t e s tdevelopment in the subject byexperts and aims to continue thetransfer of advanced technologies

across the world. Further details
about the Conference are available
at http://conlab.snu.ac.kr/consec/.

ICUS/INCEDE Activity Records
Some of the international
conferences in which members of
ICUS/INCEDE faculty participatedduring the period April - June 2002,
include the following:P r o f . T. U o m o t o , D i r e c t o r,
ICUS/INCEDE participated in the
30th Annual Conference-CanadianSociety of Civil Engineering held at

Montreal, Canada (June 5 - 8, 2002).
Prof. Y. Yasuoka participated in
two international conferences: 1)
29th Intl Symp on Remote Sensing
of Environment at Buenos Aires,
Argentina (April 8 - 12, 2002), and,2) 2002 Intl Geoscience andRemote Sensing Symp at Toronto,
Canada (June 23 - 27, 2002).

Dr. D. Dutta was in Australia
during May 5-22 to participate in
Joint Research Studies on Urban
Flood Risk Management andImprovement of Topography Data
for Hydrological Modeling. Dr.
D u t t a s p e n t t i m e m a i n ly i n
University of Western Australia,
Australian National University and
Macquarie University.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 1

page 8

Editor's Noteactivities at ICUS will increase
with more persons joining in.

ICUS/INCEDE entered the 2ndyear this April. Looking back lastyear - many activities, such as a
joint workshop with Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT),
workshop on civil engineering
a n d o p e n l e c t u re , h a v e b e e ndone.
Dr. M. Setojima (Kokusai Kogyo
Co., Ltd.) and the undersigned
h a v e j o i n e d I C US as Visiting
Professor and Assistant Professor,
respectively. It is expected that

ICUS functions as theaggregate of specialists drawn
from diverse research fields. Teamaction reconfirmed that various
problems related to urban safety
are solvable. In the current fiscal
year, it is planned to set up aliaison office at the AIT tocoordinate joint research projects
and promote better understanding
among researchers in the region.
The world was gripped by thes o c c e r Wo r l d C u p d u r i n g t h eperiod April to June. That Japan
lost in the first game of thesecond round was regrettable.
H o w e v e r, i t w a s a g o o dtournament for the region, withJapan and South Korea
advancing to the Second Round,and the latter making it to the lastf o u r. We c o n g r a t u l a t e S o u t h
K o re a o n t h e i r s p l e n d i dperformance, and indeed if only
there was a little more cohesion,
the World Cup story may havebeen quite different.
(Y. Kato)International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS/INCEDE)
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2
JULY-SEPTEMBER 2002

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Urban Warming and its Control
byRyozo OOKA
Rapid urbanization has
significantly affected the urban
climate and is at least partly
responsible for the phenomenon,
which is being termed 'urban heatisland'. It refers to localized smallr e g i o n s o f r e l a t iv e ly h i g h e rtemperature created in theneighborhood of urban centers on
account of the massive consumptionof energy and lack of appropriate

heat sinks. These local changes
caused in the urban environment,
cannot be captured using normal
meteorological methods, and havebeen described to extend over arange of 10 ~ 100 km horizontallyand 100 ~ 1,000 m vertically in alarge city such as Tokyo.
A brief description of factors
leading to the emergence of heatisland and the steps that may betaken to control the phenomena isgiven here along with the research
effort made being for analyticalmodeling. Appropriate examples
for the Tokyo metropolis areincluded.
T h e f i g u r e b e l ow i s aschematic representation of themodel that can be used to describe

Schematic model for creation of urban heat island

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

page 2the emergence of heat islands. It
can be seen that warmed air in theurban area rises through buoyancy,
is cooled in the upper reaches of
the atmosphere, and descends into
the surrounding suburbs. Also, theair currents descending further
c o nv e rg e i n t h e m e t r o p o l i s ,generating so-called urban
circulating currents.
The figure at the bottom left
shows the growth of urbanizedarea in Tokyo in the last about ahundred years. The radius in theTokyo metropolitan area can beseen to have expanded to about
50km from 5km over the period.
The variation in the airtemperature during the same
period is also given in the figure
at the bottom right, and it can beseen that the mean air temperature
measured at a height of 1.5 m
above the ground has risen by asmuch as about 2oC. It may also be
noted that the number of tropicalnights (summer nights followingdays when lowest temperature ishigher than 25oC) in Tokyo rosefrom less than three in the 1920s
to more than thirteen in the 1980s.

Factors leading
to urban warming
Increase in ar tif icial heatrelease in urban areas, decrease ineva p o r a t i o n f r o m l a n d, h e a t
storage by urban construction
materials, decrease in heatexchange with the atmosphere due
to urban structures and thegreenhouse effect due to presenceof f ine dust and atmosphericcontaminants can be listed assome of the factors that lead toformation of urban heat islands. It
may be noted that artificial waste
heat in three wards in the
M e t r o p o l i t a n To kyo r e a c h e dapproximately 700,000 Gcal/y/km2
in 1986, which is more than theincident solar heat radiation(approx. 650,000 Gcal/year/km2).
Also, urbanization leads to a lossof permeable areas such as green
space, marshland, rivers, ponds,
etc. which affects the consumptionof latent heat by evaporation fromthe land surface, causing thesurface temperature in urban area
to rise higher than in the suburbs.

Controlling urban warming
As can be seen from the above,
warming of the atmosphere in theneighbourhood of mega-cities
such as Tokyo is advancing at afar faster pace than the global
warming. Thus, unless steps aretaken immediately, it is almost
cer tain that the problem will
acquire a very serious dimension
in the future. The following could
be considered as steps that could
help control emergence of heatislands:a) Reduction in artificial heatreleases by promotion of
appropriate energy saving
systems,b) Promotion of evaporationfrom land surfaces using
appropriate constr uction
materials,c) Promotion of heat absorption
by heat sinks,d) Promotion of heat exchange

Urbanization of Tokyo over the last 120 years

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

between the urban structures
and the atmosphere achievedb y i m p r ov e m e n t i n t h eventilation performance of
the urban area by the suitablearrangement of building, and,e) Control of atmosphericcontaminants
Implementation of plansincorporating 'Ventilation paths' in
S t r u t t g a r t , G e r m a n y, i s a n
example of layout of buildings tofacilitate ventilation.

Numerical climate models
for urban warming
Although the control methods
against urban warming mentioned
above, have a reasonably soundq u a l i t a t iv e b a s i s , g iv e n t h eextremely complex interrelationship between the various
variables, it is very diff icult toquantitatively evaluate the effectof each method through empiricaland experimental studies alone.
Thus, one of the ways to study the
problem is for mulation of
appropriate analytical climate
models for the purpose.
A n a n a ly t i c a l hy d r o s t a t i cmodel taking into account thedifferent factors that affect the
microclimate in the neighbourhoodof mega-cities has been used to
study the variations in temperature.
It is likely that such techniques
based on the numerical climate
model may become a powerfultool from the viewpoint ofsynthetic environment assessment
technology, including studies for
air pollution, etc. The model uses

Increase in air temperature in Tokyopage 3fundamental principles of heat,mass and momentum transfer,thermodynamics, water vapor andmass and radiation heat transfer tostudy local climate changes.
The f igures below show theresults for the simulated studies ofchanges in the microclimate in theTokyo metropolitan area, over thelast about hundred years. The
effects of factors such as land use,and heat releases are incorporated
in the model. Whereas the figure( a ) s h ow s t h e s i m u l a t e ddistribution of ground surface
temperature in the present day
Tokyo area for late afternoon on asummer day in August, a similar
distribution for the area during theEdo era, about 150 years is shownin Figure (b). It can be seen thatthat whereas the peak temperatureof about 34oC, is observed in thecentral part of the present day

Tokyo, the maximum in only
about 30 o C for the Edo periodTokyo. It may also be noted thatthe temperature in the suburban
areas has remained at the samel eve l o f a b o u t 2 8 o C . I t i s o finterest to study these variations intemperature in light of theu r b a n i z a t i o n o f t h e To k y ometropolis that has depicted
earlier. A plot of the g roundsurface temperature of the Kanto
district recorded during thesummer using the artif icial
satellite (NOAA-AVHRR) is also
shown for reference, and clearlyshows a high temperature region
in the central part, which has the
maximum concentration ofbuildings, and urban infrastructure,compared to the suburban area.
Though the results do provide
an estimate to the warming in the
To k y o r e g i o n t h a t h a s b e e n(a) Present(b) About 130 years ago
Changes in the temperature patterns in the Tokyo metropolis

observed, there is an apparent
need to refine the model to obtainbetter quantitative estimates. A
better modeling of the complicatedair-flow and temperature field in
the neighbourhood of urban
structures could possibly help toimprove the model.

Concluding remarks
The phenomenon of generationof heat islands as a result ofurbanization and resulting
consumption of energy has been
demonstrated above along withthe results from a numericalsimulation.
It can be seen that the model
presented can simulate climaticchanges considering geographicalfeatures over a range of 10 to 100
kilometers, though more effort isrequired to improve the accuracy.

Ground Surface temperature inTokyo region (NOAA-AVHRR)

ICUS Activities Recognised
Mr. T. Sugiyama and Mr. K.
Miyamoto of the Uomoto Laboratoryb a g g e d P r i z e s f o r ex c e l l e n t
presentation at the 2002 Annual
Meeting of the Japan Concrete
Institute. Mr. Sugiyama is a researchengineer in the Uomoto Laboratory
and works for the Master Builders
Technologies. Mr. Miyamoto is a
graduate student of the Shibaura
Institute of Technology.
Mr. Sugiyama also won an award
for his presentation in the 2002

Annual Meeting of the Japan Cement
Association.
Mr. Y. Ishizeki, Mr. Y. Hosokawa,Mr. T. Nishimura and Prof. T. Uomoto
wo n t h e D eve l o p m e n t o f N ew
Technology Award for their work on
development of high quality shotcrete
in May 2002 from the Japan Concrete
I n s t i t u t e . M r. I s h i z e k i a n d M r.
H o s o k awa a r e e m p l oye d w i t h
Ku m a g a i G u m i C o m p a ny a n d
Ta i h e i yo C e m e n t C o r p o r a t i o n ,r e s p e c t ive ly, a n d a r e r e s e a r c hengineers at the Uomoto Laboratory.
M r. N i s h i m u r a i s a Te c h n i c a l
Associate at the Institute of Industrial
Science.
Foreign graduate students Mr.
Bishnu Hari Pandey (Nepal) and Ms.
Paola Mayorca (Peru) working with
Dr. K.Meguro, Associate Professor,
ICUS, earned a Recognition for theirpresentations at the 4th International
Summer Symposium of the Japan
Society of Civil Engineers held on
August 3, 2002, at Kyoto.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

page 4

Expert Systems in Visual Inspection of Concrete Structures
The end of the Second World
War saw the onset of a major
construction boom in Japan, andconcrete was used extensively inthe construction of buildings,
bridges, etc. The f igure at thebottom left, with the data forbridge construction shows an
ex a m p l e o f t h e c o n s t r u c t i o nboom. Indeed, the structures built
during that time, are all more than
35-40 years old, and have begun toshow signs of deterioration tovarying degrees. It is clear fromthe figure that the structures thatneed inspection and maintenanceare likely to increase at a very
rapid rate from now.
Another representation relating
the maintenance required and thelife in service is given in the
f igure at the bottom right. It
shows that whereas some bridges
may require maintenance andrepair as early as 10 years after
construction, more than 50% needrepairs in about 50-60 years ofservice.
Though the figures show theexamples of only bridges, thepattern is similar for otherstructures, such as buildings, etc.
also. Infor mation in a repor t
compiled by the Ministries ofConstruction, Transportation andAgriculture and Fisheries in 2000
showed that about 40% of theconcrete structures have been
repaired after a service life ofabout 50 years.
N ow, n o m a t t e r wh a t t h e'design life' of the structures built
in the post-war construction boom
was, given the cost of dismantlingand building new ones, leaving thetechnical problems of working incongested urban environments
apart, it is only likely they will be
expected to remain serviceable foras long as possible, even as longas say 100 years. This clearly
outlines a mammoth task for theengineers in terms of carrying out
inspection of structures andrepair/strengthening works inexisting structures. The high levelof public awareness and concern
for safety of structures should also
not be lost sight of. The following
picture is a clipping from thePress
war ning
oftheconsequences of overlooking'dangerous' (deteriorated) concrete
structures, and describing
developments including new
inspection systems and theexamination introduced by the
JCI.

Press reports (February,2000)
Structures, both in the private
and public sectors, areperiodically inspected to ensurethat they are serviceable, and tolook for signs of deterioration anddistress. The possibility of injury
to not only the users but also 'third
parties' by way of spalling of
concrete, etc. is also kept in mind
during these inspections.
Depending upon the degree ofimportance, location andenvironment of the structure, theinspection may use different
nondestructive testing tools, or be
simply visual. In fact, in mostcases, a detailed inspection using
appropriate tools is carried out incases (only) when visualinspection shows a need. Even incases when a decision has to bemade regarding car r ying out
repair and/or strengthening thestructure, visual inspection isusually the first step.

(a)(b)
Representation of progressive aging of bridges and required increased attention for older structures

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

page 5(a)(b)
Sample displays for software to aid in inspection of structures
Though visual inspection
yields excellent data but the
subjectivity in the results
sometimes makes it's reliability
quite poor. Not only different
inspectors may view a certain
degree of cracking as 'serious' or'routine' depending upon personal
judgment, but their understanding
and inter pretation could also
depend on their professional
backgrounds, i.e. whether they aree s s e n t i a l ly t r a i n e d i n r e p a i r
systems of cracks or they are
structural engineers.
Fur ther, the life-span of astructure is quite long, and not
only it is difficult for the same
person to continue to inspect thestructure, but his own 'evaluation'
undergoes substantial changes
with age and experience.
Though the Japan Concrete
Institutehasinstituted
professional examinations tobring about some standardizationin the area of inspection of
concrete structures, it is importantthat other avenues for better
standardization and utilizationof results from visual inspection
are explored.
In this context, Dr. Taketo
Uomoto, Director ICUS, andProfessor at the Institute ofIndustrial Science, University ofTokyo, has led an effort on thepossibility of using personal
computer based expert systems invisual inspections, and formulated
a basic outline of the system about
two years ago.
The system is being developed
to introduce a certain degree touniformity and objectivity intesting and evaluation, and enable
an engineer with only a marginalunderstanding of the deterioration
processes in concrete to carry out
routine inspections. Theinteractive system guides theinspector through inspection
process using the built-in data forcommonly
encountereddeterioration. The adjoining
f igures are samples from thedisplays on the computer screend u r i n g t h e e xe c u t i o n o f t h esoftware developed. Figures (a)and (b) abore are examples ofkind of assistance the systemo ff e r s t o t h e i n s p e c t o r a n d
prompts him with questions about
the environment of the structure,
ex t e n t o f c r a c k i n g , e t c . T h e
a d j o i n i n g f i g u r e s h ow s a n
example of the 'diagnosis' madeby the expert system on the basisof the data fed in during thecourse of the inspection. The
results are given in terms on an'overall index' which gives thepossibility of a certain mechanism

Sample display of 'diagnosis'
using the softwareof deterioration operating.
At present, Professor Uomotois leading a team of researchers,
including engineers drawn fromten consulting and construction
companies, to develop a practicalexpert system for a scientif ic
collection and analysis of datafrom bridges, tunnels and wharfs.
Though it is hoped that therequired software will be ready inanother year, it is likely to takesome more time before thepackage is translated in English,
etc. and is available for use inother countries.
(Sudhir Misra)
Editor's Note: Readers may also notethat Vol 1 No 4 of our Newsletter also
carried a related article on Maintenanceof concrete infrastructure.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

page 6

3rd ICUS Open Lecture
The phenomenon of global
warming has been recognized forquite sometime now, and has beenstudied by scientists andenvironmentalists from the pointof pollution and pollution control,
rising sea levels, and environmental
conservation. Recently, however,research effor t is also being
directed to study different aspectsof the 'Heat Island' phenomenon,
which essentially refers to creationof localized pockets of heat in theneighborhood of major urban
centers.
The theme for the 3 r d Open
Lecture organized by ICUS
scheduled for September wasdelayed and held on October 7,
2002, at IIS, Komaba-II Campus,
University of Tokyo was "Urban
Heat Environment - The Risk ofHeat Island". The theme had beenchosen to draw wider attention to
the problem and the directions incurrent research. About 80
engineers and scientists fromvarious organizations listened topresentations by Prof.R. Ooka of
the ICUS and three other eminent
researchers.
At the outset, Prof. Y. Yasuoka
provided a brief overview of theOpen Lecture, and thanked the
speakers and participants fortaking time out of their schedules
and coming to IIS for the event.
He then invited the speakers tomake their presentations.

application of advanced technologies
for the mitigation of urban heatconditions.
P r o f . Ta k e h i k o M i k a m i ,Department of Geography, Tokyo
Metropolitan University, gave alecture on "Investigation of Urban
Heat Island in Tokyo metropolis
Based on the Ground Monitoring
System". His presentation was
based on data collected and theevidence available to show thegrowing Heat Island phenomenon
in the Tokyo metropolitan region,and emphasized the importance ofdeveloping a network system foraccurate monitoring of parameters
related to Heat Islands, in order tobetter understand the changes inurban micro climate on account ofurbanization.
M r. K o h t a r o Ta k e mu r a ,A d v i s o r, Wa t e r R e s o u r c eEnvironment Technology Center,made a presentation titled "Global
Warming and Urban Disaster",and discussed the present trend inwater related natural disasters
such as flood and draught. Hispresentation focused on thesituation in Japan in relation to thec h a n g e s i n m i c r o c l i m a t e byurbanization, and global warming.
Mr. Takemura also put forward themission of the government andgovernment agencies in mitigationof damage by these disasters.
Prof. Yutaka Inaba, Department of
Epidemology and Environmental

Dr. Ryozo Ooka, Associate
Professor, ICUS, Institute ofIndustrial Science, University of
To k yo , m a d e a p r e s e n t a t i o ndealing with the issue of urban
warming and methods that could
adopted during architecturaldesign and urban planning tocontrol the development of heatislands. He also gave a summaryof the cur rent projects in his
research group dealing withmicroclimate modeling and

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

H e a l t h , J u n t e n d o U n ive r s i t y
School of Medicine, presented atalk on "Mortality rate due to heatdisorder by place of occurrence
using vital statistics in Japan". Hispresentation contained thestatistics about the mortality rateby heat disorder over the last
about 40 years collected during
hot days in Osaka, Tokyo andNagoya. Prof. Inaba observed thatthe mortality rate was markedly
high among the persons over 65
years old and those 0 to 4 years
old, and did not show a genderbias. However, in the other age
groups and places of occurrences,
mortality rate for women was
lower than that for men. Further,
the mortality rate from 1990 to1999 was higher than that from1959 to 1968, while the ageadjusted mortality rate remained
the same. signif icant Positivec o r r e l a t i o n s we r e o b s e r v e d
between the mortality rate of heatdisorder and the annual peakt e m p e r a t u r e a s we l l a s t h eoccurrence of hot days in Tokyo,
Nagoya and Osaka.
Through comments andquestions on each of thepresentations, the audience
expressed their interest in thevarious issues. At the end of theOpen Lecture Prof. Y. Yasuoka
thanked the speakers for theex c e l l e n t p r e s e n t a t i o n s , a n d
i nv i t e d t h e m t o j o i n t h eparticipants for informalinteraction.

A view of audience at the Open Lecture

page 7

ICUS/INCEDE Activity Record
Prof. T. Uomoto attended theInternational Congress on
Challengesof
concrete
Construction held at Dundee, UKfrom 5 th to 11 th September, andalso attended the meeting of the
ISO panel TC 71 on Concrete.
Prof. K. Meguro attended theEarthquake Related Insurance andFinancial Risk Management andthe 27th Annual Hazards Researcha n d A p p l i c a t i o n s Wo r k s h o pduring 3rd to 8th July and 14th to 19th
J u l y,r e s p e c t i v e l y.
The
Conferences were held at St.
Petersburg Russia and Boulder
USA, and highlighted the need to
involve professionals from sectors
such as banking, f inance,
insurance, etc. in developing ac o m p r e h e n s iv e a p p r o a c h t odisaster mitigation.
Prof. R.Ooka participated in
the Landscape Frontier 2002 heldat Kita Kyushyu in Japan from
Sept 30th to Oct 3rd.
Dr. D.Dutta participated in theInter national Symposium on
Geoinformatics for Spatial
Infrastructure Development inEarth and Allied Sciences 2002
held from 25th to 28 th August at
Hanoi in Vietnam.
Dr. S. Ochi participated in The
2 n d Regional Seminar on GeoInformatics for Asian Eco-System
Management (India) from 10th to12th September, organized by the
Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) and the Centre for SpaceS c i e n c e a n d Te c h n o l o g y
Education in Asia and the Pacific(CSSTEAP) at the Indian Instituteof Remote Sensing, Dehradun,
India. 23 resource persons and 39
participants from India, Japan,
Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand andVietnam attended the seminar.
Dr. S. Ochi also participated in
the MAP Asia 2002 at Bangkok,
Thailand from 7 th to 9 th August.
More than 500 delegates fromover 30 countries attended theconference held at the initiative of
the AIT, the Centre for Spatial

Database Management andSolutions (CSDMS), India, and
the Geo-Informatics and SpaceTechnology Development Agency(GISTDA), Thailand. Professor S.
Murai, Emeritus Pro. of the
University of Tokyo was awarded
the "Life Time Achievement
Award" for his contributions in thef ield of remote sensing by theorganizing committee.

Professor Uomoto (Right, Front) withsome other Japanese delegates

Visitor to ICUS/INCEDE
Dr. Seok-Kyun Park, Associate
Professor, Department of Civil
Engineering, Taejon University,
South Korea visited ICUS, IIS on
July 31st.

Prof. Park specializes innondestructive testing of concrete
structures and is a former graduate
student of the Department of Civil
Engineering. at the University ofTokyo. He completed his D.Engg
in 1996 on application of radars
for monitoring of concrete
structures, under the supervisionof Professor Taketo Uomoto.

ICUS personnel
Ms Yuriko Ochi and Ms Eiko
Yoshimoto joined as Secretaries at
the ICUS in September.
Dr. Sudhir Misra joined as
Visiting Professor on July 15th forabout a year from the Department
of Civil Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur
India. This is his second stint at
ICUS after a brief stay last year.
During this stay here, Dr. Misra
will work closely with Prof.

Uomoto and participate inteaching and research activities.
He will also devote part of his
t i m e t o wo r k w i t h a s u b committee of the Japan Society of
Civil Engineers translation withthe responsibility of publishing
the English translation of theJapanese standard specification
for design and construction of
concrete structures. Dr Misra is analumnus of the Tokyo University
and worked during his graduate

studies here (1984-1989) with
Prof. Uomoto.
Welcome to ICUS.

Ms.Yuriko Ochi

Ms.Eiko Yoshimoto

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 2

page 8
Editor's Note
During late July and August, theUniversity of Tokyo observes summer
vacation, and this year it was a very
hot and humid period with thetemperatures reaching more than
33oC even in the beginning of July. I
used the vacations this year to visit
Hida-Takayama with my students inAugust and attend an International
conference in Dundee, Scotland in
September.
H i d a - Ta k a y a m a , o n e o f t h ehistorical cities in Japan, is set in
p i c t u re s q u e s e t t i n g a n d h a s
a rch i t e c t u re a n d c u l t u re q u i t edifferent from Tokyo. Located on thewest side of Japan North Alps andknown for the heavy snow falls in
winter, the city of Takayama is justlike Kyoto, with old houses still being

used. Such houses having sloping
roofs are to be found only in a small
limited area and are built using the
traditional "Gassho-zukuri" (literally
meaning 'made in the manner offolded hands') method. I hope thefollowing photograph conveys theidea.

Weather in Dundee in September
was quite cool and the temperature
difference with Tokyo was more than
15oC!!. I had the opportunity to havedinner in Gramis Castle, where H.E.

Queen Elizabeth spent her younger
days. The castle is beautiful and I
enjoyed the bug pipes at the welcome
and nice drinks and traditional food indeed an experience that we cannot
have in our country.
A t t h e m o m e n t , w e a re b u s ypreparing to hold an International
Symposium and to open a network
office in Bangkok, Thailand. At theend of September, we bid farewell to
our secretary, Ms. Murakami, wholeft Japan to join her family inShanghai. New secretaries, Ms.
E.Yoshimoto and Ms. Y.Ochi havejoined ICUS during this period, and I
am sure we will be able to keep you
posted on the latest developments
here.
(Taketo Uomoto)International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS/INCEDE)
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komada, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476, E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 3
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2002

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Remote Sensing Activities
in Indiaby
R. S. TIWARI and Onkar DIKSHIT
Remote Sensing (RS)
activities, in India, may be said tohave started in 1962 with theformation of the Indian National
Committee for Space Research. In
the same year, work on equatorial
rocket launching station at
Thumba (TERLS) was started
from where the f irst sounding
rocket was launched in 1963. The
early remote sensing scene was
p r i m a r i ly d o m i n a t e d by t h eGeological Survey of India (GSI),
where with the advent of lowflying aircraft for aerial surveys,
large sections of the country weresurveyed using magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric sensors.
Aerial magnetic surveys over partsof states of Rajasthan, Bihar, West
Bengal and Andhra Pradesh,
covering nearly 90,000 sq. km,
were carried out in 1967-68 under'Operation Hardrock', whichyielded a wealth of information on
geophysical anomalies.
The Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO), which is thenodal agency for various RS
activities India was established in1969. ISRO has been involved int h e d eve l o p m e n t o f s a t e l l i t elaunch vehicles, sensors, aerials u r vey s , i m a g e a n a ly s i s a n dinterpretation and planning ofsatellite based resource surveys. A
number of successful RS surveys
for a variety of applications, incollaboration with other user
agencies, have since been carriedout by ISRO. The establishment of
the Space Applications Centre(SAC) at Ahmedabad in 1972 put
RS activities in the country on amore organized basis and soundfooting. Following the launch ofIndia's first satellite Aryabhatta in
1975, ISRO has sent a number ofsatellites in space and has initiatedactions for future space
programmes.

REMOTE SENSINGIN INDIA
The widespread RS activities
in India are presently taken care of
by t h e c e n t r a l a n d s t a t e
g ov e r n m e n t
departments,
academic institutions and private
e n t e r p r i s e s . P r i m a r i l y, t h e
Department of Space (DOS), a
nodal department of the central
government, is involved in RS

activities through its various
wings such as ISRO, National
Natural Resources Management
System (NNRMS), and National
Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA).
I S RO, t h r o u g h t h e S p a c e
Application Center (SAC) at
Ahmedabad and Regional Remote
Sensing Service Centres(RRSSCs) situated at Nagpur,
Bangalore, Kharagpur, Dehradun,
and Jodhpur, promotes regionaland national RS applications.
Besides under taking variousa p p l i c a t i o n p r og r a m m e s , a nimportant aspect on which ISRO
has directed its efforts, all along
since its inception, is to develop
technology for sending country's
ow n s a t e l l i t e s i n s p a c e . T h e
NNRMS is responsible for
ensuring optimized utilization of
the country's natural resources
through a proper and systematic
inventory of various resources. For
this, it has created the Natural
Resource Information System(NRIS) where resources data at
district, state and national levelhas been maintained. It also
facilitates establishment of
infrastr ucture, generation of

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

page 2trained manpower and supports
c o l l a b o r a t i v e e ff o r t s i ndevelopment of hardware andsoftware for processing of satellite
and other data.
The establishment of NRSA in
1974, an autonomous organizationof the Department of Space, has
further strengthened RS activities
in the country. Its objectives haveremained as remote sensing dataacquisition, archival, processing
and dissemination; operation offlight facility to provide aerial
remote sensing; applications ofremote sensing for survey andmonitoring of natural resources
and research and development. It
has carried out a number ofprojects that include airborneg e o p hy s i c a l s u r v e y f o r t h e
Department of Atomic Energy(DAE) and aerial photographic
surveys for the Survey of India(SOI). It also imparts training invarious application areas to thepersonnel from user departments
through the Indian Institute ofRemote Sensing (IIRS),
D e h r a d u n . I I R S , e s t a bl i s h e dinitially as a part of the SOI, wasbrought under the NRSA in 1976
with the primary responsibility ofdeveloping trained manpower in
RS. The IIRS campus at Dehradun
has another unique facility at theinitiative of United Nations,known as the Center for SpaceS c i e n c e a n d Te c h n o l o g y
Education in Asia and Pacif ic( C S S T E - A P ) , t o p r ov i d e
education and training in remotesensing to personnel from Asia
and Pacific region.
The Indian space programmes
have remained directed to three
aspects, i.e., development of
remote sensing satellites called

IRS series, development ofcommunication
andmeteorological satellites called
INSAT series and development ofdifferent types of launch vehicles
to put the satellites in proper
orbits. So far seven IRS satellites
known as IRS-1A, IRS-1B, IRS1C, IRS-1D, IRS-P3 and IRS-P4(OCEANSAT), and Technology
Experiment Satellite (TES) havebeen launched. Out of these thefirst two, IRS-1A and 1B, havecompleted their useful life whilet h e r e m a i n i n g f ive f o r m t h elargest constellation of remotesensing satellites in the world,o ff e r i n g a va r i e t y o f d a t a i ndifferent spectral bands and spatial
resolutions. Some impor tantcharacteristics of Indian satellites
and sensors have been listed inTable given below. The TES,
launched on board PSLV-C3 on
October 22, 2001, is an

Table: Characteristics of (a) Indian satellites for earth observation, and (b) the on-board sensors(a)Parameters
Bhasakara-I & II
IRS-1A/1B
IRS-1C/1D
Class
Spin-stabilized
3-axis stabilization
3-axis stabilization
Weight (Kg)444
975/9891247
Power (W)
47 W from solar
709 W from solar array813 W from solar arraypanels and Ni-Cd batteries (EOL) 2 Ni-Cd batteries (EOL) 2 Ni-Cd batteriesMission life
One yearThree years
Three years
Launch1979, 1981
1988 / 1991
1995
Orbit
Height (km)
Apogee 557
904"~~ 817
Perigee 572
Inclination (degrees)
50.7
99.02898.12
TypeNear circularSun-synchronous
Sun-synchronous
Equator crossing time
10:25 Hrs.
10:30 Hrs.
Repetitivity (days)
22
24

Type

SpectralBands( m)Groundresolution
Swath
(km)
Steering

Bhasakar
I/II TV
TV camera
microwave
radiometer
0.54-0.66
0.75-0.85(b)Bhasakar
IRS-1A/1B
I/II SAMIR LISS-I/II
Dick-type
CCD camera

19, 22, 31
(GHz)

1 km

125 km~~"341

148/2X74

Nadir

Nadir

0.45-0.52
0.52-0.59
0.62-0.68
0.77-0.86
73 m/36.5 m
~
~
"141
~
~
"148
Nadir

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

IRS-1C/1D IRS-1C/1D
LISS-IIIPAN
CCD camera CCD camera

IRS-1C/1D
WiFS
CCD camera

0.52-0.59
0.50-0.75
0.62-0.68
0.77-0.86
1.55-1.70~~"23.5m (Visible) 5.8 m~~"70.5 m (SWIR)
70
810

0.62-0.68
0.77-0.86

Nadir

Steerable±26o, stereo

188 mNadir looking

page 3experimental satellite to
demonstrate and validate in-orbit
technology that could be used in
the future satellite programmes.
TES also carries a panchromatic
camera with a spatial resolution of
1 m.
INSAT system is the largest
domestic satellite communication
system in Asia Pacif ic Region
comprising of four satellites,
INSAT-2C, INSAT-2D, INSAT-2E
a n d I N S AT- 3 B. T h e e a r l i e rsatellite INSAT-1D, launched inJune 1990, was used for
meteorological imaging and a few
other services. INSAT-2B, which
was launched in July 1993, hasbeen decommissioned from
regular services but is being used
for Satellite Aided Search andRescue and Data Relay Services
and a few other scientif ic
experiments.
The successful first test-flightof Geo-synchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D1) from
Sriharikota on April 18, 2001 has
been a significant milestone in thedevelopment of country's spacelaunch vehicle prog ramme.
Another important event, duringt h i s p e r i o d, h a s b e e n t h e
successful flight of PSLV-C3 on
October 22, 2001 from
Sriharikota. In this f ifth
consecutive successful flight,
PSLV placed three satellitesIndian TES, Belgian PROBA andGerman BIRD into polar sunsynchronous
orbit
thus
establishing the reliability of
PSLV for launching multiple
satellites.
Besides above, almost all thes t a t e g ov e r n m e n t s h av e
established state remote sensing
application centers to take care of
their RS related activities. Further,several other departments such as
Oil and Natural Gas Commission(ONGC), Forest Survey of India,
Department of Agriculture andCooperation, Department ofEnvironment and Forest, and GSI

Locations of major Remote Sensing facilities in India
Table: Academic and other institutions offering degree and otherprogrammes in Remote Sensing
No. Name of Univ. / InstituteCourse1.

Aligarh Muslim Univ..

M. Phil and Ph. D.

2.

Andhra Univ., Visakhapatnam

M. Tech.

3.

Anna Univ., Chennai

M. Tech. and Ph. D.

4.

B. M. Birla Science and Technology

M. Tech.

5.

Bharatidasan Univ., Tiruchirapally

Center, Jaipur
P.G. Diploma,

M. Phil. and Ph. D.
6.

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

M. Tech. and Ph. D.

7.

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

M. Tech. and Ph. D.

8.

Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad

M. Tech.

9.

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

M. A. / M. Sc.

10.

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

M. E. and Ph. D.

11.

Regional Engineering College, Warangal

M. Tech. and Ph. D.

12.

Jawahar Lal Nehru Technical Univ., Hyderabad

M. Tech. and Ph. D.

13.

Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun

14.

Survey Training Institute (STI), Survey of India,
Hyderabad

15.

National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land
Use Planning, Nagpur, Bangalore

16.
17.

Forest Survey of India, Dehradun
Geological Survey of India
Training Institute, Hyderabad

18.

Training programmes ofvarying lengths of time.
These programmes areusually attended by staff ofvarious user organizations.

National Natural Resources Management System,
Bangalore, Dehradun, Jodhpur, Kharagpur, Nagpur

19.

Space Application Center, Bangalore

20.

National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

page 4etc., and private organizations
such as ROLTA India (Mumbai),
Speck Systems Limited(Hyderabad), HOPE Technologies(Delhi), RMSI (Delhi) etc. arealso involved in remote sensing
applications related project.

Organizations. There is a need,however, to have more concerted
e ff o r t s t o g e n e r a t e c o h e r e n t
researchandeducation
prog rammes than the present
isolated efforts on the part ofindividuals.

The location of the some of the
facilities involved in RS in India isshown in the map of the country
given on the previous page.

APPLICATIONS OFREMOTE SENSINGEDUCATION, TRAINING
AND RESEARCH
The
names
of
the
universities/institutes and otherinstitutions offering degree andother training programmes inremote sensing - on regular basis
are given in the Table on theprevious page. It can be seen that
education and training in RS andallied subjects in various
institutions has, unfortunately, notbeen undertaken at the desired
pace, in spite of the fact that there
is a growing need for trained
personnel in these f ields. The
result is that there is a dearth oftrained personnel to handle andefficiently utilize the large amountof data available from country's
own satellite system. In fact, theschool and college level educationin this f ield is practically nonexistent.
Non-availability of qualified
and trained personnel in RS andallied f ields has not only
hampered proper exploitation of
the available data but has also
affected the related research
programmes in various application
areas. The research in RS andrelated areas is being carried out
e i t h e r a t t h e g ov e r n m e n t
departments/organizations or theacademic institutions and thefunding generally comes fromgovernment departments such as
University Grants Commission(UGC), Department of Scienceand Technology (DST), All India
Council for Technical Education(AICTE), Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) and Defense

A s m e n t i o n e d e a r l i e r, R S
applications started in the country
with the advent of aerial
photography, particularly in thef ield of geology and mineral
exploration.
Subsequent
applications in the field of natural
resources exploration were taken
up, after the development of spaceborne multispectral sensors. Some
major applications carried out at
the national level include them a p p i n g o f f o r e s t c ov e r,wasteland, soil resources and land
use mapping for agro-climaticzoning. With the availability ofmore sophisticated sensors, thea p p l i c a t i o n a r e a s h ave b e e n
ex t e n d e d t o u r b a n m a p p i n g ,industrial site selections, pollution
studies, engineering applications
and disaster management such as
floods and drought monitoring,landslide hazard zonation,
earthquake damage assessment
etc.
Two e x a m p l e s o f R S
applications are briefly explainedusing the adjacent figures. The top
t wo p h o t o g r a p h s s h ow t h eurbanization obser ved in theneighbourhood of the city of
Kanpur during the last 20 years,
and a false color composite of the
district using IRS 1C LISS III
sensor data. The photographs at
the bottom show the emergence ofchannels due to liquefaction in
Rann of Kachchh in western India
after the major earthquake in
Gujarat in January 2001.
The following projects are also
noteworthy from the viewpoint of
RS application in the country:- Mapping and monitoring ofmajor floods in the country

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

1977
1997

Urbanization in the Kanpur
district over 20 years

FCC of Kanpur district using
IRS 1C LISS sensor data(a)Pre-earthquake(Jan 2,2001)(b)Post earthquake(Jan 29,2001)
Channel formation in the Rannof Kutch due to liquefaction
during earthquake

page 5

-

-

-

-

-

-

using IRS (optical) andR A DA R S AT ( m i c r owave )satellite data to get districtlevel inundation information
for relief operations
Change detection analysis ofGujarat earthquake of January
2001 for damage assessment
using LISS-3 and PAN data,
including changes in ocean
parameters,
Landslide hazard zonation
mapping at 1:25,000 by
merging LISS-3 and PAN data
Preparation of district level
zoningatlasesforenvironmental risk assessment
in siting of industries
Change detection and growthtrend analysis for planningurban development
Integ rated mission forsustainable development
Carrying capacity based
development planning forDelhi and Doon valley
Mineral targeting on a regional
scale under project Vasundhara

FUTURE PROGRAMMESRS activities in India havecome a long way to make thecountry as one of the leading
nations in space programmes.
F u t u r e p r og r a m m e s , b e s i d e sroutine applications, are moreinteresting and ambitious. These

envisage using satellite data foradvanced
car tog raphic
applications, launching ofrecoverable satellites so that
payload could be reused to cut
down the cost of future missions
and launching of a satellite fort e l e m e d i c i n e p u r p o s e s . Fo r
cartographic applications such as
cadastral mapping, urban andrural management, coastal landu s e a n d r eg u l a t i o n , u t i l i t i e smapping and development etc.,
CARTOSAT series satellites havebeenplanned.
IRS-P5(CARTOSAT-1), having spatial
resolution better than 2.5 m, will
be launched by PSLV in polar sunsynchronous orbit at an altitude of
618 km with a 30 km swath. The
satellite will carry two steerable
panchromatic cameras suitably
mounted to provide stereo pairs ofimages. Likewise, CARTOSAT-2
will also be launched in polar sunsynchronous orbit at an altitude of
630 km and a special orbit of 560
km, so as to have a revisit periodof 4 days and 1 day respectively. It
will car r y an advanced
panchromatic CCD camera withthe spatial resolution of less than 1
m with 10 km swath.
Another satellite, IRS-P6(RESOURCESAT) will have apolar sun-synchronous orbit at analtitude of 817 km. The payload of
this resource satellite will havemulti-spectral camera LISS-3
having 23.5 m spatial resolution in
all four bands with a swath greaterthan 140 km, a high resolution
multispectral camera LISS-4 toprovide 5.8 m resolution in threebands and an Advanced Wide
Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera
with a spatial resolution better
than 70 m in three bands with aswath of 700 km.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The information derived fromvarious publications of ISRO andNNRMS, Bangalore, NEERI
Nagpur, and Current Science,
Bangalore, for this paper isgratefully acknowledged.

Editor's note: Due tolimitations of space, some tables,
etc could not be included here. An
extended version of this article,
including a historical review of
the remote sensing activities in the
country, is available at the ICUS
website. Though the readers could
write to ICUS also, the authors
will be only too glad to assist andprovide additional information.
Correspondence to the authors
canbea d d re s s e dtoonkar@iitk.ac.in- Authors Prof. R. S. Tiwari is Adjunct
Professor in the Dept of CE at
Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur, where he joined after adistinguished career spanningmore than 35 years at the IIT
Roorkee. Prof Tiwari has been oneof the pioneers in Remote Sensing
activities in India, and his
re s e a rc h i n t e re s t s i n c l u d e

a p p l i c a t i o n s o f cl o s e ra n g ephotogrammetry in engineeringand biomedicine, and applicationso f re m o t e s e n s i n g a n dphotogrammetry for mapping andnatural resources evaluation.

His research interests include
applications of remote sensing,photogrammetry, GIS, GPS, andd i g i t a l i m ag e p ro c e s s i n g t oengineering and natural resource
management problems.

Dr. Onkar Dikshit is Associate
Professor at Dept of CE at Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Dr. Tiwari

Dr. Dikshit

ICUS Activities Recognized
Mr. H. Kanada working with
Prof. Uomoto, and Mr. S. Fujita,
M s . M . E n o m o t o a n d M s . P.
M ayo r c a wo r k i n g w i t h P r o f .
Meguro, won a prize for excellent
presentation at the 2002 Annual

meeting of the Japan Society of
Civil Engineers held at Sapporo in
S e p t e m b e r. T h e n a m e s o fawardees were announced in
November.
Mr. W. Takeuchi a graduates t u d e n t wo r k i n g w i t h P r o f
Ya s u o k a wo n t h e B e s t Pa p e raward for his paper at the autumn
meeting of the Japan Society for
Photog rammetr y and Remote
Sensing.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

page 6

International Symposium on

New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia
The International Center for
Urban-safety Engineering (ICUS)of the Institute of Industrial
Science (IIS), the University ofTokyo and the School of Civil
Engineering, Asian Institute ofTechnology, Bangkok organized aone-day International Symposium
on New Technologies for the
Safety of Mega Cities of Asia on
October 28 t h at Bangkok. The
symposium sought to bringt og e t h e r a l l t h e p a r t i c i p a n t s
i nv o l v e d i n c r e a t i n g a n dmaintaining the present day urban
environment - policy makers,planners, engineers and architects.
The
Symposiumwasinaugurated by the Honorable
Minister of Transpor t HE Mr
Suriya Jungrungreongkit of the
R oy a l T h a i G ove r n m e n t a n d
Honorable Senior Vice-Minister
H E M r Ke n z o Yo n e d a i n t h eCabinet Office of Japan.
In his inaugural address, HE
Mr. Suriya Jung r ung reongkit
welcomed the timely discussion
on the subject of Urban Safety,
and mentioned the urgent need toaddress the issue of partiallycompleted building structures in
Bangkok, whose present integrity
needs to be established before adecision on their further
development can be taken. In his
inaugural address, HE Mr. Yoneda
briefly outlined and reiterated
Japan's continued support andparticipation in efforts related todisaster mitigation and urbans a f e t y. H e a l s o e m p h a s i z e dJapanese willingness to share withthe other countries know-how andexpertise gathered over the ages indealing with natural forces such as
earthquakes and typhoons.
The inaugural session of thesymposium was co-chaired by
Prof. Y Yasuoka, Deputy DirectorGeneral, IIS, University of Tokyoand Prof. JL Armand, President of
AIT. Speaking at the symposium,P r o f . A r m a n d we l c o m e d t h edelegates and participants, andlauded the important role Japanh a d p l ay e d i n b u i l d i n g a n dmaintaining the international
stature of AIT. In his message to
the Symposium read out by Prof.
Yasuoka, the Director General of
the IIS, University of Tokyo,
called for a closer cooperationb e t we e n t h e r e s e a r c h e r s a n d
academicians of the region toensure better utilization of scarcetechnical and human resources.
Prof. Shunji Murai, Professor
Emeritus, University of Tokyo andP r o f e s s o r, Ke i o U n iv e r s i t y,delivered one of the two Keynote
lectures. The title of his talk was
A d v a n c e d Te c h n o l o g i e s i n
G e o i n f o r m a t i c s . D r. Wi c h a
Jiwalai, Chairman, Executive
Board, Geo-Informatics and SpaceTechnology Development Agencyof Thailand (GISTDA), delivered

ICUS Director(Extreme left)with other dignitaries

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

the other Keynote lecture on the
Information Needs for Urban
Safety Assessment.
Dr. Suvit Vibulsresth, Director,
G I S T DA , a n d P r o f . Wo r s a k
Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean, Schoolof Civil Engineering, AIT, alsodelivered Special Lectures in themorning session of the
Symposium.
While
D r.
Vibulsresth's talk concentrated ont h e S a t e l l i t e O b s e r va t i o n
Programs in Asia, Prof. Worsak
highlighted the different facets ofactivities for urban safety at the
AIT.
In the afternoon session of the
Symposium, more than 20
technical papers were presented
by researchers and professionals
from Thailand, Japan, Singapore,and Hong Kong, highlighting theadvanced technologies, such as
remote sensing, GIS, GPS andother computational tools that canbe used to devise appropriate
methodologies
forthemanagement and maintenance of
urban
buildings
andinfrastructures in mega cities, anddisaster mitigation.
Readers may also visit theI C U S w e b s i t e f o r m o reinformation on the Symposium,
The Proceedings of the papers
presented has also been published,
and readers may write to us formore information - Editor

Participants at the symposiumpage 7

Regional ICUS office inaugurated
A t a s i m p l e c e r e m o ny o n
October 29th, 2002, the School of
Civil Engineering, Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT) and theInternational Center for Urbansafety Engineering (ICUS) of theInstitute of Industrial Science(IIS), the University of Tokyo
established a Regional Network
Office for Urban Safety (RNUS),a t t h e A I T ' s S c h o o l o f C iv i lEngineering (SCE). An agreement
towards developing joint research
programmes and cooperate indeveloping strategies for tacklingissues related to urban safety was
also signed.
Prof. Jean-Louis Armand, AIT
President, Prof. Mario Tabucanon,
Provost, AIT, Prof. Yoshifumi
Yasuoka, Vice Director-General of
IIS, University of Tokyo attended
the ceremony in addition to Prof.
Taketo Uomoto, Director, ICUS
a n d P r o f . Wo r s a k K a n o k Nukulchai, Dean, School of Civil
E n g i n e e r i n g , A I T, a n d o t h e r

members of the ICUS and AIT
faculty.
In their brief remarks, thedignitaries recalled thelongstanding partnership between
the AIT and the University ofTokyo, and the agreement for
long-term cooperation between
the AIT and the Institute ofIndustrial Science/University ofTokyo. It was unanimously feltthat the establishment of the
RNUS could ser ve as animportant milestone in closerc o o p e r a t i o n b e t we e n t h eacademicians and researchers of
the region.
The brief ceremony wasfollowed by a meeting between
faculty members of the ICUS, andthe SCE, AIT, and academics andresearchers from some of theacademic and research institutions
in Bangkok, besides the AIT suchas the Thammasat University andthe Chulalongkorn University. The

Prof. Uomoto and Prof.Worsak sign a MOU formutual cooperation

ICUS/INCEDE Activities
RecordBesides the symposium on
New Technologies for the Safetyof Mega Cities of Asia, thef o l l ow i n g a r e s o m e o f t h e
International Conferences andSymposia attended by the ICUS
staff.
Prof. T.Uomoto and Prof. S.
Misra attended the meeting of theInternational Concrete Committee
for Model Code and the Asian

meeting focused on identifying
areas of common interest for
future collaborative research.
During the meeting, theimportance of developing accurate
databases for large cities wasemphasized. It was decided toform two working groups to workin the following areas:(a) collection of infor mation
related to concrete structures
including the incomplete and'abandoned' buildings',
deteriorated infrastructuresuch as highway bridges, etc.,
and,(b) use of remote sensing data for
applications such asm i t i ga t i o n o f d a m a g e o naccount of floods.
Wi t h t h e o p e n i n g o f t h e
Regional off ice at AIT, it will
become possible for an ICUS
faculty to spend more time there
and participate in the formulationand execution of joint research
programmes.

Some of the AIT and ICUS faculty at the regional
office opening

Concrete Forum at Seoul from 1st
to 4 th November. Prof. Uomoto
also attended the 9th Intl. Conf. on
Shotcrete for UndergroundSupport at Kyoto from 17th to 20th
November.

Prof. R.Ooka participated in
the 2nd Intl Workshop on Energy
and Environment of Residential
Building China from 13th to 17th
October at Shanghai, China.

Visitor to ICUS/INCEDE
Prof. Y.Yasuoka attended theThird Intl. Asia-Pacif ic
Symposium. on Remote Sensingof the Atmosphere, Ocean,
E nv i r o n m e n t , a n d S p a c e , a tHangzhou China from 22nd to 27th
October.

Ms Natacha Matsunuma, of
the CIRMM - CNRS, Paris,
visited ICUS on December 6th
and met Prof. T.Uomoto, Director,
who briefed her about theactivities of the ICUS and thesetting up of the office at AIT.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3

page 8
Editor's Note
Konnichiwa. I feel happy andprivileged to have the opportunity towork on the present issue, and I hope
you find it interesting. I also hopethat our Newsletter has now becomea regular part of your office library,as this seventh issue reaches you
after the Center was established in
April 2001.
I joined the center in July and have
now gotten more or less used to theworking here, though Japan is not an e w p l a c e fo r m e , a s I d i d m ygraduate studies at the University inTokyo, and also worked here for
ab o u t 5 y e a r s . A p a r t f ro m t h etremendous proliferation of themobile phones (keitai), its businessa s u s u a l . O n l y, a s p a r t o f a n
rationalization of portfolios at thehighest level, the Ministry ofConstruction (Kensetsusho), which
played a tremendous role in therebuilding of Japan after the Second
World War, and was a 'dream job' formany a Japanese civil engineer has
been reorganized into a 'Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure and Transport'.
Well, old order changeth!!
Some of my time here has beenspent on helping in the organizing the
symposium at Bangkok and openingof the regional off ice at AIT, as
reported in the current issue. I hopethat this marks a new era in regional
cooperation and sharing of scarce
human and technical resources. The
growth of the number of cities with apopulation exceeding one million
from 28 in 1950, to 136 in 1995 andprojected to be almost 250 in 2015, isa clear indication of the burden on

the urban infrastructure in the years
to come.
Besides the work at the center, I
have tried to update my information
ab o u t t h e d ev e l o p m e n t s i n t h e
traditional Japanese sport of Sumo. I
have discovered that Asashoryu, afighter from Mongolia, is the new'emerging' star, and should be in line
for attaining the (highest) rank ofyokozuna, if he does well in theJanuary tournament.
On behalf of the ICUS, I invite you
to send us a short communication on
research and other activities at yourend, which we could include in futureissues of the Newsletter. You can send
mail at icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

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

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering(Sudhir Misra)

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2003

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Creation of DEMs for Urban Areas
from Airborne Laser Scanner Data and Their Applications
By
Masahiro SETOJIMA*
In recent years, many cities andtheir surrounding areas in Japan
have faced diff icult problems
associated with natural disasters
and global environmental changes.
It is only eight years since the Kobe
Earthquake (January 17, 1995)
killed over 6,400 people, and thefear of the urban disaster is still vividin our memory. Moreover, there isan apprehension about a big
earthquake in the Tokai region.
Besides large-scale disasters suchas large magnitude earthquakes, anumber of river floods, especiallyurban floods due to drainage

overflow caused by intense rainfall
are increasing in the cities and theirsurroundings.
In the surrounding areas ofcities, on the other hand, there aremany occurrences of landslidedisasters due to the degradation ofConcept of measurement by airborne laser scanner

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4

page 2the natural environment and thedevastation of suburban forests
resultingfromongoingurbanization. In addition, we had
experienced serial volcanic
er uptions in the past decade,beginning with the eruption of Mt.
Unzen-Fugen (Nagasaki) in 1990
followed by the eruptions of Mt.
Usu (Hokkaido) and Miyake Island(Tokyo).
As for the global environment,
the heat island phenomena
occurring in the cities have drawn,
people s attention in recent years,
and urgent countermeasures needt o b e t a k e n i m m e d i a t e ly. I n
addition, urgent reduction of thegreenhouse gases, such as carbon
dioxide, causing global warming, isneeded.
To solve these problems related
to natural disasters andenvironmental issues occurring incities and their surrounding areas,
it is indispensable to construct andutilize geographical information
databases storing a wide variety ofgeog raphical infor mation
associated with those areas.
Among various types ofgeographical information, Digital
Elevation Models (DEMs) are themost fundamental geographic
information.
This article describes the basics
of airborne laser scanners(hereinafter, abridged as airborneLS), which have recently drawn

attention as a means to speedily
generate DEMs at high accuracy,
and their applications.

Method to rapidly generate
DEMs with high accuracy
Traditionally, aerial photogrammetry has been widely used togenerate DEMs. It uses a pair ofaerial photographs to measure
topography, and is useful in preparing
DEMs with relatively high accuracy.
But, photogrammetric processes areusually time and labor consuming. It
is also possible to create DEMs
using a pair of images taken byremote sensing satellites. However,
DEMs created from satellite remotesensing data are usually lessaccurate than those generated fromaerial photographs. Besides, radar
interferometry, which uses radar
data captured by the radars mounted
on artificial satellites or aircrafts, canbe used to create DEMs. But, radar
interferometry has some problems interms of the available wavelength
range and operability.
The use of airborne LS has been
increasing as a method to rapidly
generate DEMs at high spatial
accuracy. Its great advantage is thatit can acquire data through relatively
easy operation.
Airborne LS is mounted on an
aircraft or helicopter, and emits laser
p u l s e s t owa r d s t h e g r o u n dorthogonal to the flying direction(while scanning leftward andrightward); it receives the reflection

Shading drawing of DSM

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4of the pulses from the ground witha light receptor panel. The distance
between the scanner and the target
on the ground can be calculated
from the time necessary for thelaser pulses to make a return trip
between the sensor and the target.
At the same time, aerial images aretaken with a high-resolution digital
camera synchronously with thelaser measurements. In this case,the aircraft is equipped with a
Global Positioning System (GPS)and an Inertial Measurement Unit
(IMU), so that the position andinclination of the fuselage at the
moment of each laser measurement
can be obtained by analyzing thedata recorded with thoseequipments together with themeasurement data of another GPS
installed on the ground.
In general, the measurement
altitude of airborne LS is 300 to
3,000 m, the scanning angle ofairborne LS ranges between 5 and45 degrees, and the scanning width
is within 80 to 2,000 m. The
measuring accuracy is ±30 cm inhorizontal direction and ±15 cm invertical direction.

Measurement of airborne
LS data and DEM generation
Data collected with an airborne
LS are three-dimensional (3D)
point clouds corresponding to thesurfaces of spatial objects on the
ground such as the ground surface,buildings, bridges, roads, trees,
vehicles, etc. They are called Digital

Shading drawing of DEM after filter processing

page 3
Surface Model (DSM) anddistinguished from DEMs.
Data filtering is needed to create
a desired DEM from a DSM. Dataf iltering consists of two major
processes: i) elimination of noises
and ii) elimination of ground objects
such as trees and buildings. To
remove noise from DSMs, thepoints reflected from dusts in theair, clouds, etc. are eliminated first.
Then, the noise due to mir ror
surface reflections from building
walls covered with glasses, etc. areremoved. To eliminate trees andbuildings from DSMs, the search
size and threshold are determined
respectively for tall, middle height
and low height buildings, trees andsmall areas first. Next, the points
come under these thresholds aresequentially removed. A DEM isgenerated through such processes.

Creation of 3D city model
3D city models constructedusing airborne LS data can beutilized as the essential
information for predicting thedamages of urban disasters suchas earthquakes and floods. In
addition, it can be used as thebasic information for the
maintenance and management ofurban facilities. Frequent updatesof the geometrical information ofground objects are needed in theseapplications. Airborne LS, whichallow us to conduct measurementsof the shapes of ground objects
rapidly, may be an optimal meansfor 3D city modeling.
The two figures of this page
show 3D city models created byextracting
point
cloudscorresponding to buildings and trees
on the ground through high-pass
f i l t e r i n g w i t h Fa s t Fo u r i e r
Transform applied to an airborne
LS data, and by applying a polygon
processing technique to the aerial
image data taken with a CCD
camera simultaneously with theacquisition of the airborne LS data
to reconstruct spatial objects suchas buildings and trees.

Three-dimensional expression of close-range viewof a city made by laser scanner

Use of DEMs for topographic
analyses of slope lands
Debris flows, slope failures andlandslides often occur in the outskirtsof many cities in Japan. For thoseareas, detailed geomorphologic
studies of the slope lands should be
carried out for planningcountermeasures against slope
disasters. Ground surveys are not
optimal for the purpose, because thehigh labor-cost due to the heavy
vegetation cover in those areas. The
use of airborne LS, on the contrary,appears to be a good alternative forsurveying terrain features of theslope lands.

Tree height measurements
and forest structure analyses
Measurement of the tree heightso f a f o r e s t , a s we l l a s t h eidentif ication of the forest
str ucture, provides impor tant
information for estimating theamount of carbon dioxide absorbed
or fixed by the forest. Tree heights
can be obtained by subtracting theheight values at root positions oftrees recorded in a DEM fromThree-dimensional expression of bird's-eye viewof a city made by laser scanner

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4

page 4DSM

DSM-DSM=height
DEM

Concept of tree height measurement
by DSM and DEM
those at treetops recorded in a
DSM.
In case of a deciduous forest,
the vertical tree structure of theforest can be identif ied byAmount of change in vertical directionof DSM before and after defoliationcomparing multi-temporal DSMs
generated from airborne LS datataken before and after defoliation.
Furthermore, with the techniquementioned above, the horizontal
distribution pattern of the vegetation,such as shrubs and grasses,
covering the lowest layer of a
deciduous forest can be identified.
*Dr. Masahiro Setojima is a Visiting
Professor at ICUS from Kokusai
Kogyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

ICUS Signs MOU with BES and NCEE of Bangladesh
On February 21, 2003 ICUSs i g n e d a M e m o ra n d u m o f
Understanding (MOU) with
Bangladesh Earthquake Society(BES) to work together to achievec o m m o n o b j e c t i v e s t ow a rd surban safety. BES was foundedin 2002. The aims and objectiveso f B E S a re m a i n l y d i re c t e dtowards promoting research,development and awareness inthe field of earthquake
engineering.
On the same day, ICUS alsos i g n e d a n A g re e m e n t f o r
C o l l a b o ra t i o n i n R e s e a rc h ,E d u c a t i o n a n d Tra i n i n g
P rog ra m s w i t h t h e N a t i o n a lCenterfor
Earthquake
Engineering (NCEE) of the
Bangladesh University ofEngineering and Technolog y(BUET). Through this agreement

Signing cermony was held at ICUSb o t h t h e p a r t i e s a g re e d t ocooperate in the fields of mutual
i n t e re s t . D r. M e h e d i A h m e dAnsary, Associate Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
BU E T, re p re s e n t e d b o t h t h eorganizations in the signingceremony, which took place at

ICUS. Several staff members of
ICUS attended the ceremony.
T h ro u g h t h e s e M O U a n d
A g re e m e n t , I C U S h o p e s t o
s t re n g t h e nits
w o rk i n g
relationships with the researchers
f ro m B a n g l a d e s h f o r f u t u recollaborative activities.

WWF3 and First International Symposium of APHW held in Kyoto
The 3rd World Water Forum(WWF3) was held from March 1623, 2003 in the three neighboring
Japanese Prefectures of Kyoto,
Shiga and Osaka holding 351
separate sessions on 38 interlocking
t h e m e s d e a l i n g w i t h w a t e r,
especially on how to bring safe

water and sanitation to the entire
world. Some 24,000 participantsfrom 182 countries, more than triple
the number of participants expected,
attended the sessions.
The Asia Pacific Hydrology andWater Resources Association, which

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4

was established in September 2002,
organized its first international
conference on “Hydrology andWater Resources in Asia PacificRegion” during March 13-15, 2003
in Kyoto. More than 350 people
from over 30 countries participatedin the conference.

page 5Eight Years after the Kobe Earthquake- Its impact on Earthquake Disaster Reduction Strategies in Japan January 17, 2003 marks theeight anniversary of the Hyogo-ken
Nanbu (Kobe) Earthquake, which
killed about 5,500 people just after
the event and eventually 6,433
people as of Jan. 2003. This devastating earthquake shattered thebeliefs of Japanese engineers andresearchers regarding building andinfrastructure protection against
earthquakes. During this eight-year
period, many changes have takenplace in earthquake disaster mitigation strategies in Japan.
One of the major impacts of theKobe earthquake has been thechanges taken place in the Japanese government organizations,from national to local levels, in order to efficiently implement countermeasures before and after a disaster event. Many local governments have established high positions to implement and manage
proper disaster countermeasures.
Another effect has been the increased support of Japanese government to research on earthquake
disaster reduction. Several new research centers, such as the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation ResearchCenter, Disaster Reduction and the
Human Renovation Institution, havebeen established in Kobe city.
Seismic monitoring and testing
facilities have also improved. 1,000
seismometers (K-net) have been
installed by the National Institute ofEarth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). Now around 4,000
strong motion stations including Knet together with 1,200 GPS stations are regularly monitoring
ground motion and seismic activity
throughout Japan. A large 3D earthquake simulator (shown in the figure) is also being constructed by
NIED. Once completed, it will allow experiments of total failure using full-scale structures.
Although these developments
have contributed a lot towards improving the resistance of Japanesesociety against earthquakes, there
are still several important and ur-

Schematic diagram of the world's largest 3D shaking table being
constructed in Japan (Max. capacity: 1,200tf, 200kine, ±100cm)
gent issues to be addressed. The
A government system that supmost important is retrofitting of oldports house owners to retrofit bestructures. In the Kobe disaster, overfore an earthquake is not realistic
80% of the victims were killed within
as it needs a huge budget consider15 minutes after the earthquake due
ing the number of vulnerable houses,
to collapse of structures, mainly resiwhile a government system that
dential houses. Furthermore, thesupports house owners in reconmain cause of firebreak and spread
struction of their collapsed houses
was structural collapse. Also, aroundafter an earthquake is not a proper
15% victims, who were killed byapproach as it reduces the motivafires, could not escape from fires astion of house owners for retrofitting
they were trapped under damaged
and that leads to increased damage
houses. Over 60% of the monetaryin the next disaster event. Japaneseloss was due to damage to residengovernment should rather encourtial houses. If structural damage
age the owners to retrof it theirwere limited, the various problems
houses on their own. People can begenerated after the event, such as
motivated to retrofit if the governcommunity disruption, temporary
ment guaranties financial support toshelter and refuge camps, construcdamaged houses only if they aretion demolition among others mightretrofitted. Various simulations have
not have been so severe. This is theclearly shown that this system withmost important lesson learnt from thelow cost retrofitting technology
Kobe event.
would give larger benefit to both citizen and government and definitely
The Kobe experience showed ushelp reducing casualties and largethat the structures constructed folscale damage.
lowing the latest seismic code revised in 1981 performed well even
Within coming 30 to 40 years,
in case of a severe ground motion.
Japan is going to be rocked by a seHowever, nearly 60% of the existries of M8 class earthquakes. At theing structure stock in Japan were
present conditions, it is estimatedconstructed before 1981. These
that these earthquakes may cause
structures need urgent retrofitting toan economic damage equivalent toavoid a catastrophic disaster. To
20 to 60% of the Japanese GDP.
overcome this situation, a good enAs natural hazards cannot be previronment is needed under which
vented, all the governments, local
house owners are encouraged to retcommunities and individuals must
rofit their houses. The key issues are
make every possible effort before
development of efficient low costthe events to reduce the vulnerabiltechnologies and a new social sysity of buildings and infrastructure
tem/law for retrofitting promotion.
and avoid huge unbearable losses.
Role of the government in the latter(K. Meguro)
issue is very important.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4

page 6

Announcement: International Symposium on Oct. 30-31, 2003
- New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia -,O v e r h a l f o f t h e wo r l d s
population is concentrated in urban
areas covering just 4% of the,world s surface. Mega cities are inparticular characterized by a highp o p u l a t i o n d e n s i t y. R a p i durbanization is a distinctive featureof Asia with a tremendous rate of
population growth. It is estimatedthat by 2015, over 50% of the mega
cities in the world are going to be
in Asia. Due to rapid economic
development, there has been aphenomenal growth of high-risebuildings and other infrastructure in
the Mega Cities of Asia. However,this growth of infrastructure is nota d e q u a t e ly b a l a n c e d by t h eappropriate measures for theirmaintenance and management andthat has led to a deterioration ofurban infrastructures and resulted
in urban disasters in many cities.
Moreover, dense concentrations of
populations are leading to high rates
of water-related illnesses from lackof safe drinking water or adequates a n i t a t i o n o r e nv i r o n m e n t a l
problems.
The recent developments ofvarious advanced technologies

Visitors to ICUS
Some of the international visitors
to ICUS during the period ofJanuary-March 2003 are listed
below:• Prof. Ehrhard Raschke, Instituteof Meteorological University,
Hamburg and Visiting Professor,

The topics of the symposiuminclude various issues related toadvanced technologies for urban
safety and security covering thefollowing broad areas:

As a large number of populationis under potential risk, safety andsecurity of Asian Mega Cities
deserve increased attention ofvarious concerned groups including
the researchers and decision makers.
With this realization and recognitionof the importance of advanced tools
in urban safety, ICUS is organizing
a 2-day international symposium
during October 30-31, 2003 on theuse of advanced technologies
t owa r d s d e v e l o p m e n t o fmethodologies for safety andsecurity of Mega Cities in Asia. Thisis the second symposium organized
by ICUS on this particular topic.

• Urban Disaster Mitigation• Safety and Security Assessmentof Urban Infrastructure• E nv i r o n m e n t a l
ImpactAssessment of Urbanization• Space Technologies and GIS for
Monitoring and Assessment of
Urban Safety
For further details about the
symposium, please visit the
symposium home page at
ICUS(http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
isus03/). The Symposium
Secretariat can be contacted by
telephone (+81-3-5452-6472), fax(+81-3-5452-6476) or, e-mail(icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp).

The prime objective of thesymposium is to bring together

ICUS Staff Activity Records
Some of the international
activities carried out by ICUS
faculty members during theperiod of January-March 2003.
• Dr. D. Dutta carried out a fieldsurvey in the Pak-Mun River
Basin in Thailand during
February 16-20 for gatheringd a t a a n d i n fo r m a t i o n fo rhydrologic modeling.

decision makers, practitioners andresearchers involved in these fields
to share their expertise, knowledge
and experience for tackling thecritical issues of urban safety withadvanced technologies.

including Remote sensing, GIS, GPS
and other computational tools havegenerated scopes and motivation to
focus on devising appropriate
methodologies for management andmaintenance of urban buildings,
infrastructures, mitigation of urban
d i s a s t e r s a n d e nv i r o n m e n t a l
problems for sustainable
development of the Asian Mega
Cities with adequate safety andsecurity.

••

Dr. Shiro Ochi participated in the
Regional Conference on Digital
GMS held at AIT, Thailand
during February 26-28.
Dr. Yoshitaka Kato visited
Bangkok, Thailand during
M a rc h 1 1 - 1 4 f o r a f i e l dexperiment and demonstration
related to urban infrastructure
health monitoring.

CCSR, The University of Tokyo(Feb. 5).
• A delegation of academiciansworking in Urban Environment
f ields from several regional
universities of China (Feb. 10).
• Dr.Mehedi A. Ansary, Department
of Civil Engineering Banladesh
University of Engineering and

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4••

Prof. Y. Yasuoka attended theSecond EU-Japan Symposium
on Climate Research held in
Brussels, Belgium during
March 13-14.
Dr. Kimiro Meguro visited
M a u i , H a w a i i , U S A f ro m
March 23-26 to attend the 7th
U S - Ja p a n wo rk s h o p o n
Urban Earthquake Disaster
Mitigation.
Technology (BUET) (Feb. 21)• Prof. Ashim Das Gupta and Prof.
Tawatchai Tingsanchali, Schoolof Civil Engineering, Asian
Institute of Technology, Thailand(Mar. 11).
• Prof. A. W. Jayawardena, Hong
Kong University, Hong Kong
(Mar. 11).

page 7

ICUS held 4th Open Lectureon Water Related Issues in Mega Cities of Asia
As a large number of populationis under potential risk, solving urban
wa t e r i s s u e s i n m e g a c i t i e sdeserves increased public attention.
With this realization, ICUS held its
4 t h O p e n L e c t u r e o n “ Wa t e r
Related Issues in Mega Cities ofAsia in the 21st Century” in Tokyo
on March 11, 2003. In this forum,
f ive internationally renowned
academicians and experts in thefield of water from Asia Pacificregion delivered talk on importantwater related issues in Mega Cities
of Asia.
The first speaker of the forum
was Prof. Ashim Das Gupta of the
Asian Institute of Technology(AIT), Thailand, who delivered atalk on “Emerging Challenges in the
21st Century to Meet the Demando f Wa t e r S u p p ly i n t h e Fa s t
Growing Mega Cities of AsianDeveloping Countries”. In his talk,Prof. Das Gupta covered a wide
range of issues on new challenges
facing by the developing countries
of Asia to provide clean water tothe residence of its growing mega
cities. He has pointed out the needof coordinated efforts by all theconcerned authorities to institute aframework to solve these problems,so that the future generation will not
suffer adversely due to water crisis.
Prof. Katumi Musiake of the
University of Tokyo talked onìIntegrated Urban River BasinManagement: Experiences from
Past and Future Directions inJapan . In his lecture, Prof.
Musiake gave the audience muchinsight of the Japanese experiencesof managing water and the future
directions with several examples
and case studies.

A snapshot from the Lecture Hall
Prof. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi of theManagement in Large Cities in
Yamanashi University, Japan
Thailand”. In his talk, he elaborated
talked on “Importance ofthe present strategy of theHydrological Forecasting for
Government of Thailand for flood
I n t e g r a t e d U r b a n Wa t e r
disaster mitigation in Thailand. He
Management”. With the emphasisstrongly emphasized the need ofo n n e e d o f hy d r o l o g i c a ladopting a pro-active flood disaster
forecasting and limitation of hydromanagement strategy of
meteorological ground observation,
development instead of the existing
he stressed on developing newreactive strategy to overcome thei n i t i a t ive s t o c o m e o u t w i t hchallenges of flood disaster reduction
a l t e r n a t i v e s f o r hy d r o l o g i cunder changing socio-economic andpredictions. He introduced theclimatic conditions.
recent initiative of International
Association of HydrologicalProf. Jayawardena from the
Sciences (IAHS) on that direction
Hong Kong University talked on
about prediction in ungauged
issues “Towards Sustainablebasins (PUB). It is envisioned that
Development and Management of
success of PUB will help thethe Water Supply of Hong Kong”.
scientif ic community to comeThrough his presentation, hecloser to the common public with
explained in depth how Hong Kong
better predictions.
has been managing the increasingwater demand. Hong Kong can be
Dr. Dushmanta Dutta of ICUS
a model example for many Mega
coordinated the forum. For any
c i t i e s o f A s i a , e s p e c i a l ly i nfurther information on thedeveloping nations, in their efforts toforum proceedings, pleasemanage the increasing watercontact ICUS.
demand.

Prof. Tawatchai Tingsanchali of
AIT delivered a talk on “Strategic
Framework and Institutional
Arrangement for Flood DisasterProf. Musiake of IIS, the University of Tokyo, during his talk

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 4

page 8
Editor's Note
Advancement in technologies
in the recent years has made it
possible to undertake many new
research activities in the fields ofurban safety engineering. The
main article of this Newsletterelaborates the generation of highp re c i s i o n D S M a n d 3 D c i t ymodel using airborne laser
scanners. Such high precisiond a t a a re v e r y u s e f u l fo radvanced and fine scalemathematical modeling of urban
environments and behaviors.
ICUS is going to hold aninternational symposium on New
Te ch n o l og y To o l s fo r U r b a n
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia in
October this year. This is a very
important and timely topic andthrough this symposium, ICUS
wishes to bring together theconcerned people of the Asian
region to share the knowledge on
new technologies and their uses
towards making our mega cities

safer and securer. I am very surethat the symposium will provide an
opportunity to establish strong
connections among the decisionm a k e r s , p ra c t i t i o n e r s a n dresearchers of the region for
future collaboration.
While we talk on advanced
technologies, I would also like toemphasize that the advancedt e c h n o l o g i e s a l o n e a re n o t
enough to achieve our objectivesof safety and security for allurban dwellings without properuse of basic technologies, e.g.,
retrofitting of existing housing isessential to ensure safety against
a strong earthquake. After thedevastating Kobe earthquake
disaster, Japanese earthquake
engineers and researchers havebeen focusing on development ofadvanced technologies for designand construction of earthquake
resistant structures and for quickdamageestimation
andmonitoring. We must also continue

o u r f o c u s o n h o w t o re d u c edamage to the existing old
structures, especially, residential
houses in various parts of Japan
with low cost basic technologies.
House owners of such structures
cannot afford to reconstruct theirs t r u c t u re s w i t h a d v a n c e dtechnologies. These low
earthquake resistant structures
are highly likely to be collapsed
by a strong earthquake causinglarge casualties and hugeeconomical loss. To overcome
such situations, we should
p re p a re a go o d e nv i ro n m e n t
under which house owners cane a s i l y re t ro f i t t h e i r o w n
structures. The key issues aredevelopment of basic low cost
retrofitting technologies and a
new social system/law having
driving force function. Theseissues are important for all the
Asian countries to reduce thev u l n e ra b i l i t yofurban
infrastructure.
(K. Meguro)

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

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 1
APRIL -JUNE 2003

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

FLOOD DISASTER TRENDS IN ASIA
IN THE LAST 30 YEARS
By
Dushmanta Dutta
Few years before, the Director
General of the United Nations
Environment Program said that war
over water would be a distinct
possibility in the 21st century.
Similar view is reflected by manyother experts from the United
Nations and other internationalorganizations highlighting theseriousness of the problem of water
too little in the 21st century. Anotherequally important and pressing
water issue is Water too much the floods, although that do not leadto a war but kill millions and cause
big hindrance in socio-economic
development. Floods are a constantthreat to life and property. It has been

obser ved that more and more
people have been affected byriverine floods in the recent years.
From 1990 to 1996, there were six
major floods throughout the worldin which the number of fatalities
exceeded 1,000 and 22 floods withlosses exceeding US$1 billion each.
The majority of these recent

Devastating floods in Central Vietnam in November 1999

page 2
disastrous floods have occurred in
Asia. The highest material losses
were recorded in China during the1996 and 1998 floods: about US$30
and 26.5 billion respectively. Is theflood frequency increasing in Asia?
If it is increasing, how rapid is thei n c r e m e n t ? W hy a r e f l o o d sincreasing? These are some of theimportant issues that need to bea d d r e s s e d t o u n d e r s t a n d thegravity of the problem of floods inthe 21st century. This article closely
looks at the flood disaster trend in
Asia in the past three decades andanalyzes the major causes of thechanging characteristics of flood
disasters in Asian countries andtheir consequences.
Floods in Asia
from global perspective
O u t o f ove r 7 , 0 0 0 n a t u r a ldisasters occur red around theworld during the last 30 years,
more than 74% were water related
disasters including floods, drought
and windstorms. Among these,
floods are the most frequent natural
disasters. Floods account for about
33% of all the natural disasters. In
the past 30 years, floods have been
the most catastrophic natural
disaster affecting half of the total
population affected by any natural
disaster, i.e., on average about 80
million people per year and caused
economic damage of over US$11
million annually around the world.
Annual statistics of natural
disasters of the past 30 years showthat number of floods andwindstorms are rapidly increasingaround the world compared to allother disasters. Floods have thehighest increasing rate ofoccurrence. In the last 30 years
a n n u a l f l o o d f r e q u e n cy h a s
doubled. There were on average
about 50 flood events annually in
1970s, it became100 in 1990s, andi n t h e l a s t t h r e e ye a r s i t h a s
increased to about 150 events per
year. Windstorm has been following
a s i m i l a r t r e n d a s t h e s e t wo
disasters are closely related. The
same statistics show that except

An example of damage due to frequent flash floods in Japanl a n d s l i d e s , wh i c h h av e b e e nincreasing at a low rate, no othern a t u r a l d i s a s t e r s ex h i b i t a ny
increasing trend unlike floods andwindstorms in the past three
decades.
Floods occur in most of thecountries around the world. Having
the highest amount of average
rainfall and volume of river water(13,500 km3/year), Asia is the mostfrequently affected continent by
floods. During the past 30 years, total
flood disasters occurred in Asia isthe largest, 40% of the total events,
compared to any other continents:
America (25%), Africa (17%),
Europe (14%) and Oceania (4%).

In terms of casualties, floods aret h e m o s t d eva s t a t i n g a n dwidespread in Asia. 98% of the total
population affected globally byfloods are located in Asia.
Flood Trend in Asia
Almost all the Asian countries
are affected by floods. The regional
distribution of flood events in Asia
shows that South Asia is the mostfrequently affected region by floods(about 39%), followed by Southeast Asia (about 30%) and East
Asia (about 25%). The West Asia
region including Russian Federationis the least affected region (6%).
The floods and windstorm in Asia
in the past 30 years follow a similar

Global statistics of natural disasters in past 30 years: i) ratio ofdifferent natural disasters around the world, ii) percentage ofaffected people by natural disasters, iii) percentage of economic
damage caused by natural disasters, and iv) continental level
distribution of flood disasters and regional distribution in Asia

page 3
180

Drought
160

Number of Events

increasing trend as the global trend.
The frequency of floods in Asia has
doubled during the period of 19781999. The rate of increase of flood
frequency is more prominent in thelast 10 years, especially, the recent
three years statistics show rapid
increase of floods in Asia.

FloodsEarthquake

140

Extreme-temperature
120

Slide
Volcano100

Wild-fire
80

Windstorm

60
40
20

19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02

Drought
FloodsEarthquake
Extreme-temperature
FamineSlide
VolcanoWild-firewindstorm

60

Number of Events

50

40

30

20

10

19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02

0

Year

Trends of flood disasters in Asia in the last 28 years
compared to other natural disasters
350,000,000

300,000,000

250,000,000

Drought
FloodsEarthquake
Extreme-temperature
Slide
VolcanoWild-fireWindstorm

200,000,000

150,000,000

100,000,000

50,000,000

19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02

0

Ye ar

Global trend of number of people affected by natural disasters
in the last 28 years
350,000,000

300,000,000
250,000,000

Drought
FloodsEarthquake
Extreme-temperature
FamineSlide
VolcanoWild-fire

200,000,000
150,000,000

100,000,000
50,000,000

0

19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02

Climate change and floods:
With the rapid increase of extreme
climate events in the past few
years, it is a common understandingthat the major reason of increasing
flood magnitude and frequency inmost of the regions around theworld is the climate change. The
general direction of change inextreme water related events in
Asia is broadly consistent with theclimate scenarios presented by the

Year

Worldwide trends of flood disasters in the last 28 years
compared to other natural disasters

Number of Events

Causes ofincreasing floods in Asia
According to several researchstudies and obser vations, thecauses of growing trends of floods
in Asia can be attributed to mainly
two factors: i) climate change andii) landuse change and surface
degradation.

0

Number of Events

Among the Asian countries,
China is the most frequently
affected country by floods followedby India. The other eight of the top
ten flood affected countries are
Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh,Iran, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam
and Pakistan in descending order.
Except China and Iran, all thesecountries are located in South andSouth-east Asian Regions. The 5year average flood statistics of last
30 years show that flood frequency
is increasing in all these countries.
China shows higher rate of increaseof frequency than India in the last
10 years. Thailand also shows ahigher rate of increase of floodf r e q u e n cy c o m p a r e d t o i t sneighboring countries in the last 15
years. Among these 10 countries,
the rate of increase of flood
frequency was the lowest in Sri
Lanka and the Philippines in the last
15 years.

Year

Trend of number of people affected by natural disasters
in the last 28 years in Asia

page 4I n t e rg ov e r n m e n t a l Pa n e l o n
Climate Change (IPCC). The
observed increase in the incidenceof great floods was found to beconsistent with results obtained
from the climate models, and themodel results suggest that the trend
will continue. Although only a few
studies have assessed the effects
of climate change on flooding
frequencies, there are a number ofpossible reasons why, in a warmer
climate, the frequency of floods
increase in any particular region.
Out of that the most related issues
to Asia that have been observedare:i) an increased frequency of
extreme precipitation eventsii ) i n c re a s e d m ag n i t u d e s o f
precipitation events of highintensity
In 1997, some studies showedthat flood discharges in the majorr iv e r b a s i n s i n I n d i a a n dBangladesh (Ganges, Brahmaputra
and Meghna) were estimated toincrease by 6-19%. The statisticsof the flood records of the past few
years also indicated the effects ofclimate change in the flood
frequency in Asia. The averageannual flood events in the past
three years are 1.5 times of that of
1990s and 3 times of 1970s.
Landuse changes and floods:
The effect of climate change alone
is not triggering the high rate ofincrease of flood frequency in Asia.
It can be observed from the timeseries of flood data that they are
not exactly in tune with climatechange-related prognoses, but theyreflect complex responses that may
be due to other non-climatic factors
such as deforestation andurbanization.
Under the pressure of highpopulation growth and economic
development, a great change inlanduse pattern has taken place inmost of the Asian countries in thelast few decades. One of the majorchanges is the deforestation caused

Flood events in different Asian countries in last 28 years

Flood trend in most frequently flood affected 10 countries in Asia
by conversion of forest to agriculturalor inhabitable land. Thailand is agood example of that. Between 1976
and 1989, Thailand lost 28 percent
of its forecast cover. A recent study
at the University of Tokyo has
showed that deforestation has
greatly influenced the changes inrainfall patter ns in Thailand.
Additionally, deforestation also
causes the increase of surface
runoff and thereby increases the
flash floods. In several Asian
countries, where deforestation isvery prominent, increase of flash
floods can be witnessed in the pastfew decades.
The tremendous economic
development and migration of
population to urban centers in mostof the Asian countries in the pastfew decades have caused rapid
urbanization. Urban growth in mostof the Asian countries in the last
three decades is more than 4%.
Nepal shows the highest growthr a t e ( 7 . 5 % ) f o l l owe d by
Bangladesh (5.9%). The
urbanization has not only led toreduction of pervious areas but
also change in catchment use ofmanipulation of water within thechannel (e.g., dams, abstractions,canalization). These factors havedirectly contributed to increase ofurban floods.
Impacts of increased flood
frequency in Asia
Economic losses and humancasualties from flood events have

Percentage of total population affected by floods annuallyin different Asian countries in last 28 years

page 5increased five folds between the
1970s and 1990s in Asia. These
losses largely reflect an increase in
the vulnerability of our society as awhole to extreme events. Althoughpart of the observed upward trend
in losses can be linked to socioeconomic factors, such as
economic developments, population
g rowth, etc., increased flood
frequency attribute more to theo b s e r v e d g r ow t h i n h u m a ncasualties and economic losses in
the past three decades. Although it
is difficult to quantify the effects,
the increasing flood frequency
certainly seem to have adversely
affected many Asian countries. In
the recent years, floods have had
increasingly detrimental anddisr uptive effects on various
aspects of socio-economic
conditions in Asia including: humanhealth (through diseases such as
diarrhea in flooded areas); buildings
and infrastructure; settlements;
coastal areas; financial services(including insurance andreinsurance); transport; watersupply; agriculture and ecosystems.
Conclusions
The statistics of the flood eventsof the past 30 years in Asia clearlyshow an increasing trend of flood
disasters in most of the Asian
countries. Combined effects ofclimatic changes, landuse changes
and urbanization are considered tobe the main reasons of thisincreasing trend. Due to several
devastating flood disasters anddroughts in different parts of theworld in the past few years, extreme
weather and climate events havereceived greater attention. A recent
study of 2002 that analyzed theoutputs of 19 climate models predicts
that very wet summers in the Asianmonsoon region will probably rise up
to five folds increasing the risk offlooding. This is a very serious
concern for Asian countries. Properconsideration of long-term climatechange scenarios in flood risk
management strategies is utmost

important to cope with thei n c r e a s i n g f l o o d f r e q u e n cy.
Population in Asia is expected to
grow by more than 25% in the next
20 years exceeding 4.9 billion by2025, and urban growth is going tocontinue in a similar rate as the past
decade in most of the developing
countries in Asia. Unlessappropriate countermeasures aret a k e n t o e s t a bl i s h b e t t e r
preparedness and prevention offlood disasters, uncontrolled
d ev e l o p m e n t i n d ev e l o p i n g
countries will certainly result inincreased flood damage due to thegreater concentration of population,
most notably the poor, in disasterprone areas. This will make it
difficult to break the vicious cycleof poverty in Asia.
T h e a u t h o r g ra t e f u l l yacknowledges the usefulness of
the International Disaster
Database of Centre for Researchon the Epidemiology of Disasters
in preparing this article.

ICUS participated in IIS Open House
This year, ICUS participated in
the Open House of the Instituteof Industrial Science (IIS) withthe theme Towards safety andsecurity of Mega Cities which
was held during June 5-6, 2003.
The Open House is an importantannual event of IIS held for twodays in the first week of Juneevery year to demonstrate there s e a rc h a n d d e v e l o p m e n t
a c t i v i t i e s o f t h e d i f f e re n tlaboratories and departments of
the institute to the public. OpenHouse saw a large increase in thenumber of visitors this year, withthe total number exceeding
5,100, compared to the past few
y e a rs . A n ew t re n d o f y o u n g
participants from junior high or
high school could be observed.
It was overwhelming to see theinterest of these young people in
the new scientif ic andtechnological developments inthis frontier institute of Japan.

A snapshot from the ICUS booths on the 2nd day of the Open House
The three research divisions of
ICUS prepared their own subthemes for the Open House underthe banner of the main theme anddisplayed their past and present
research activities. ICUS also
arranged a video display of its

international activities carriedout in the last two years. About
200 persons visited ICUS boothin two days. They showed deep
interests in ICUS activities inurban safety and security ofmega cities.

page 6

New Developments in ICUS Staff
Farewell to Dr. Ochi
After serving ICUS as a
Research Associate for a period of
two years from April 2001 to March
2003, Dr. Shiro Ochi has moved to
Kinki University, Nara, Japan tojoin its Faculty of Agriculture as an
Associate Professor. During thisperiod, Dr. Ochi played a very
important role at ICUS andstrongly contributed to the various
activities of the center including its
collaborative research project inThailand. Dr. Ochi is going tocontinue his research activities in
the fields of GIS, remote sensing
and environmental monitoring in the
Kinki University. We wish him all
the best and great success in his
new career in Nara. The newcontact address of Dr. Ochi is:
Faculty of Ag riculture, Kinki
University, 3327-204 Nakamachi,
Nara-City, Nara 631-8505, Japan.
Congratulations to Dr. Dutta
ICUS staff Dr. Dushmanta
Dutta was promoted to Associate
Professor from June 1, 2003. At
ICUS, Dr. Dutta has been involvedin academic and research activities
in the fields of hydrology and water
resources engineering. For the last
few years, he has been mainly
focusing on physically basedmodeling for urban flood risk
management and water resources
analysis. Dr. Dutta is currently
acting as a team leader of acollaborative research project of
ICUS in Thailand on urban flood risk
mapping. We extend our hearty
congratulations to Dr. Dutta.
Welcome to Dr. Endoand Ms. Yoshimura
We are glad to introduce our newcolleagues Dr. Takahiro Endo and
Ms. Miho Yoshimura, who joined
ICUS as Research Associates from
April 1 and June 1, 2003
respectively.
Dr. Endo received his D. Eng.
degree from the Department of Civil
Engineering of the University ofTokyo in March 2003. His researchi n t e r e s t s a r e e nv i r o n m e n t a lmonitoring and modeling with remotesensing. Presently, he is involved indeveloping detection method for
concrete degradation, and estimationof terrestrial ecosystem parameterssuch as biochemical content andcarbon dioxide absor ption ofvegetation using advanced
hyperspectral remote sensing.

We welcome Dr. Endo and Ms.
Yoshimura and wish them great
success.
New Assistantfor ICUS Intl. Symposium
ICUS welcomes Ms. Shravani
Hazarika, who joined ICUS from
June 2003 to assist in the activitiesof the 2nd International Symposiumof ICUS on New Technologies
for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in
Asia . She can be contacted forany matters related to this
symposium by e-mail (icus@iis.utokyo.ac.jp).

Dr. T. Endo, Ms. M. Yoshimura and Ms. S. Hazarika

ICUS ACTIVITY RECORDS* Prof. Y. Yasuoka visited AIT,
Thailand during May 28-31 to

Ms. Yoshimura received her M.
Eng. degree from the Department
of Civil Engineering of the
University of Tokyo in March 2001.
Prior to joining ICUS, she worked
a Research Associate with Prof.
Meguro of ICUS. Her researchinterests include retrof itting
p r o m o t i o n s y s t e m f o r l ow
earthquake-resistant structures inearthquake prone countries.

attend a meeting on MODIS
Satellite Receiving Station.

* Dr. D. Dutta visited AIT from
June 8-17 to start his term as
a Visiting Faculty from ICUS.

Registration for ICUS International Symposium on October 30-31, 2003
The activities of ICUS 2nd
International Symposium in Tokyoon New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia are
p r o g r e s s i n g v e r y we l l . T h edeadline for submission of abstract
was over at the end of June. We

have got a very good response frommany professionals around Asia andEurope. Please note that thedeadline for submission of full paper
and advanced registration is August
31, 2003. The registration form isavailable at the Symposium Website(http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
isus03). You may also contact the
Symposium Secretariat by e-mail(icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp) for a copyo f t h e r eg i s t r a t i o n f o r m . We
welcome any interested person toattend the symposium.

page 7

ICUS Publishes Two Technical Reports
ICUS has recently published tworepor ts of the ICUS/INCEDE
Technical Report series.
The f irst repor t is ICUS/
INCEDE Repor t 2003-01. It
contains the proceedings of theInternational Symposium on the
New Technologies for the Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia,
which was held in Bangkok,
Thailand on October 28, 2002. It
was jointly organized by ICUS and
the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT), Thailand. The symposium
was very successful in bringing
together a large number ofpar ticipants from different
disciplines including policy makers,planners, engineers and architects
to c r e a t e g r e a t e r awa r e n e s s
towards the issues related to urban
safety. This report contains a totalof 14 technical papers presented in
the symposium by the participantsfrom different countries covering awide range of issues in the areasof new technologies for urban
safety. The report is jointly edited

Visitors to ICUS
During the period of AprilJune, 2003, ICUS received thefollowing visitors.
-Dr. Somnuk Tangtermsirikul,
A s s o c i a t e P r o f e s s o r,
Sirindhorn International

Cover pages of Report 2003-01 and Committee Report 2002-01
by Prof. Sudhir Misra and Dr.
Yoshitaka Kato of ICUS.
The second report is ICUS/
INCEDE Committee Report 200201. It contains the technical papers
and research activity reports of the
Research Committee-39 that was
initiated by ICUS a year ago as apart of its collaborative research
activities with private sectors inI n s t i t u t e o f Te c h n o l o g y,
T h a m m a s a t U n i v e r s i t y,
Thailand (April 14).
- Dr. Cintia Marquetti, Geological
Mining Survey of Argentina,
Argentina (May 22).
- Dr. Kenichi Kurihara, Japan
Mining Engineering Center forInternational Cooperation,areas of urban safety. The reportcontains a great deal of information
about the on-going activities of thisResearch Committee. This reportis available only in Japanese.
Those who are interested toreceive a copy of these reports,
please contact ICUS by e-mail(icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp) or fax(+81-3-5452-6476).
Japan (May 22).
Dr. Masaharu Toyama, Japan
Mining Engineering Center
for I n t e r n a t i o n a l
C o o p e ra t i o n , Ja p a n ( M a y
22).
- Dr. Yoshii Kakimoto, Japan
International Cooperation
Center, Japan (May 22).

Dr. Dutta joins SCE, AIT as a Visiting Faculty
From the beginning of June 2003,
Dr. Dushmanta Dutta of ICUS has
j o i n e d t h e S c h o o l o f C iv i lEngineering (SCE) of AIT as a
Visiting Associate Professor fromthe University of Tokyo. At AIT,
Dr. Dutta will coordinate theactivities of the ICUS Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety(RNUS), which was established at
SCE in October 2002 to work inareas of mutual interests of AITand ICUS. RNUS focuses oncollaborative research activities withdifferent organizations in Asian
countries in the fields of urban safety
e n g i n e e r i n g w i t h a d va n c e dtechnology tools such as numericalmodels, remote sensing,geographical information system,
global positioning system, etc., fordevising appropriate methodologies
for management and maintenance ofurban buildings, infrastructures,
mitigation of urban disasters ande nv i r o n m e n t a l p r o bl e m s f o rsustainable development of Asian
cities with adequate safety andsecurity.
In addition to the activities of
RNUS, Dr. Dutta will be involved
in research and academic
activities at the Water Engineeringand Management program of SCE,
AIT. He can be reached at AITby telephone (+66-2-524-5794) or
fax (+66-2-524-5565) or e-mail(ddutta@ait.ac.th).

page 8
Editor’s Note
In the past few decades, various
problems associated with water are
increasing rapidly. The seriousnessof water related problems wasbrought to the attention of the wholeworld by the 3rd World Water Forum
held in Japan at the beginning of
this year. The main article of thisissue of the ICUS Newsletter showsthat water related extreme events areon rise around the world and thistrend is going to continue due tochange in climatic conditions. Asia
is going to be most severely affectedby water related disasters due to the
combined effects of its high rate of
population growth and urbanization
with climatic changes. The article
shows that flood frequency is
increasing in most of the Asian
countries in the last three decades.

To cope with the increasing problemsof floods in Asia, large scale and longterm mitigation measures are required.
Flood problems have to be addressed
together with other water issues inbasin scale not as a standalone issue
confined within the floodplain. It
requires adaptation of integrated river
basin management policies
incorporating various issues of water.
Transbasin water sharing is anotherimportant aspect to be focused into
for mitigating the problems of water
too much and too little .However,such measures need long-termplanning and high cost. Emphasisshould also be given to short termmeasures for reduction of devastatingconsequences of major floods bytaking proactive strategies of proper
guidelines for floodplains, hazard andrisk mapping, early warning and realtime risk management.

From the beginning of June 2003,
I have joined AIT as a visiting
faculty from ICUS. At AIT, I am
going to be involved in coordinating
the activities of the Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety(RNUS) established jointly by ICUS
a n d A I T l a s t y e a r. T h e m a i n
objective of RNUS is to expand theinternational activities of ICUS bycollaborating in research andsharing information with leading
institutions of Asia for urban safety.
One of the major issues that I would
like to focus on at RNUS is urban
flood risk management. It is ourstrong believe that through mutual
cooperation with AIT and otherinstitutions, ICUS would be able toadequately address the problems andcontribute towards urban safety andsecurity of the region.
(D. Dutta)

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 2
JULY -SEPTEMBER 2003

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

ISSUES RAISED BY THE RCENT SUBWAY FIRE
IN SOUTH KOREA
By
Makoto TSUJIMOTO*
A train was set on fire with twoliters of gasoline at the Jungangno
Subway Station in Daegu, SouthKo r e a a t a b o u t 9 : 5 3 a . m . o n
February 18, 2003. This incident
killed 192 people, which without
doubt accounts for the largest
number of deaths resulting from af ire in a subway train. It wasreminiscent of another recent
accident involving a mountain train
in Salzburg, Austria (November 11,2000). In both cases, thepassengers died because theirescape routes were cut off by
flames and smoke, with the trains
burning over an extended period oftime. However, the case in Korea
was an incendiary fire caused by
setting f ire to gasoline, andultimately the issue presented here
is how to make disaster prevention
plans for these kinds of intentionallycaused and rapidly-spreading fires.
The table in the following pages h ow s t h e i t e m s o f d i s a s t e r

prevention equipment on each floorof the station and the figure shows
the general conditions surrounding
the incident at the Jungangno
Station.
Floor plan of the station
The stairways that serve as
escape routes at the Jungangno
Station are very well planned, bothin location and width. Anothersmall station from which the authorboarded a train has a single

Front of the train No.79 , where the fire started (Photo by Atsushi Okajima)

page 2stairway from the platform to theconcourse positioned in the central
area; however, Jungangno Station,
the location of this fire, has widestairways at both ends of theplatform, from which a smooth
escape seems to have actually beenmade. Many were found dead at
the ticket gates that provide exits
from the central stairway fromplatform B3 to concourse B2.
The concourses on floors B2 andB1 are large, although their extensive
size could disorient people whenf illed with smoke, and are allprovided with stairways at either end
connecting to adjacent floors andthere are no basic layout problems(they do not, for example, narrow
down immediately before coming
aboveground as seen in subway
stations in Japan).
Also, according to the data
provided by Mr. JAE Jim-Joo (at06:00 a.m. of February 28, 2003, FireFighting Situation Daily Report,
C e n t r a l E m e rg e n cy R e s c u e
Headquarters Situation Off ice),
concourses are required to havesmoke bar riers at each 40 m
diameter boundary; for this reason,concourses B2 and B1 are divided
into three sections with 50-meterh i g h h a n g i n g wa l l s , wh i c hironically worked to effectively
concentrate the heat of the fire in
the central section.

Area and apparatuses of different floors of Jungangno Station

installed on both sides of the shutter,and these were activated to close the
shutter during the fire (the author
saw the shutter close on a TV news
show at approximately 10:00 a.m.
of March 3, 2003 at Pusan Airport;
details unknown). A structurally
ve r y c o m p l ex a c c e s s d o o r i s
installed at door 1; it is unknown
whether it was used during theescape. Also, many people seem tohave died at the shutter because theirescape route was cut off when the
shutter closed suddenly. On the other
hand, the shopping area seems tohave sustained no damage and wasable to continue operation because
the shutter closed early on, and thisdemonstrates that the shutter served
its primary purpose. However, thesudden loss of an escape route when
the shutter closed remains a problem.
Disaster prevention equipmentin the station building
As shown in the table, the basic

However, there are problems
w i t h t h e p a s s a g eway t o t h eunderground shopping area on
f l o o r B 1 . T h e u n d e rg r o u n d
shopping area runs perpendicular
to concourse B1, and has a floor
level approximately two meters
higher than the floor of theconcourse, which does not provide
easy access either, although thereasons behind this are not clear.
In addition, a fire shutter doublingas an access control point isinstalled across the entire width ofthe opening where the stairway
from the concourse reaches the
shopping area. Smoke detectors are

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

specif ications for disasterprevention equipment in the stationbuilding are roughly equal to or
ex c e e d t h o s e i n J a p a n .
Unfortunately the fire was started
in a train; however, such extensived a m a g e wo u l d n o t h ave b e e nsustained if the fire had been started
in concourses B1 or B2 because thes p r i n k l e r s wo u l d h av e b e e n
a c t iva t e d . N o - o n e a t t h e s i t ecommented on the smoke control
system because it may constitute ani s s u e i n c o u r t . H oweve r, t h e
c o n c o u r s e s a r e d iv i d e d i n t oapproximately 35-meter sections tosatisfy the requirement to extract
smoke at a rate of 40,000 cubic
meters per hour in each section.
There is no knowing under thepresent conditions whether thesmoke control system worked orh a d a ny e ff e c t ; h oweve r, t h e
a i r f l ow vo l u m e a c c o r d i n g t oregulations must be approximately

Perspective of Daegue Jungangno Station

page 310 times the ventilation frequency,
which is considered manageable byd ive r t i n g t h e g e n e r a l a i rconditioning equipment. It isnecessary to wait for the results of
the investigation on how theequipment operated during the fire,including how it was related to the
supply/exhaust openings in the
sidewalks aboveground.
Subway cars
The most significant issue may
be the combustibility of interiormaterials in the subway cars.
Japanese technical standards(Ministerial OrdinanceInter pretation Criteria III-19
defining technical standards forrailways) require: 1) the use ofnoncombustible materials; and 2)
the use of noncombustible surface
coatings for ceilings, outer panels
and linings. Noncombustible
materials in this case must satisfy
incombustibility standards forrailway vehicles stipulated by the
Ministry of Transport (now the
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure
and Transport), in which a 182 mm
x 257 mm sample may be passed
as noncombustible if it meets
criteria such as not igniting over an
ethanol flame as small as 0.5 cc,
and carbonization or deformationof less than 100 mm. Thoughreferred to as noncombustible,
these materials are quite different
from the noncombustible materialss p e c i f i e d by b u i l d i n g c o d e s(included in the specifications areconcrete, glass, rock wool, etc.;
testing methods used are the corn
alcohol calorimeter test, etc.), andit may be more accurate to describe
them as not easily igniting with amatch or lighter.
There is no knowing at this point
whether the interior materials in the
Daegu subway cars came up to thelevel of performance required by
Japanese standards for trains;
however, it is not possible to saythat the high level of heat generated
by two liters of gasoline in a

Front of the train No.80, most far from the fire
(Photo by Atsushi Okajima)
Japanese subway train would not
bur ned unifor mly and almost
ignite the interior materials andcompletely.
develop into an extensive fire.
Judging from the conditions ofFurthermore, devices to manually
the melted plastic in concourses B2
open platform access doors inand B1, the temperature was highemergency (hereinafter referred to as
in the central area, and the severest
emergency handles) are marked withscorching occurred to the tunnel
red borders to indicate theirceiling slab above the center
locations; emergency handles are
portion of train No. 80, exposing
located in pairs on the seat side cover
two layers of steel reinforcing bars,
at each access door in Daegu, while
although the fire started in No. 1
they are provided in the cars but not
car of train No. 79. These points
indicated in Japan, because Article
remain big questions. Fire damage
74 of the ministerial ordinanceseemed to be fairly distributed as
stipulates an exception for cars
a result of the firefighting efforts
traveling in the third rail line section,
which continued over an extended
etc., which allows them to beperiod of three hours starting frominaccessible to passengers other than
the tunnel side considering that thethose who are well-informed.
fire was controlled in stages fromthe outside inwards; however,In the case of a subway train, it isthermal contamination was also thedifficult to walk between the train
severest in the central area on
and the tunnel (a gap of 50 cm) after
floors B2 and B1 as mentioned
exiting from an access door when the
before, although the fire started attrain stops between stations. Thus
the end of the station. The fire
the Japanese measure does not
spread extremely fast in the earlynecessarily pose a danger; however,stages, and may have reached theit will reduce the possibility forrearmost car of the train by the time
passengers to escape from danger on
the oncoming train had drawn into
their own if a train stops at a station
the platform. It is therefore
as in this incident.
important to examine carefully
what effect the draught generated
by the train played in spreading the
Other Issues
fire.
The six cars of the train No. 79,*Professor, Department of
where the fire started, and the train
Environmental
Studies, Nagoya
No. 80, that is12 cars altogether,
University, Japan

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

page 4

Study of Making a Database for Deteriorated Concrete Bridges
byYoshitaka Kato and Somnuk Tangtermsirikul
In most of the Asian regions, thefragility of a structure, which isbased on the defects from design
criteria, inadequate construction
management and maintenancemanagement, etc., is high andtherefore, poses a major threat tosafety. As most of these structures
were built almost at the same time
during the Asian ‘bubble’
economic growth, there is almost
clear and certain possibility that,these structures would cause hugeand fatal structural problems at thesame time in near future causing
extensive damage to the society
and the economy as a whole. Thus
an amicable solution to the same isa demand of time and needed toeffectively guard against thishidden disaster. In order to deal
with the problem, ICUS has been
focusing on related research
activities equipped with advanced
technology and tools, such as,
numerical models, remote sensing(RS), GIS, GPS, etc. for devising
appropriate methodologies in orderto manage and maintain the urban
buildings and infrastructure, andwo r k i n g a c t i v e l y t owa r d s
mitigation of urban disasters ande nv i r o n m e n t a l p r o bl e m s f o rsustainable development of Asian
cities with adequate safety andsecurity.

A schematic diagram of the database

Example of detailed data (digital still camera & thermograph)

ICUS along with the School of
Civil Engineering of the Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT)
established a Regional Network
Office for Urban Safety (RNUS)
last October at AIT in order to meetand deliver its above-mentioned
objective more effectively andeff iciently. Recently, RNUS has
successfully initiated two joint
projects on 1) Study on Making a
Database for Deteriorated Concrete
Bridges and 2) Urban Flood Risk
Mapping using GIS, RS andMathematical Model in Bangkok.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

Example of the tabulated information of the bridges

page 5This article presents a brief
overview the activities of the
Project 1.
A total of 9 concrete bridges
from Bangkok metropolitan area
we r e s e l e c t e d a s t a rg e t s f o r
i nve s t i g a t i n g a n d m a k i n g a
database in this research. The
structural data for each bridge werecollected from the organization
responsible for maintenance of thesame. A specialist in diagnosis ofconcrete structures investigatedthese bridges by visual inspectionin order to understand thedeterioration levels. At the sametime, the photos of the deteriorated
spots on the concrete bridges weretaken by digital still camera andthermograph for the database underdevelopment. The schematic
diagram of database in this researchis shown in the previous page. It
not only provides the location of
structures, but also causes andlevels of deterioration. Eachcolumn links with thecorresponding data.
In 2003, a total of 1953 bridges
are under the responsibility of the
Bangkok Metropolitan
Administrative Off ice (BMA).
These include a total of 31 flyovers,
598 pedestrian bridges, and 1324
canal bridges. The designed GIS
based information system shows
the location of the selected bridgeon the map of Bangkok. All thementioned 1953 bridges have been

GIS based information of bridges in Bangkok

Example of data of digital still camera
put into the system. An example of construction, and information
the GIS information for the canal about repair and maintenancebridges and an example of the work. The two photos in the righttabulated information of the canal side show an example of the visualbridges are shown on the right side data collected with digital stillof this page and lower part of the camera.
previous page. The tabulated
information of the bridges indicates
Readers may also refer to an
location of bridges on the map, name extended version of this articleof the bridges, types and size of pier, available at ICUS homepage (http:/b e a m , g i r d e r, s l a b , ye a r o f /icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp).

News from ICUS Regional Network Office, RNUS, in Bangkok
After joining of Dr. Dutta of ICUS
as the Coordinator of the ICUS
Regional Network Office for Urban
Safety (RNUS) in June, 2003, theactivities of the Network Office havebeen expanding. A homepage of
RNUS has been prepared, which
includes its activities (http://
www.sce.ait.ac.th/rnus/). The twomini-projects of RNUS initiated lastyear are in progress. A brief reportof Project 1 is presented in theprevious article. Two near future
events of RNUS are 1) a seminar on“Water Resources in the 21st Century
under Climate Change Scenarios” tobe held on November 14, 2003 and 2)
International Workshop of WSSI on“Seismic Risk Management forCountries of the Asia Pacific Region”
to held during December 7-8, 2003
in Bangkok. RNUS is the localorganizer of this workshop.
Dr. Dutta gave the following two
invited talks in Bangkok:-on “Hydrological forecasting offlood and inundation damage” at

the International Seminar on
Innovation Model for Sustainable
Water Resource Management,
Kasetsart University, Bangkok,
Aug. 20, 2003 and-on .Flood Risk Management: Roleo f Hyd ro l og i s t a n d n e e d o f
integration of MetSAT andHydrologic Model. at the
UNESCAP Eight Meeting of theRegional Working Group on
M e t e o ro l og i c a l S a t e l l i t e
Applications and Natural Hazards
Monitoring, Sep. 8-10, 2003.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

page 65th ICUS Open Lecture Focused on Urban Fire DisasterThe 5th ICUS Open Lecture
was held with the theme of “Urban
Fi r e a n d I t s S a f e t y C o u n t e rmeasures: Lessons Learnt from
Urban Fire and Countermeasuresagainst It”.
The pattern of fire occurring incities has been diversified alongwith the advancement of urban
landscapes and its increased
complexity. Still fresh in ourmemory, the fatal subway fire in
the city of Daegu, South Korea on
February 18, costing 192 human
lives was one of the worst disasters
ever happened in the world. An
urban fire in today’s world may
cause the damage far beyond ourimagination by destroying costly
urban infrastructure and paralyzing
information infrastructure for along time.
In the Open Lecture, eachpresenter delivered a lecture
discussing on the countermeasures
to be taken in the future in contextof (1) the present situation ofcomplicated recent urban fire, (2)f ire in the tunnel on urban
highways and (3) subway f ires
based on the lessons learnt from theDaegu subway f ire. A four thimportant point of discussion wason (4) safe and efficient ways ofevacuation, in case of any of theabove fire occurrences.
The Open Lecture was held on
July 3, 2003 at the Auditorium of
the Research Center for Advanced
Science and Technology (RCAST)of the University of Tokyo. Despite
the sweltering heat on that day,about 150 audiences attended themeeting and interacted with thepresenters.
Prof. Taketo Uomoto, Directorof ICUS, gave an opening address
and then introduced the outcomesof research activities carried on by
ICUS during the last one year. The

A snapshot from the meeting hall during the Open Lecture
following four lectures followed prevention of tunnel disasters
thereafter.
on Metropolitan Highway.” Heintroduced many examples of
The first speaker was Mr. Toshiaki t u n n e l f i r e s o c c u r r e d i n t h e
Kitazato, who is the Representative metropolitan highway in the
Chief of the Local Development and past and countermeasures taken
Disaster Prevention Association against them. He reported that,
Former Deputy General Manager of if the scale of a tunnel f ire isFire and Defense management l a r g e , t h e t u n n e l i s o f t e nAgency, Former Councilor of d e s t r oye d by t h e f i r e a n d i t
Cabinet Off ice. Mr. Kitazato t a k e s l o n g e r t i m e f o r t h epresented his lecture on “Present restoration in many cases. He
situation of urban fire in our country also stated that, the f irst 10and the countermeasures”. He began minutes from the onset of thewith describing the history and the f ire is impor tant for the f ire
present situation of urban fire, and f ighting and evacuation, and itt h e n r e p o r t e d o n t h e is important to study how andcountermeasures for urban f ire wh a t a c t iv i t i e s c a n b e d o n e
implemented so f ar from the during this time. Therefore, theviewpoints of urban planning, Fire t u n n e l s o n m e t r o p o l i t a n
Defense Act and reinforcement of highways are equipped with thefire defense force. Moreover, he system to automatically detect
talked on the necessity to revise the the occurrence of an accident
Fire Defense Act, referring to the b y i m a g e p r o c e s s i n g u s i n g
reinforcement of risk management CCTV installed at the interval
system in Japan after the Kobe o f 1 0 0 m , M r. Ta c h i m o r iearthquake and past building fires informed.
occurred in Japan. Lastly, he touched
upon the countermeasures for fire
The third speaker was Professor
defense and disaster prevention.
Makoto Tsujimoto, Department ofEnvironmental Research Major of
Mr. Toshiaki Tachimori, Director Urban Environmental Science,of Metropolitan Expressway Public G r a d u a t e S c h o o l o f N a g oy a
Corporation, was the second speaker University. Prof. Tsujimoto spokeat the Open Lecuter. He gave a on “Issues in the Daegu City
lecture on “Counter-measures for the subway fire in South Korea.” HeICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

page 7
explained the transition ofphenomena from the onset of Daegu
City subway fire, and reported thatthe fire accident was recorded by 16
sets of TV camera, and the transitionof phenomena during the fire canbe grasped by analyzing theserecords. He said that the “Guideline
for the utilization of extra deep
underground. has been decided by
the Cabinet Meeting in Japan, in
which the actions to be taken for 7
risks (fire, earthquake, active fault,
i n u n d a t i o n , e t c . ) h av e b e e nindicated. According to him, a study
will be made in the future on the
counteractions to be taken at thetime of accident like the one that
happened in Daegu City.
Prof. Tachimori during his talk in the Open Lecture
The fourth and final speaker of
the Open Lecture was Prof. Kimiro
Meguro, Associate Professor of
ICUS. Prof. Meguro gave his
lecture on “Urban f ire andcountermeasure for evacuation.”
He showed some cases such as, thee x p a n s i o n o f d a m a g e s byearthquake or fire, and analysis ofhuman behavior during evacuation
by mathematical simulation and
G I S . H e r e p o r t e d t h a t m a ny

Visitors to ICUS
During the period of JulySeptember, 2003, ICUS received
the following visitors.

precious lives were lost just after the
onset of the accident at the time of
Kobe earthquake, and stated theimportance of prior arrangements torestrain the damage as acountermeasure against theearthquake. He also stated that it isimportant to train the ability ofimagination of people to recognize
what will happen at the time of
accident, in addition to hardware

countermeasures adopted tophysically restrain the damages.

- D r. P h i s a n S a n t i t a m n o n t ,Assistant Professor, Survey
Engineering Department,
C h u l a l o n g k o r n U n i v e r s i t y,
Thailand (Aug. 4).

- Prof. Ioan Olariu, Structural
Mechanics
Department,
Technical University of ClujNapoca, Romania (Sept. 3).

Fi n a l ly, P r o f . Yo s h i f u m i
Ya s u o k a o f I C U S m a d e t h e
concluding remarks of this Open
Lecture, and expressed gratitude to
the participants; and the 5th ICUS
Open Lecture was adjourned.
(by Masahiro Setojima)

3rd International Workshop of WSSI in Bangkok during December 7-8, 2003
The World Seismic Safety
Initiative (WSSI), an undertakingof International Association ofEarthquake Engineering (IAEE), is
organizing the 3rd International
Wo r k s h o p o n “ S e i s m i c R i s k
Management for Countries of the
Asia Pacific Region” in Bangkok,
Thailand during December 7-8,
2003. Since its inception in 1992,
WSSI has worked with many
countries around the world ingeneral and in Asia Pacific Regioni n p a r t i c u l a r. W S S I a n d i t s
programs during those ten plus
ye a r s h a d s o m e r e m a r k a bl e
successes in some countries and inothers; they have not been able to
make an impact in terms of
implementation of risk mitigation
strategies. WSSI in 2003 has moreexperience of what works and what
does not work. WSSI understands
the limits of what it can achieve withthe resources it has. To take stock in
its own programs and to learn fromi t s p a s t ex p e r i e n c e a n d t h eexperience of countries WSSI has
worked with, it is decided to holdthe this Workshop. The main
purposes of this Workshop are to:
1. Learn from countries where WSSI
prog rams have made somepositive difference in terms of risk

mitigation and management.
2. Learn from countries where
WSSI programs have not madeany major impact in terms of risk
mitigation efforts.
3. Develop a plan in consultation
with all the attending countries
about what WSSI should do forthe next five years and where
they should focus their humanand financial resources.
The local organizing activitiesof this workshop are being carriedout by the ICUS Regional
Network Off ice in Bangkok,
RNUS, as the Local Organizer.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2

page 8Awards received by students of Sustainable Engineering Divsion of ICUS
Two graduate students, Mr.
Hisashi Kanada and Mr. Misuzu
Yoshikuni, of Prof. Uomoto's
Laboratory of the Sustainable
Engineering Division of ICUS
received the Incentive Awards fortheir papers and presentations at theAnnual Conference of the Japan
Concrete Institute held on July 28,
2003. The title of the paper of Mr.
Kanada was "Application of multispectral method to inspection of salt

Editor’s Noteoffice. Frankly speaking, at that
instance, it was not easy for us torecall what we should do. In
particular for students and staffs
from foreign countries it seemed
difficult to understand how tobehave.

This afternoon (October 15,
2 0 0 3 ) we h a d a q u i t e b i gearthquake in the Kanto area. The
seismic intensity around Tokyo
was reported as the rank of 3 to
4. When it occurred, I was in myoff ice on the 5 t h floor in theInstitute of Industrial Sciencebuilding. The vibration was thebiggest that I have ever felt in my

Taegu, Korea. Fire is one of themost serious damages induces fromt h e e a r t h q u a k e . To d a y ’s
earthquake has evoked me theimportance of the first behavior,that is, stopping all fire sources,even in shaking. Attention !!! In
Japan we may have big
This issue of the ICUS Newsletter earthquakes anytime in thesefeatures the fire in urban areas, years!!!
where the main article is on the(Y. Yasuoka)
serious fire at a subway station inInternational Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS/INCEDE
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,
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineeringdamaged concrete structures". Mr.
Yoshikuni presented the paper on"Elucidation of the fundamental
theory of concrete conveyancesystem using DEM". ICUS Staff
congratulate both the students.

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 3
OCTOBER -DECEMBER 2003

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

PROTECTING BUILDINGS AGAINSTMULTIPLE HAZARDS
By
Tso-Chien PAN*
Effects of Long-Distance
Major Earthquakes
Although Singapore is believed
to be located within the stable
Sunda plate with mild winds, it isabout 350 km away from an active
earthquake belt, comprising theG r e a t S u m a t r a Fa u l t a n d t h e
subduction zone of Sunda Trench,as shown in the sight f igure.
Singapore has never experienced
any earthquake damage, and henceb u i l d i n g s a r e g e n e r a l ly n o t
designed against the horizontal
earthquake loadings. However,
tremors caused by distant Sumatra
ear thquakes have been felt in
Singapore for many years.
T h e l a rg e s t s u b d u c t i o nearthquake that has occurred in the
Sunda trench is the great 1833 eventwith an estimated Mw between 8.8
and 9.2. The earthquake, with anaverage Mw of 9.0 at an epicentral
distance of 723 km, is thus selected
for a recent study as the maximum
credible earthquake (MCE), thefigure at the top of next page, that
the Sumatra subduction zone iscapable of generating. The larger of
the two horizontal components ofSeismotectonics of Sumatra region

page 2the synthetic MCE ground motions
is used in the convolution process to
obtain the surface accelerations at a
soft soil site. The seismic responseof a typical high-rise residential
b u i l d i n g i n S i n ga p o r e t o t h esynthetic MCE ground motions at a
soft soil site has recently been
investigated.
The typical high-rise residentialbuilding is a 15-storey, reinforced
concrete (RC) building. The overall
height of the building is 42.8 m, withthe first storey of 3.6 m and theothers 2.8 m. The dimensions of thefloor plan are 94.5 m in thelongitudinal direction and 11 m in
the transverse direction. The lateralload resistant system of the typicalbuilding is a RC frame-shear wall
dual system. The frame system
consists of a series of two-bay frames
spanned in the transverse direction,with 3 m spacing between frames
along the longitudinal direction. The
maximum base shear force resulting
from the soft soil site response to the
MCE event is about 14% of the totalb u i l d i n g d e a d we i g h t . T h i s
maximum base shear force ratio
exceeds the notional horizontal load
specified in the local building code
as 1.5% of the characteristic deadweight of a building.
Effects of Explosion-Induced
Ground Shocks
As part of the national effort tointensify the land use of the landscarce country, Singapore has
explored the possibility of using
underground facilities for various
purposes. One of initiatives is to
move the surface ammunition
storages underground, which will
reduce the precious land surrounding
the surface storages that have beensterilized for safety reasons. As aresult, the dynamic response ofbuilding structures to explosioninduced ground motions (EIGMs) or
ground shocks that may result fromunderground explosions has been
investigated. The results are
discussed in terms of the dynamic
failure of RC buildings subjected to

Acceleration time-histories and Fourier spectra for the maximum
credible earthquake at rock and soft soil sites

Horizontal acceleration time history of a simulated EIGM
ground shocks, which in turn affects
the minimum radial distance within
which no residential buildings shouldbe erected.
A non-seismically designed 6storey RC frame was subjected to asimulated EIGM. The simulated
EIGM for the horizontal groundmotion at a distance from the
explosion source is shown in thesecond figure. The simulated EIGM
has a peak ground acceleration of
124 g and a predominant frequency
of about 200 Hz. To understand theeffects of the duration and the input

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

impulse of EIGMs, duration
multipliers (DM) and amplitude
multipliers (AM) were applied on theabove EIGM. Both shear failure andjoint failure were investigated for the
first storey interior column where themaximum shear stress occurred.
Combinations of DM and AM
can lead to joint and/or shear failure
during the forced vibration (Phase I)
or the free vibration (Phase II). The
damage level for the first storey
column is presented in the figure
bela. One bold line shows theboundary between the moderate andZones of failure patterns for different response phasesc

page 3

Deformation and stress distributions of a long standoff case

Deformation and stress distributions of a short standoff casethe severe damage levels for Phase
I, Severe (I). The other bold line
shows the boundary between themoderate and the severe damagelevels for Phase II, Severe (II). Isoimpulse lines are shown as dottedlines in the background. Therefore,
it can be seen that the damage levelcomputed based on the damage
index def ined for seismicallydesign buildings does not reflect
adequately the shear failure andjoint failure caused by scaled
EIGMs.
Effects of External Blast
Loading
Recent terrorist bomb attacks
a r o u n d t h e wo r l d h av e
demonstrated the ferocity, cruelty
and unpredictability of the hazards
posed by terrorism. Instead oftrying to predict the next terror
attack, it appears to be more
important to protect critical assets
like waterworks, seaports, airports,
major buildings, etc. The transient
dynamic response of a high-risecommercial building to a
postulated external explosion load
resulting from a vehicle bomb at
the ground level near the building
has been investigated.

The high-rise commercial
building selected for the study is a
30-storey RC structure with frames
and a shear wall core. For a longstandoff distance, the local damage
index based on curvature is used toevaluate the flexural performanceof structural elements under blast
load. The second and the third
storey beams were found nearly incomplete failure. Severe damage
appeared in columns on the first
and the second storeys and in the
beams at the fourth and the fifth
storeys, as shown in the top figure.
For a short standoff distance,
The second f igure shows thatpartial collapse or moderate
damage may appear in the columnson the first and the second storeys.
The beams at the second and thet h i r d s t o r ey s we r e d e s t r oye dcompletely. Compared with thelong standoff case, damage in theshor t standoff case was more
localized.
Multiple-Hazard Protection of
Buildings
In summar y, in protecting
building structures in Singapore,
there is a need to investigates y s t e m a t i c a l ly t h e e ff e c t s o f
m u l t i p l e h a z a r d s w h i c h m ay
include both natural and man-madeevents. The multiple hazards thathave been investigated so f arcomprising the effects of longdistancemajor
Sumatraearthquakes, explosion induced
ground motions, and blast induced
ov e r p r e s s u r e . T h e d y n a m i c
response of the non-seismicallydesigned building structures in
Singapore to these postulated
multiple hazards has shown avariety of different characteristics.
This will pose a challenge tostructural engineers who must
strike a balance between safety andeconomy in designing a building
structure to resist the multiple
hazards which may result fromboth natural and man-made events.
It is important to realize that the
dynamic effects of these events
have drastically different loading
characteristics as well as frequencyof occurrence.
*Professor, Director
Protective Technology
Research Centre, School of Civil
and Environmental Engineering,
Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore 639798

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

page 4

ICUS organized International Symposium on New
Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia
The recent developments ofvarious advanced technologies
including Remote sensing (RS),
GIS, GPS and other computational
tools have generated scopes andmotivation to focus on devising
appropriate methodologies for
management and maintenance ofurban buildings, infrastructures,
mitigation of urban disasters ande nv i r o n m e n t a l p r o bl e m s f o rsustainable development of the
Asian Mega Cities with adequate
safety and security. With therealization and recognition of theimportance of advanced tools inurban safety, the International
Center for Urban Safety
Engineering (ICUS) of the Instituteof Industrial Science and the 21stCentury COE Program entitled"Center of Excellence for
Sustainable Urban Regeneration"o f t h e U n iv e r s i t y o f To kyo
o rg a n i z e d a n i n t e r n a t i o n a l
symposium during October 30-31,
2003 on New Technologies for
Urban Safety of Mega Cities in
Asia. The symposium, held at the
Sanjo-kaikan conference hall of the
Hongo campus of the University of
To kyo , wa s a t t e n d e d by 1 2 6participants from 13 countries
around the world. This was thesecond international symposium
organized by ICUS on the same
theme after the very successful
first international symposium heldin Bangkok on October 28, 2002.

Symposium Staff
and it was followed by the Keynote
speech of Prof. Worsak KanokNukulchai, Dean of the School of
Civil Engineering, Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT), Thailand.
The other invited speakers for theplenary sessions were Dr. Sudhir
Misra, IIT Kanpur, India; Prof. T.C. Pan, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore; Prof. W.C.
Fan, University of Science andTechnology, China; Dr. Suvit
Vibulshresth, GISTDA, Thailand;
Dr. Pennung Warnitchai and Prof.

The two-day long program ofthe symposium was arranged in 12
technical sessions including two
p l e n a r y s e s s i o n s , wh e r e o n ekeynote speech and six special
lectures were delivered by invited
distinguished academicians andresearchers from several Asian
countries. The symposium wasinaugurated by Prof. Shin-ichiro
Ohgaki, Dean of the Faculty ofEngineering, University of Tokyo

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

Tawatchai Tingsanchali of AIT.
A total of 72 papers were
presented in the ten technicalsessions, some of which were heldin parallel, covering a wide range
of issues in the areas of urban
safety including earthquake, fire,
water management, infrastructure
management, disaster mitigationand environmental problems.
Several presentations were madeon newly developed advanced tools

Participants at the symposiumpage 5and methodologies for addressingt h e s e i s s u e s . T h e a c t ive
participation of the audience indiscussions that followed each of
the presentations was noteworthy
and that brought out many urgent
issues to the attention of theparticipants. The discussions raised
a very important question of how
the new advanced technologies canbe effectively used for urban safety
in developing countries of Asia,
where f inancial resources andtechnical know-how are limited.
Several speakers pointed out theneed of collaborative researchamong the researchers ofd ev e l o p e d a n d d ev e l o p i n g
countries for developing low-costand locally adaptive technologies
and capacity building for new
technologies to tackle the urgent
issues towards urban safety. This
point was addressed by Prof.
Yoshifumi Yasuoka of ICUS in his
closing remarks by highlighting the
purpose of this symposium fordeveloping a network for futurecollaboration and focus of ICUS
on collaborative research projects

with colleagues from Asian
countries. A network off ice of
ICUS has been already established
at AIT for coordinating suchactivities in the region.
The proceedings of thesymposium have been alreadypublished both in hardcopy anddigital formats. The digital formatof the proceedings is now available
on the home page of ICUS. If you
are interested in obtaining a
hardcopy of the proceedings,
please contact ICUS.

ICUS Activities Record
Some of the international
activities carried out by ICUS
faculty members during the periodof July-December 2003 besides
2nd ICUS International
Symposium.
P ro fe s s o r U o m o t o v i s i t e dSydney, Australia during July 202 4 fo r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n 1 0 t h
ISO/TC71 Committee.
Professor Uomoto attended
International Symposium on NonD e s t r u c t i v e Te s t i n g i n C i v i lEngineering held at Berlin inGermany during September 14-21
Professor Yasuoka participatedin the International Symposiumf o r Commemorating, Tenth
Anniversary of Korean Society
fo r G e o - s p a t i a l I n fo r m a t i o n
System, held at Seol, Korea on 26
September.
Professor Yasuoka and Dr.
Endo attended the Asian
Conference on Remote Sensing
2003 at Busan, Korea during
November 5-7.
Dr. Meguro visited Istanbul,
Turkey during October 5-9 forparticipation in Turkey Disasteremergency measure study project.
Dr. Meguro visited Teheran,Prof. Andre Ozer(right) and Prof. Uomoto(left)

Iran during December 20-26 forparticipation in Iran National
Earthquake prevention of disasters
a n d a d m i n i s t ra t i v e p l a n
investigation for big earthquake inTehranD r. O o k a a t t a ch e d 5 t hInternational Conference on Urban
Climate held at Lodz, Poland
during September 1-5.
Ms. Yoshimura attached 28th
Annual Hazards Research andApplications Workshop held at
Denver, U.S.A. during July 13-18.
Ms. Yoshimura visited Berkly,
U.S.A. during for participation in ascholarship program for young
researchers supported by the U.S.Japan Cooperative Program on
Urban Earthquake Disaster
Mitigation.

Visitor to ICUS
During the period of October December, 2003, ICUS received
the following visitors.
-Prof. Jianhua Lin, Vice-Presidentof Peking University(November 28)-Prof. Dr. Andre Ozer, Universityof Liege(December 12)

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

page 6Highlights of Recent Activities of RNUS
The Regional Network Officefor Urban Safety (RNUS) of
ICUS at AIT has been expanding
its collaborative research andacademic activities withresearchers of AIT and otherorganizations in Asia. During thelast three months from October toD e c e m b e r, 2 0 0 3 , R N U S h a s
successfully organized various
activities including one seminara n d t wo wo r k s h o p s . I t h a s
received a research grant for a
research project on floodmodeling in the Mekong River
Basin.
Seminar on Water Resources in
the 21st Century
RNUS and Water Engineeringand Management f ield of AIT
jointly organized a seminar on"Water Resources in the 21stCentury under Climate Change
Scenarios". Held on 14 November,the event gave a venue for the
discussion of issues on water
resources under high stress andclimate change. It was graced by
Guest Speaker Associate
P r o f e s s o r D r. Ta i k a n O k i o f
t h e U n iversity of Tokyo, a ninter nationally-renowned
researcher in the f ield of landatmosphere interaction, variationof global climate, global water
resources analysis, virtual water,
and isotope analysis. He was
j o i n e d a t s e m i n a r by h i s t wocolleagues from the University of
To k y o , A s s o c i a t e P r o f . D r.
Shinjiro Kanae and Research
Fellow Mr. Kei Yoshimura, whohave been actively involved invarious projects including the
GEWEX, GLASS, GSWP, and the
IAHS PUB. The workshop was
rated highly by participants that
included visiting scholars fromJapan, researchers fromThammasat University (Thailand),representatives from Thai
Meteorological Division (TMD)
and faculty members, staff andstudents from AIT.

The three speakers of the SeminarWorkshop on Collaboration
between Yamanashi University
and Research Organizations inThailand
RNUS assisted the University
of Yamanashi, Japan in organizing
activities of the Workshop on" C o l l a b o r a t ive R e s e a r c h a n d
Education Prog ram of the
University of Yamanashi COEwith Thai Organizations and AIT"
that was held on 25 November,2003 at the Conference Center of
A I T. T h e o b j e c t i v e o f t h e
wo r k s h o p wa s t o e s t a bl i s h astrong tie for researchcollaboration between the heUniversity of Yamanashi, Japan

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

and various water-related Thai
organizations through AIT. The
one-day activity was graced by
Prof. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi of the
Ya m a n a s h i U nv i e r s i t y, w h o
introduced the "UY COE
Research and Education on
Integrated
River
Basin
Management in Asian Monsoon
Region" and Prof. Kengo Sunada
who talked about the Fuji River
Basin. Several experts from AITand Thai organizations presented
papers on hydrology and water
resources in Thailand, water use
management, water quality andsolid waste management, among
other topics.

A snapshot during the workshop

page 7
Third International Workshop
of WSSI
RNUS spearheaded theorganization of the 3rdInternational Workshop of theWorld Seismic Safety Initiative(WSSI) on "Seismic Risk
Management for Countries of theA s i a Pa c i f i c R eg i o n " a t t h eMiracle Grand Hotel in Bangkok
d u r i n g 7 - 8 D e c e m b e r, 2 0 0 3 .
WSSI is an undertaking of theInter national Association for
Earthquake Engineering (IAEE)
in support of the International
Decade for Natural Disaster
Reduction (IDNDR) of theUnited Nations. Since its
inception in 1992, WSSI has
b e e n wo r k i n g w i t h m a n y
c o u n t r i e s a r o u n d t h e wo r l dthrough its programs. To utilize
and share the experiences learnt
over the past ten or more years,
WSSI 2003 was organized toallow participants to: 1) learnf r o m c o u n t r i e s wh e r e W S S I
prog rams have made positive
difference in ter ms of risk
mitigation and management; 2)learn from countries where WSSI
prog rams have not made any

The workshop participants pose for a group photo
major impact in terms of risk
mitigation efforts, and 3) develop
a plan in consultation with all theattending countries about what
WSSI should do for the next five
years and where they should
focus their human and financial
resources. The workshop wasattendedbyov e r55
representatives from 19
countries.
Research Project
on Urban Flood Modelingin Mekong River Basin
RNUS has received a financial
grant from the Engineering
Consultants NEWJEC Inc. ofJapan to conduct a research
project entitled "Urban Flood
Inundation Modeling in MekongRiver Basin Using a Physically
Based Surface-River Model".
The main scope of the project
includes conducting research fori m p r ov e m e n t o f a n ex i s t i n g
p hy s i c a l ly b a s e d d i s t r i b u t e dmodel for urban floodinundation simulation and its
application and verif ication in
the Lower Mekong basin. The
project work aims at regional
development and cooperation.
This one and half year duration
project has started from
December, 2003.

3rd International Symposiumon Urban Safety Engineeringon Octorber 18-19, 2004
On Octorber 18-19, 2004, 3rdInternational Symposium on Urban
Safety Engineering will be held at
Deli, Agra. Dr. Sudhir Misra,
Associate Professor of IIT(Indian

Institute of Technology) is a secretariatof this symposium(sud@iitk.ac.in).
Application of registration andsubmission of abstract will start in
April, 2004. Reader can see thefollowing URL page for the
information of this symposium(http://icus-incede.iis.utokyo.ac.jp/isus04/index.htm). Further
details will be updated soon.

ICUS Activities Recognized
Mr. Shirase, Mr. Okuyama,
Mr. Sugiyama and Mr. Kaneda
working with Professor Uomoto,and Mr. Oda and Ms. Kan-no and

Ms. Yoshimura working with Dr.
M eg u r o , wo n a p r i z e f o r t h e
ex c e l l e n t p r e s e n t a t i o n a t t h e
2003 Annual meeting of Japan

Society of Civil Engineers heldat Tokushima in September.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3

page 8
Editor’s Note
I t o o k c h a rg e o f t h esecretariat of ICUS second
international symposium. Thisw a s go o d a n d a s e v e reexperience for me.
There were some first anda d v e n t u ro u s t h i n g s a t t h i sinternational symposium. First ofall, it was the first event that I
w a s t h e s e c re t a r i a t o f a n
international symposium
although I am very lazy. I thinkthat this choosing was a strategy
of ICUS head for educating me.
Moreover, it was the first time
t o h a v e re c r u i t e d g e n e ra l
speakers widely. I thought wecannot make the wide
discussions concerning urban
safety engineering if the speakers
were selected by only ICUS staffs

as in the f irst international
symposium.
It was necessary to make First
Circular by April last year to
recruit general speakers widely.
H o w e v e r, I a m n o t g o o d a t
English.
WhenI
wasembarrassed, Dr. Dutta made it
instead of me.
Then, the papers recruitment
started. Fortunately, many mailsof registrations and the inquiries
gathered. Unfortunately, I could
not afford processed them all. Ms.
Sharvani who was the secretaryo f I C U S re c e i v e d t h o s e a l linstead of me. I wish to express
my gratitude to her sincerely.
After papers gather, it wasnecessary to make the symposium
program. When I was nonplused,
Dr. Endo and Ms. Yoshimura
made the program instead of me.

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,
E-mail:icus-incede/iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus-incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

At this symposium, I thoughtthat I wanted to invite a lot of
speakers. It is necessary to think
about the arrangement of thebudget for that, and to secure therooms for stay. Ms. Ochi, Ms.
Yoshimoto, and Ms. Fujita who
are the secretary of ICUS did allt h o s e wo rk s . M o re ov e r, t h ey
prepared the symposium hall.
Because the symposium ended
safely, I was deeply relieved. I
noticed only the work that I had
done was to have worried, when I
thought calmly. No matter how I
w i s h , I c a n n o t e x p re s s m y
gratitude to all staffs of thiss y m p o s i u m . H o w e v e r, i t i s
uncertain whether ICUS head's
strategy succeeded or not.

(by Ryozo Ooka)

ICUS/INCEDE NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 4
JANUARY -MARCH 2004

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS DUE TO
BAM EARTHQUAKE OF DECEMBER 26, 2003, IRAN
By
Kooroush NASROLLAHZADEH NESHELI*On December 26, 2003 at 01:56:56 GMT (05:26:56 a.m., local time), a destructive earthquake hit Bam City (29.09°
N,
58.35°
E) in Kerman Province, SE Iran. The Bam Earthquake caused numerous casualties (more than 45000 dead) and extensive
damage to different types of buildings. Considering the earthquake focal distance was around 7 km, the buildings in Bam
experienced a near-source earthquake. The majority of buildings were made with adobe and mud. In fact, the worldwide fame of
Bam is due to its historical adobe houses. The most ancient adobe citadel in the world (more than 2000 years old) is located in thiscity and was severely damaged in this earthquake. The other building structural types include: un-reinforced masonry (URM)
building, confined masonry building, steel frame, and reinforced concrete frame. In this article, building damage in terms of theirstructural types is discussed.

Earthquake-damaged view of historical adobe citadel (Arg-e-Bam)page 2Introduction
Regardless of some special
characteristics of the Bam
Ear thquake (e.g. near-source
location of structures), the observed
failures of buildings were very
similar to past earthquakes in Iran.
What has been repeatedly observedis that construction and design do
not conform to seismic resistantcodes. While Iranian code ofpractice for seismic resistant designof buildings (the so-called Standard
No. 2800) was revised by the
Building and Housing ResearchCenter (BHRC) in 1987 and became
mandatory after Roodbar-Manjil
Earthquake (1990), we still face
many newly-constructed buildings
which are not following the code. In
Bam Earthquake, the buildings
which observed main requirementsof Standard No. 2800 could survive,
demonstrating the efficiency of thecode. There is, therefore, a highdemand to establish a system so as
to make sure that the standards
come into effect.
In this article, buildings inaffected areas are classif ied byconstruction material and method,and damage to each structural typeis discussed.
Adobe
Adobe buildings are found in
most areas of Bam city. Thick walls,
h e av y r o o f s , l ow s t r e n g t h o fconstituent materials (i.e. mud) andl a c k o f i n t eg r i t y b e t we e ncomponents are characteristics ofthese houses. As there is no
structural system to resist lateralloads, adobe buildings suffer large
damage in earthquakes. The roofs ins o m e a d o b e b u i l d i n g s we r econstructed in the form of a vault ora dome. Such roofs could partiallysurvive during the earthquake, due
to their special shape, provided thatthe walls support them. However,lack of integrity between roof andwall is a common problem in thistype of buildings, causing totalcollapse of house.
Although the Iranian code

Failure of unreinforced masonry walls and collapse of roof beams
prohibites new construction of
adobe buildings, there is still aquestion about what we can do withthe existing adobe houses, which areextensively distributed in rural areasin the country. It is recommended to
conduct research on developing
effective and cheap retrof itting
techniques for adobe buildings.
Unreinforced masonryT h e wa l l s i n t h i s t y p e o fbuildings are made of bricks and theroofs are constructed by laying
bricks and mud between steel beams(this type of low-rise arch roof iscalled as “Jack Arch” in Iran).
Because there are no confining ties
or other types of reinforcement inthese buildings, they are likely tocollapse during earthquakes. In theabsence of vertical and horizontal
concrete ties, there is no integrity for
an unreinforced masonry building.
Therefore, as lateral forces apply tothe structure, the supporting walls
separate from each other at thecorners of the building and are
subjected to the out-of-plane
deformations. Consequently, theroofs fall due to weak connection
between roof beams and supporting
walls.
Confined masonryThis type of building
demonstrated good seismic
perfor mance. As indicated inStandard No. 2800, in all structural
walls of all masonry buildings, one
or two stories, ir respective ofwhether they are constructed withbricks, cement blocks or stone,
confining ties must be constructed.
Vertical and horizontal confiningt i e s p r ov i d e i n t eg r i t y f o r t h ebuilding and make a seismicresistant structure. By constructing
tie-columns in the main corners of
the buildings, the connection of

Vertical and horizontal ties maintain the stability of building

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

page 3

Tilt of building due to soft story formed in the first floor
walls at the intersections can be
maintained.
It should be noted that goodseismic performance of confining
ties could be expected only if theties are well executed. In otherwords, the ties with poor quality ofconcrete are not able to develop aseismic resistant mechanism.
I n o r d e r t o h av e a t h r e e dimensional resisting system, tiecolumns should be properly
connected at all intersection points
to tie-beams. If there is no suitabledetailing for reinforcing bars in theconcrete joints, the building can
not stand against earthquakes.
Moreover, the distance between
axes of two successive tie-columns
should be limited to 5 meters
according to Standard No. 2800.
The confined masonry buildings,
which did not observe the abovementioned points, failed during the
Bam Earthquake.
Steel frame
Among steel-framed buildingsin Bam City, those which had a

Separation of
x-bracing elementsfrom the column
due to poor qualityof welding

seismic resistant system by using,for instance, steel bracings in two
orthogonal directions could standduring the earthquake.
One common problem that wasobserved in several buildings in thecity was the formation of softstories. Other problems wererelated to inadequate design andpoor detailing. For instance, theconnection plate of x-bracings tothe beam-column joint did nothave enough dimensions and/or thewelding at the interface of theconnection plate and column was
not adequate. Consequently, thebracings were cut from the beamcolumn joint during theearthquake. This, in turn, led to alateral stiffness decrease of thecorresponding story and caused thechange of the location of ther i g i d i t y c e n t e r, g e n e r a t i n g
additional undesirable torsion to
the building. Another major
problem in steel connections waspoor quality of welding. This camefrom lack of trained workmanshipto perform appropriate welding
during the construction process.

Concrete frame
Reinforced concrete (RC)frames were fewer in number incomparison with the other types ofbuildings in Bam City. These RC
buildings performed relatively wellin this earthquake. Some ofobserved damages were related tobond slip and lack of column
confinement in the plastic hinge.
Conclusions
What has been observed inearthquake-damaged areas in Bam
City was mostly related to “seismic
vulnerability” rather than “seismic
h a z a r d ” . I n o t h e r wo r d s , t h ebuildings suffered much damage
mainly because the structures did
not follow the seismic-resistantcodes of practice. In this regard,
just to have a good code does
not work. What is strongly needed
is to establish a system so as toc o n t r o l d i ff e r e n t s t a g e s o f
construction process including:design, on-site performance,
quality of materials, and so forth.
On the other hand, the problems thatare associated with the existing
structures are mainly related tolack of an effective system forpromoting retrofitting procedures.
Such a system should provide
f inancial incentives for owners
along with economical retrof it
techniques so as to encourage
people to strengthen theirbuildings.
* Scientific Board Member,
Building and Housing ResearchCenter (BHRC), IranICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

page 4PROPOSAL OF A NEW ECONOMIC RETROFITTINGMETHOD FOR MASONRY STRUCTURES
By
Paola MAYORCA*
Introduction
Masonr y is a constr uction
material widely used around theworld due to its low cost andconstruction easiness. More than
30% of the world’s population
lives in a house of unbaked earth,which is one type of unreinforced
masonry. During the last century,
human casualties during
earthquakes were mainly causedby structural damage, being the
failure of unreinforced masonry
structures responsible for morethan 60% of them. The
vulnerability of masonry
structures under seismic loads has
been recognized long ago andefforts to provide guidelines forthe construction of soundearthquake resistant houses havebeen remarkable. In spite of this,ev e r y ye a r c a s u a l t i e s d u e t ocollapsing masonry houses during
earthquakes are reported.
Several types of retrof itting
h av e b e e n d e v e l o p e d f o r
unreinforced masonry structures.
For strengthening this type ofhouses in developing countries, a
suitable retrof itting technique
should guarantee not only
its eff iciency in ter ms ofi m p r ov e m e n t o f t h e s e i s m i c
resistant characteristics of thestructure (strength, ductility andenergy dissipation). It should also
be considered that: 1) the usedmaterial is economical and locallyavailable and 2) the required laborskill is minimum. In this context, an ew r e t r o f i t t i n g m e t h o d f o r
unreinforced masonry structures is
proposed.

Retrofitted wall before mortar overlay setting and after test
Proposed retrofitting method
Considering the previously
mentioned conditions, a novel
retrofitting method consisting ofpolypropylene bands (PP-bands)
arranged in a mesh fashion andembedded in a cement mortar
overlay is proposed. These bands
are worldwide used for packing.
They are cheap, resistant, and easy
to handle.
At first, meshes are preparedwith the PP-bands. The pitch andinclination vary according to therequired earthquake resistance.
Then, the masonry wall surfaces
are cleaned and holes are drilled
through the wall at a spacing ofapproximately 4 times the meshpitch. After this, the PP-bandmeshes are set on both wall sides
a n d f i xe d a t t h e b o r d e r s .
Galvanized steel wires are passed
through the wall holes and used to
fix the meshes. The photo below
s h ow s t h e wa l l a t t h i s s t a g e .
Finally, a mortar overlay is placedon the wall surface.
To assess the retrof itting by
PP-band meshes, masonry wallswith and without reinforcement
were constructed and tested inplane.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

Retrofitted wall performance
The PP-band meshes have arelatively low stiffness comparedto the masonry walls. Because ofthis, they did not contribute toincrease the wall peak strength.
The mesh contribution was only
observed after the wall cracked.
Immediately after the peak,cor responding to the diagonal
cracking, the unreinforced wallstrength dropped to 10 to 40% of
the peak. On the other hand, thereinforced walls exhibited a 60%
residual strength after the peak,which was sustained for at least
2% lateral drift. In the reversed
direction, the reinforced walls also
exhibited larger post-cracking
strengths. The effect of theconnectors and the mortar overlay
in the wall performance was also
observed in the tests.
T h e s e r e s u l t s s h owe d t h epotential of using PP-band meshes
as an effective and cheap masonry
retrofitting method. Scaled model
houses for testing on a shaking
table are currently been preparedto further verify this technique.
* Post-doctoral fellow,
Meguro Laboratory,
Institute of Industrial Science,
The University of Tokyopage 5A STUDY ON APPROACHES TOWARD BUILDINGDISASTER RESISTANT COMMUNITIESIN CALIFORNIA
By
Miho YOSHIMURA
Recent damaging earthquakes have clearly revealed that retrofitting low earthquake-resistant structures is the key
issue for earthquake disaster reduction. In spite of this, retrofitting activities are not being carried out efficiently
especially for non-public structures in Japan. Some local governments in California, USA are promoting retrofitting more
successfully than Japanese governments by providing various kinds of economic incentives for it. I investigated the current
strategies, history, and clues for successful promotion, mainly in the City of Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay Area,
through interviews and reference collection from Nov. 5 to Dec. 4, 2004. This research was done with the scholarshipprogram for young researchers provided by the US-Japan Cooperative Research Program on Urban Earthquake Disaster
Mitigation by the US National Science Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnologies.

The City of Berkeley(104,603 inhabitants) in San
Francisco Bay Area has achieved
several goals to improve building
safety since the 1989 Loma Prieta
earthquake. According to the
Association of Bay Area
Governments, ABAG, the ratio ofretrofitted houses to all singlefamily residential houses is 38%.
The city was honored in 1999
b y t h e Fe d e r a l E m e r g e n c yManagement Agency (FEMA)
with the “Model Community of
the Year Award” for the Project
Impact: Building Disaster
Resistant Communities. Project
Impact is a nationwide campaign
for helping community members
prepare for natural disasters.
More than 90% of the housing
stock in the city is wood-framebuildings. Many of the singlef a m i l y wo o d - f r a m e h o u s e sconstructed before 1945 are notbolted to their foundation or lackwall bracing. Multifamily woodframe residential buildings,
particularly with all or part of the
f irst floor used for parking(structures called “soft-first story
buildings”) have a risk ofcollapse in case of intense
shaking. These buildings needretrofitting.
T h e c i t y h a s p r ov i d e deconomic incentives for
retrofitting these buildings since1991. Its popular prog rams
include the real estate transfer tax
rebate, permit fee waiver andg rant funds or loans to lowincome house owners to retrofit
their homes. Transfer tax is alocal tax imposed by the city on
the real estate exchange. Propertytransfer tax can be rebated up to
1/3 of the 1.5% tax for seismicr e t r o f i t wo r k o n r e s i d e n t i a l
structures or the structures whichcontain two or more dwellingu n i t s . M o r e ove r, p e r m i t a n dinspection fees for retrofit work
are waived by the city in case ofresidential buildings. The total
reduction in the revenue for thecity due to both prog rams
amounts to 1 million dollar
annually. These strategies arever y innovative compared tothose in Japan where retrofitting
incentive prog rams mainly
provide financial assistance andlow interest loan for seismic

evaluation or retrofitting work.
I n a d d i t i o n t o t h e a b ove mentioned measures, the city
library maintains a tool-lending
librar y where community
members can borrow the tools
needed to retrofit their houses.
The city also provides building
r e t r o f i t e d u c a t i o n p r og r a m s
assistedbynon-prof itorganizations. These activities
aim at promoting house owners to
retrofit by themselves.
With slight changes due toadministrative differences, Ib e l i eve t h a t t h e r e i s a l a rg e
benef it of adopting similar
strategies in the Japanese systemthat have proven so successful inpromoting private b uilding
retrofit in California.

Soft-first story building

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

page 6
Welcome to Dr. Amano,
visiting Professor

ICUS welcomes its new staff
Dr. Reiko Amano, who has
j o i n e d I C U S a s a Vi s i t i n g
Professor from February 2004.
Dr. Amano is a Deputy General
Manager of the Kajima
Corporation, Tokyo. Here, we
present a self introduction of Dr.
Amano for our readers.

I have been working for
Kajima Corporation since 1980.
My specialization is in designof different types of bridges. I
h av e b e e n e n g a g e d i ndevelopments of various typesof bridges using latest PC (Prestressed Concrete) technology
as a designer, a researcher and aconstruction manager. In 1986,
one of our main works, Birdie
Bridge, a stressed-ribbon typebridge using the composite
material with concrete and FRP,
received Tanaka Award from theJ a p a n S o c i e t y o f C iv i lEngineers (JSCE). Another of
our works, “The Seismic Design
Method for PC Bridges withHigh Pier”, which was adopted
to Washimi Bridge, received

JCI Technical Award in 1989.
During my stay in Indonesia
from 1997 to 1998, I concluded
my doctoral dissertation basedon my research experiences ofd ev e l o p m e n t s o f u n i q u estructures, and proceeded toobtain doctoral degree from the
University of Tokyo in 1999. In
recent years, my major concerns
are environmental protection
systems and f ire preventions y s t e m s . L a s t y e a r, wed ev e l o p e d a u n i q u e f i r eprevention system called “Water
Screen System”, which can be
adoptedtos u b way s ,underg roundh i g h w ay s ,underground shopping arcades
and so on.

ICUS Activity Records･Prof. Yasuoka delivered a lecture
at AIT and carried out a fieldsurvey at Sri Samrong, Thailand
together with Dr. Endo (Feb 2428).
･ Prof. Meguro carried out adamage investigation survey of
Bam earthquake together with Dr.
Yoshimura (Feb 16-26).

･Prof. Ooka attended the annual
meeting of AGS in Sweden (Mar29-28).
･ P ro f. D u t t a v i s i t e d A I T fo r
collaborative research at RNUS
(Feb 10-Mar 31) and carried out
G P S s u r v ey a n d f i e l dinvestigation for a research
project in Sri Lanka (Feb 14-22).

･ D r. K a t o, D r. E n d o a n d D r.
Yo s h i m u ra v i s i t e d A I T fo r
collaborative research at RNUS
(Mar 11-13), and visited India forresearch investigation related to
RNUS (Mar 14-17).
･Dr. Endo carried out a field survey
related to eucalyptus in Chile(Mar 21-29).

3rd International Symposiumon Urban Safety Engineeringon Octorber 18-19, 2004
ICUS is going to organize the
3 International Symposium on“New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia”
jointly with the Indian Institute ofTechnology Kanpur (IITK), India.
The symposium will be held inAgra, India during October 18-19,
2004. The symposium will focus
on the following areas;- Safety assessment of existing
infrastructure- Seismic rehabilitation andretrofitting of structures- Planning and development ofurban infrastructurerd- E nv i r o n m e n t a l i m p a c t o furbanization- Advanced technologies forassessment of urban safety
The various deadlines for paper
submission and registration are as
follows:- Submission of abstract:
June 30, 2004
- Notif ication of acceptance:
July 15, 2004
- Submission of full paper:August 15, 2004
- L a s t d a t e o f r eg i s t r a t i o n :September 15, 2004

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

Dr. Sudhir Misra, an Associate
Professor of IITK, is the Secretaryof the Organizing Committee. He
can be contacted for further details
in the following address:
Dr. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering,
IIT Kanpur
Kanpur 208016, India
E-mail: usafety@iitk.ac.in
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/isus04/
Tel: (+91-512) 259-7346
Fax: (+91-512) 259-7395

page 7

News from Regional Network Office of ICUS/AITin Thailand
The Regional Network Officefor Urban Safety (RNUS) has
initiated a series of seminars at
AIT from the beginning of 2004
on various issues emphasizing
new technologies for urban safety
a n d s e c u r i t y b y i nv i t i n gresearchers and experts working
in these areas. A total of four
seminars have been organized
during the last three months.
The f irst seminar was
delivered by Dr. Takahiro Endo on
February 24, 2004 on applicationsof Hyperspectral Remote Sensing.
Dr. Endo, a Lecturer of ICUS,
University of Tokyo, Japan, spoke
to a packed classroom about thebasics of hyperspectral remotesensing and its usage. One of themain focuses of his presentation
was application of hyperspectral
remote sensing in estimation ofdamaged concrete for urban
safety.
Then on 27 February 2004,
RNUS facilitated the organizationof the 2nd Seminar on “Remote
Sensing from Local to Global
Scale.” The presentations were
given by Prof. Yoshifumi Yasuoka
who talked on “New Technical
Trend in Remote Sensing – Its
Application to Civil Engineering”
a n d b y D r. D e n n i s D y e w h o
discussed “Photosynthetically
Active Radiation and theTerrestrial Carbon Cycle”. In thes e m i n a r, t h e t wo s c i e n t i s t spresented recent scientif ic
d eve l o p m e n t s i n t h e f i e l d o fremote sensing and its
applications in civil andenvironmental engineering. Prof.
Yasouka is the Deputy Director
General of the Institute ofIndustrial Science under theProf. Y. Yasuoka and Dr. D. Dye during their talks at the Seminaron March 12, 2004 at AITUniversity of Tokyo. Dr. Dye is
the Group Leader of the
Ecosystem Change ResearchP r og r a m , F r o n t i e r R e s e a r c hSystem for Global Change, Japan.
On March 2, 2004, RNUS
organized a seminar on“Numerical Models in Fluid andT h e i r A p p l i c a t i o n s ” b y D r.
Ke i s u ke N a k ay a m a , a S e n i o r
Researcher of the National
Institute for Land andInfrastructure Management,
Japan. In his presentation, Dr.
Nakayama discussed the various
types of numerical models which
can be applicable for modeling of
ecological system in bay areas ofcoastal cities. A case study ofTokyo bay was presented in his
lecture. He applied various
numerical methods and conductedlaboratory tests to understand thef l ow f i e l d a n d s t r a t i f i c a t i o nphenomenon in Tokyo bay, andpredict the ecological system.
D r. Yo s h i t a k a K a t o , a n
Assistant Professor and Ms. Miho
Yoshimura, a Research Associateof ICUS, the University of Tokyo,
delivered talks at the 4th seminarof the series organized by RNUS
at SCE, AIT on March 12, 2004.
D r. K a t o t a l k e d o n r e c e n t
problems and maintenance ofconcrete structures in Japan. He
elaborated some of the major
problems encountered by theJapanese civil engineers inevaluating the concrete structuresusing Non Destructive Inspection(NDI). He introduced a new NDI
technique, which can beeffectively used to deal with thecurrent problems. Ms. Yoshimura
introduced a new Retrof itting
Promotion System (RPS) for low
earthquake-resistant structures inearthquake prone countries that
could serve as driving forces forthe promotion of retrof itting of
weaker structures. She mentionedthat the effectiveness of the RPS
was verified on the basis of therecovery activity data after the
1 9 9 9 Ko c a e l i e a r t h q u a ke ,Istanbul, Turkey and through thisprocess, several advantages forboth governmental and citizensides were identified.

ICUS/INCEDE Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 4

page 8
Editor’s Note
Since 2002, ICUS has
been holding international
symposium on urban safety
every year. The 2nd symposium
was held in Japan in October2003 and the upcoming 3rd
symposium would be held in
India in October 2004. I visited
India with my colleagues Dr.
Endo and Ms. Yoshimura for a
preparatory meeting of thiss y m p o s i u m i n M a r c h . We
a r r i v e d a t D e l h i a ro u n dmidnight and went to Agra, thecity famous for the Taj Mahal,
by car the following morning.
T h e d i s t a n c e o f j u s t ab o u t
200km took around 5 hours totravel. During this journey,
among many other things, I

could feel the variety ofdifferences between Japan andIndia. For instance, maintenancesituations of infrastructure, traffic
rules, and so on. I believe that thedifferences in these practices
d e p e n d o n t h e d i f f e re n c e s
between the cultures and sense ofvalue of each country ands i m i l a rly
i n f ra s t r u c t u r emaintenance in a country is also
closely related to its culture. So,
we should never enforce our rules
in a partner country as they are
when we support infrastructuredevelopment in a developing
country. It is extremely importantto understand the culture and thesense of value of that country.
I C U S s e t u p t h e reg i o n a l
network off ice at AIT (Asian
Institute of Technology) in 2002.

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Since then, Dr. Dutta has beens u c c e s s f u l l y wo rk i n g o n
c o l l a b o ra t i v e p ro j e c t s i n
cooperation with researchers in
Thailand. Dr. Dutta recieved a
M.Eng. from AIT and a Ph. D.
from the University of Tokyo. So,
despite being an Indian, he iswell versed with the cultures ofThailand and Japan. However,upon reaching here, I find that I
d o n o t k n ow t h e c u l t u re o f
Thailand at all. I believe the levelof my understanding of the Thai
culture would ultimately affectthe level of success of myresearch in Thailand. So, my firststep in Thailand would be
towards learning the Thai culture
and to try and work and think likea Thai.
(by Kato)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 1
APRIL -JUNE 2004

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

WORKING AT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
By
Ken SUDO*
I worked at four international
institutes for 27 years, includingInternational Center for DisasterMitigation Engineering(INCEDE)
which was a ten-year program, from1991 to 2001, by the Institute ofIndustrial Science (IIS), Universityof Tokyo. All organizations are/were
aiming to make our Earth safer fromnatural disaster and safer from
nuclear weapon. In this short article,
my observation and experiences atthese organizations are mentioned.
IISEEInternational Institute ofS e i s m o l og y a n d E a r t h q u a ke

E n g i n e e r i n g ( I I S E E ) wa s
established in 1962 jointly by theJapanese Gover nment and theUnited Nations. The establishment
was based on a resolution of theGeneral Assembly of the United
Nations. This resolution was afollow-up of the initiative byInternational Association ofEarthquake Engineering which took
place in 1960 at the IIS. Prominent
professors of IIS such as the lateProfessors Shunzo Okamoto and
Keizaburo Kubo devoted themselvesto this initiative as their contribution
to earthquake disaster reduction in
the world.

The objective of the IISEE is tofoster engineers and seismologists
in the field of earthquake disastermitigation, in particular, in thed eve l o p i n g wo r l d . S i n c e i t s
inception, more than 1,000
participants from 105 countries havereportedly finished courses whichwere programmed by international
well-known experts. Nowadays
large alumni of IISEE are playing
the central role in earthquake
disaster management in therespective countries. IISEE is still
active in conducting its mission. I
was involved in diversity programsof IISEE for 15 years.

Shaking test of actual 7-story apartment house at the Almaty city

page 2
One of the programs which I
was in charge was for seismic risk
reduction of the Almaty city in the
Republic of Kazakhstan. Almaty is
located in a high seismic region at
the northern foot of the Tien-Shan
Mountains. Kazakhstan was one ofthe developed republics among theformer Soviet Union. Collapse of
the Soviet regime led the Republic
to serious economic disruption.
Under the marketing economy,m o s t i nv e s t m e n t h a s b e e naddressed to business potentially
producing more benefit quickly.
Disaster management which theg ov e r n m e n tshouldtake
responsibility has been put in lesspriority issues. Needless to say,
Kazakhstan is not exceptional.
There are many disaster prone
countries in the world where evenpoor measures against disastercannot be taken.
M y a c t iv i t i e s f o c u s e d o nknowledge transfer to researchers
in the Institute of Seismology at
Almaty. They were enthusiasticallykeen to absorb any knowledge. Any
lectures and colloquia were filledwith many participants. Thesemeetings were followed by hot
discussion. I am ver y muchsatisfied with my activities at theInstitute. A charming and verymuch talented secretary helped mewith excellent faithfulness. She
viewed my lecture notes before theclasses to understand what I wasgoing to talk. So that she spoke as
if she herself was a teacher. I took
opportunities to observe full scale
shaking test of a 7-story building,while I was in the Institute. The test
wa s s p o n s o r e d by a g e n e r a lcontractor (see the photo on the 1stpage) which has its industrial base

My staff at the office of IISEE,
Republic of Kazakhstan

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

at Almaty. They said that such test
has not been conducted since thebeginning of 1990s. The successful
test has encouraged researchers tod ev e l o p f u r t h e r s t u d i e s f o rearthquake disaster mitigation.
T h e l u n c h t i m e wa s a no p p o r t u n i t y t o k n ow wh a t
Kazakhstan people think in daily
life. My secretary and driver are of
mid thirty age. The first half of
their lives were under the Soviet
and the second under the marketinge c o n o my. T h e y t a l k e d a b o u tsummer holidays in forests while
they were children. Their parents
did not meet any costs for thecamp, contrarily, they need muchmoney for their children to spendlong summer vacation in forests.
Education in better school is also
costly. When they were children, no
education fee was charged fromtheir parents. Bread and butter
were certainly in hands, although
they had to be in long queue.
Nowadays, some poor people havedifficulty in even getting bread.
They talked that they realized thatricher people could get more
benef it in the current system. I
learned that the name of
Kazakhstan was taken after Khazar
Kingdom which existed in the 810th century around the CaspianSea and which is thought to be thehome place of Ashekenazi people.
The Ashkenazi people must be oneof key-people to understand themodern world.
IDNDRInternational Decade of Natural
Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) was
a n i n i t i a t iv e b a s e d o n t h eunanimous resolution of the United
Nations General Assembly in 1999.
This 10-year program started withenthusiastic welcome by disasterprone countries in the world. It wasthought that the 10-year, 19902000, would be enough to identify
problems to be solved for the safer
Earth in the 21 st century and toestablish institution/machinery forputting the issues into practice The
IDNDR Secretariat at Geneva,
h oweve r, c o u l d n o t h e l p a ny
initiatives and undertakings by

Newspaper clip of ‘Tashkent
Evening News’.
scientif ic communities orengineering
associations
financially, as the Secretariat had
no mechanism for regularly getting
money. The funding was made on
voluntary base at willingness ofdonor agencies. Actually theJapanese Government made thelargest contribution. It reachedalmost 60 % of total operational
expense.
I was at position to monitor
scientific activities undertaken at
va r i o u s p l a c e s by d i ff e r e n torganizations. I learned that many
projects are stranded due tofinancial difficulties. Therefore theSecretariat itself had to launch
projects to encourage the world.
RADIUS project was one of theseprojects.
A Symposium about VAN by
International Council of ScientificUnion (ICSU) was another. In the
beginning of 1990, most seism o l og i s t s we r e v e r y m u c hpessimistic in earthquake
prediction. Nevertheless, Greek
physicists claimed that the VAN
method needed to be paid more
attention. Sir James Lighthill of
I C S U t h o u g h t t h a t t h e r e wa s
something in VAN as Professor
Kanamori of California InstituteTechnology commented to the
Science, a well-known scientificjournal. All papers presented in thiss u c c e s s f u l s y m p o s i u m we r ecompiled into a book, titled as‘ C r i t i c a l R ev i ew o f VA N ’published by World Scientif ic

page 3P r e s s . I wa s i nvo l v e d i ncoordination of the Symposium.
Dr. Sir James was of strongly
scientific curiosity and He neverh a d p r e j u d i c e s t owa r d ' s a ny
scientific view. He tried to see only
facts. His manner moved him todare hold the symposium. It is verymuch pity that he passed away soonafter the Symposium by an accident
in the sea.
INCEDE
After retiring from the job asdirector of IISEE, I was invited as
Director of International Centre forDisaster–Mitigation Engineering(INCEDE) in the summer of 1996.
It should be surprising to see that
only four permanent staff members
were conducting many international
collaborative projects, holding‘Open Lecture’, managing the
INCEDE human network, andpublishing INCEDE Newsletter,having help by a couple of beautiful
and hard-working secretaries.
Communication through the
Network taught me that people
struggling with diasters in therespective countries wanted to know
wh a t o t h e r p e o p l e d i d, wh a tt e c h n o l og y o r d ev i c e s we r eavailable and many different things.
The Newsletter responded to thesewishes. Any INCEDE Newsletterswere responded by voices fromreaders in the world. In an issue of
the Newsletter, two articles on VAN
we r e p u t . Two p r o m i n e n t
researcher, Drs. Seiya Uyeda(Professors Emeritus of the
University of Tokyo) for VAN andRobert Geller ( Professor of the
University of Tokyo) against VAN,
kindly contributed articles. Since bysome reasons any article for VAN
had not appeared in the public atthat time, this issue was welcome in
the world and many copies of thisissue were sent to many readers in
addition to regular readers.
I had a visit by the director ofnatural disaster department in acountry in the Caribbean Sea. She
took an opportunity to observe
monitoring systems and devices
against disaster, while she wasstaying in Japan. At volcanic sites,

she saw a monitoring system
consisting of many high-technology
sensors and automatic information
process on real time. At other sites,
she saw that more than 1000 GPS
data were analyzed on real timebase to reveal how Japan islands
were deformed by the plate motion.
Certainly it will be powerful tool forearthquake prediction. Right before
her leaving for her country, shesighed, saying ‘in principle humanbeing can know when a volcano
w i l l e r u p t a n d h ow a l a rg eearthquake will occur at where. But
it is not our case’. I could not find
my response to her words.
CTBTO
In 2002 autumn, I was invited asa unit head of Comprehensive
N u c l e a r Te s t B a n Tr e a t y
O rg a n i z a t i o n ( C T B TO ) . T h e
Organization needed my knowledge
and experiences on seismologicalanalysis. When a nuclear atomic
bomb is exploded under the groundsurface, elastic waves are generated
within the Earth. The waves arevery much similar to seismic waves.
CTBTO has a verification systemof nuclear explosion test. The
central component of the system is
detection of events which might begenerated by explosion. For thispurpose, CTBTO deploys global
observation network comprising ofaround 300 sensors: two thirds areseismographs and the others forhydroacoustic, infrasound andradioactive nuclide observation.
A n a ly s i s o f s i g n a l s f r o m t h e
network is my task. It is almost
seismological work.
Readers of this Newsletter may
think that the above observations, inparticular, geophysical observations
can benefit studies on earth scienceand natural disaster monitoring. I
wish to suggest you to contact your
Government, if you are interested in
the data and if you wish to accessthe data.
There are difference between
the United Nation office at Geneva
and Vienna International Center
wh e r e C T B TO, I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), and

CTBTO building
other United Nation Organizations.
Security system at the Vienna ismuch more strict. No body canenter the inside of the building
without certification. In order toreach my office, anybody has topass through one more gate whichis always locked. Some data might
be related to nuclear weapons. Thisis the reason why so strict security
is kept. Needless to say, data
handling is also controlled understrict rule.
Another difference of CTBTO
from IDNDR is in budgetarysystem. While IDNDR had nofinancial base, CTBTO is financedby member countries. The Japanese
government meets 20% of the total
budget. There are five Japanese
staff members among total 250.
Only 2% is too small, compared tof inancial contribution by theJapanese Government. The rate ofJapanese staff is also very small inother organizations. The Permanent
Mission of the Japanese
G ove r n m e n t t o I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Organization at Vienna is always tokeen to increase the number ofJapanese staff at the organizations.
Acknowledgement
I thank Prof. Uomoto and his
staff of ICUS for providing me withthe space for this article. Also I
wish to have your permission to say
my gratitude to Ms. Yasuko Fujitani
who had helped me with the mostfaithfulness while I was in IIS. I do
hope ICUS will achieve further
works helpful to safer Japan, safer
Asia and safer world.
*Professor, CTBTO,
Preparatory commission for thecomprehensive nuclear-test-ban
treaty organization, Vienna

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

page 4

Reports Published by the Research Committee RC-39“Research on Sustainable Engineering for Urban Safety”(1)The Research Committee on Sustainable Engineering for Urban Safety (Rc-39) established by the ICUS, has beenworking since April, 2002. Besides the members of the faculty of the Center, the committee comprises of 16 privatecompanies and research organizations.
The reports written by the 5 working groups were published in March, 2004 in Japanese. The five ‘working groups’ wereas follows and a brief explanation of each report is given here in after.
WG1: Methods to handle aging infrastructure (Secretary: Mr. Kenji SHIBA, Shimizu Corporation)
WG2: Global environment (Secretary: Mr. Hidenobu NAKAI, The Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.)
WG3: Study on heat islands in urban environments (Secretary: Mr.Haruhido TSUBAKI, Kajima Corporation)
WG4: Disaster prevention and response (Secretary: Mr. Seiichiro FUKUSHIMA, Tokyo Electric Power Services Co., Ltd.)(Abstract To be published in vol.4-2)
WG5: Developments in sensing technology and its applications (Secretary: Mr. Yukio AKAMATSU, Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.)(Abstract To be published in vol.4-2)

WG1: Methods to handle
aging infrastructure
Japan’s dramatic economic
growth was remarkable during thesixty years after the Second World
War. Social infrastructure was also
developed. Those constructed in theearly phase are now aging ands t a r t i n g t o r e q u i r e r e n ewa l .
According to 2003 White Paper on
Land, Infrastructure and Transportin Japan, the social capital stock was
405 trillion yen as of 2001. It led isthe prospect that, as themaintenance/management andrenewal cost for 2025 should be
about 10 trillion yen, such costneeds to be increased by 150 billion
yen every year for the next 10 years.
Replacement was once preferred forthe social capital infrastructures
based on the strategy “Scrap andBuild”. However, the shift to “Stockand Renovation” is now prioritizedin the eco-friendly and recycle
oriented society of the modern
world. Therefore, aging structures
should be properly managed andrenewed to sustain the function ofurbanized areas.
From this viewpoint, Aging
Structure Working Group studied
aging structures from three aspects:
Engineering (Physics), Function andEconomy and identified issues thatneed to be addressed to carry out theeffective asset management. Basedon the case study of “BANKOKUBASHI (BANKOKU Bridge)” theICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

concrete road bridge built about 65
years ago in Yokohama, Maintenanceand Management Guidelines ofSocial Capital Stock (for “System
Design”) was developed.
T h e s t u d y o n BA N KO K U BASHI revealed that structures may
sustain its semi-permanent material
life with the minimum cost as far as
they are properly designed, built,
a n d u n d e rg o n e s u ff i c i e n t
construction management unless it
was uniquely designed or affectedby unavoidable environmental
actions. On the other hand, it also
reminded the importance of
establishing the framework to
sufficiently maintain such social
assets to accept the extension offunctionality of the structures as
they age in order to meet the needsof the society. Some issues remainunverified from the study which was
conducted for less than 2 years.
Thus, we are determined to further
study this issue to develop an overall
asset management policy.
WG2: Global environment
Keeping in mind that global
warming due to greenhouse gases(GHGs) emissions by fossil fuels is
one of the most critical issues that
we need to cope with immediately,
we have explored how to estimate
the GHGs emissions from activities
within cities by reviewing existingstudies in order to figure out factors
which influence most to GHG

emission reduction.
Based on the recent study(Kiriyama et al "Urban and Land
Structure for Lower Environmental
I m p a c t s " , J o u r n a l o f Po l i cy
Research for Land, Infrastructure
and Transport, Vol. 12, 2002), theelectricity consumption per capita
has a tendency that is higher in city
center and lower in suburbs. It isalso noted that there is little
difference among total consumption
between city center and suburbs,
despite the fact that the density ofelectric appliances tends to increasein a small size house of city centerand the amount of automobile
energy consumption from residence
is lower in city center than insuburbs.
According to our findings, there
are very few studies indicating thepossible future scenarios covering
energy demand increase, population
trends, changes of economic
situation in various regions, andurban life style changes in the
future, even though some studies
show that GHGs emissions can beroughly estimated by statisticalanalysis of existing available data.
For pursuit of the ultimate goal,
which is the establishment of theeffective and accurate tool toestimate and forecast GHG
emissions by urban activities, it isexactly needed to cooperate withwisdom in various related field suchpage 5as engineering, geog raphy,
economics, science. Although, we
believe that we have found the key
issues to be solved, this study was
only able to reach the door to the
future goal. We are hoping to continue
the study on the issues in any way.
WG3: Study on heat islands
in urban environments
In order to develop a so-calledsustainable city, it is necessary to
study about a sustainability ofurban infrastructures organizing thecity and environmental influence of
these infrastructures. There arem a ny f a c t o r s o f t h e u r b a n
infrastructure development that
affect the environment in cities,
such as air the pollution, waterpollution, noise problem, etc. Thiswo r k i n g g r o u p f o c u s e d a n di nve s t i g a t e d t h e h e a t i s l a n dphenomenon which is rapidly

increasing in Japan . The heatisland phenomenon has a very
complicated mechanism so that anumerical simulation based on amathematical model is very usefulfor this investigation. So we carriedout a numerical simulation of
Hanshin district where the airtemperature is getting remarkably
high in recent years using remotesensing data. Specifically speaking,we shared the preparation of initial
data with Nakanihon Air Service,
the simulation of meso-scaleatmosphere with University of
To kyo a n d t h e h e a t b a l a n c eanalyses at the ground surface with
Kajima Cooperation. The subjects
below were investigated.
(1)Development of numericalsimulation method using dataobtained from MSS fitted to an
aircraft as a tool to predict anenvironment in cities.

(2)A difference from prediction
accuracies depended on sets ofland covering data for thep u r p o s e o f e s t a bl i s h i n gnumerical simulation method.
Under restriction of two years
period, this working group could
obtain excellent results on thesesubjects because it has beenorganized from specialists of manyf ields, such as architecture andb u i l d i n g , c iv i l e n g i n e e r i n g ,geographic information and so on,
and could carry out an analysis of
the heat island phenomenon frommany technical views.
We hope these results canc o n t r i b u t e t o d eve l o p i n g asustainable city practically and makestudies about sustainability and theinfluence on the environment ofurban infrastructures progress.

The 6th ICUS Open Lecture
The 6th ICUS open lecture was
performed at the first meeting roomof IIS in the afternoon of April 9,
2004. The title of the open lecture
was “World and Japan, Peace andDisaster Prevention”. In the open
lecture, three interesting lectures
were given from the three famous
professors, Prof. Fukuwa, Prof.
Sudo and Prof. Okada. At the endof the lecture, special session wasorganized to discuss the importanceof safety engineering with the threeprofessors and the audience (90)from many different aspects. The
lecture ended at 17:00 but the talks
continued till the end of the cocktail
party after the lecture.
The title, brief explanations andthe lecturers were as follows:

1) Prof. N. F u ku wa , N agoya
University: “Disaster Mitigation
Strategy for Local Area Based onExperience in Nagoya Area ”,- In the near future, within 50
years, one or more large
earthquakes are expected tohappen in Shizuoka andNagoya area. To deal with theearthquake, lecture was given
how the government andprivate sectors are planningand working hard to preventand mitigate disasters in thisarea.
2) Prof. K . S u d o, C T B TO
(Preparatory Commission for theComprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty Organization): “MyActivities for Safer and MorePeaceful Earth”,- Brief explanation of thelecture is given at the top of
this Newsletter. The lecture
was given by the former
director of INCEDE.
3 ) P ro f. H. Oka d a , Ho kk a i d oUniversity:“Successful
Predication for Volcanic Eruptionof Mt. Usu”,- The lecture was given how
the prediction was made at thetime of volcanic eruption of
Mt. Usu in Hokkaido.
Although the prediction was
successful due to detailed
inspection and monitoring of
the movement of the volcano,disaster may happen when theinspectors visited the site.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

page 6

Technical Delegation from France
A technical delegation from
France visited ICUS on April 21,
2004. The mission of the French
team visit to Japan was to survey
the new technologies applied tolarge projects, newly developed
construction materials, risk andmanagement methodologies now
being used in Japan.
The team consisted of 14
members including senior officers
from French Embassy, Tokyo and it
was led by Mr. Daniel TARDY of
MEDEF (Mouvement desEntreprises de France). The
delegates were mostly from

French delegation with some ICUS
staff members

Prof. Uomoto explains various
activities of ICUS to the visitors

industrial sectors.
Prof. Uomoto, Dr. Meguro and
Dr. Ooka of ICUS presented recent
works on their respective areas ofresearch related to the interests of thevisitors and showed the their ongoing research activities at the
research laboratories. The delegateswere impressed by the wide range offundamental research andcollaborative research activities
performed at ICUS.

IIS Open House
The Institute of Industrial
Science opened the facilities to the
public on June 6 and 7, 2004. Our
ICUS (International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering) also
opened the facilities and explained
our activities both in English andJapanese. The title of the open
house of ICUS was “Towards Saferand Securer Built Environment in
Mega Cities in Asia”. Total numberof participants for two days was 120.
Under the umbrella of the ICUS
title, ICUS members' research titles
were as follows:
1) Dr. Kimiro Meguro:- Development of Integrated
Information System for Total
Disaster Management -2) Prof. Taketo Uomoto:- Methodology from Inspection
and Diagnosis to Repair Methodof Concrete Structures 3) Dr. Ryuzo Ooka:- Sustainable Urban Design with
CFD Simulation - Wi n d E n e rg y U s e a n d
Diffusion of Contaminants in
Urban Area with Wind Tunnel

Experiment 4) Prof. Yoshifumi Yasuoka:- Environment Monitoring andDisaster Assessment Using
Remote Sensing 5) Dr. Yoshitaka Kato:- Development of MaintenanceManagement System for
Existing Concrete Structures -ICUS Activity Records(June 23-26).
・Prof. Uomoto visited Zurich(Switzerland), Munchen, Berlin and ・Prof. Ooka participated in theconference on “Development ofKoln of Germany for participating
Urban and Building Models forin research activities related toDensely Populated Area withconcrete engineering (June 12-20).
Minimized Environmental Load in・Prof. Yasuoka and Dr. Endo
Hot and Humid Climate” andparticipated at the 8 th MODIS
attended the annual meeting of
meeting at Bangkok, Thailand with
ASHRAE at Nashville, USA (June
GISTDA and AIT on management
26-July 2).
and utilization of MODIS data

・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand
for collaborative research at RNUS
(June 15-Aug 31).
・ Dr. Kato attended the 4 t hInternational Conference on
Concrete under Severe Conditionsat Seoul, Korea (June 28 – July 1)
and visited AIT, Thailand forcollaborative research at RNUS
(July 2- 22).

Awards・Mr. Kei OOYOSHI, a student of Prof.
Yasuoka, won the best presentation
award at a Conference of the Japan
Society of Photogrammetry andRemote Sensing in June

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

・Mr.Pakawat SANCHAROEN, a
student of Prof. Uomoto, won the
excellent presentation award at theannual meeting of Japan Cement
Association in May.

・Mr. Kazumichi SHIRASE, a
student of Prof. Uomoto, won the
excellent presentation award at
the annual meeting of Japan
Cement Association in May.

page 7

- RNUS Activities An Introduction to RNUS
Project on Urban Flood
Modeling in Mekong Basin
Since inception, the Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety(RNUS) of ICUS/AIT has initiateds ev e r a l r e s e a r c h p r o j e c t s i ncollaboration with other research
institutes or private sectors. This is
one of sponsored research projects
of RNUS by private sector, whichaims at developing a system for
urban flood inundation simulationin the Lower Mekong river basin.
The project mainly focuses on
physically based surface-rivermodeling for flood inundation
simulation.
The model is developed withthe objective of integrating it withairborne and space borne resources
and numerical weather prediction
models for designing an integrated
flood warning system. An existing
distributed
surf ace-riverhydrological model developed at
the Public Work Research Institute(PWRI) of Japan is modified andimproved for Mekong river basin.
Initially, the existing model istested in a small river basin in
Japan with historical data and then,it is modified to make it suitable
for large basin for its applicationand verif ication in the MekongRiver basin with data of someselected major flood events. The
focused area in the Mekong basin
is Cambodian floodplains of the
Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac
Rivers. After successful
application, the model will beutilized as the flood simulation
model
of
a
proposedcomprehensive flood war ningsystem for the Mekong Basin.
For further information about
this project, please contact RNUS
by e-mail (r nus@ait.ac.th) orv i s i t t h e R N U S we b s i t e(http://www.sce.ait.ac.th/rnus/).

Schematic representation of the modeling concept
networking and infor mationICUS Report 5: Proceedings ofsharing with international
3rd WSSI Internationalorganizations. Important roles
Workshop is publishedplayed by WSSI as a catalyst in
RNUS spearheaded the editing initiating several activities for
activities of the ICUS Report 5, earthquake disaster reduction inwhich was published recently. This different countries are highlighted
volume of ICUS Report contains in the country reports. The fourt h e p r o c e e d i n g s o f t h e T h i r d papers on JICA related activities
International Workshop of the introduce major projects andWorld Seismic Safety Initiative programs of JICA on international( W S S I ) o n S e i s m i c R i s k cooperation, which have been
Management for countries of the implemented in an attempt toAsia Pacific Region. WSSI is an reduce seismic risk in different
undertaking of the International countries of Asia. The last section
A s s o c i a t i o n o f E a r t h q u a k e of the proceedings includes reports
f ive
international
Engineering. The workshop was f r o mheld in Bangkok, Thailand during organizations.
December 7-8, 2003 and was
For obtaining a copy of thisattended by 52 participants from19 countries. The organizing Report, you may contact RNUS byactivities of the workshop were e-mail (rnus@ait.ac.th).
coordinated by RNUS.
The proceedings include
country reports from 12 countries,
repor ts on inter-national
cooperation of JICA and reports
from other International
Organizations. The country reports
emphasized on the earthquake risk
mitigation effor ts, strategies,
responses and assessment
measures initiated in theirrespective countries. Most of thecountry reports focused on seismic
risk management activities in thelast f ive years, scope for futurecollaborations in the region forva r i e d r e s o u r c e s a n d f u r t h e r

Cover page of ICUS Report 5

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 1

page 8
Editor’s Note
ICUS has been opening
international symposiums,
workshops, and open lectures tothe public every year, addition to
the activities required by IIS, suchas “Open House of Komaba
Campus” and “Open House of
Chiba Campus”. In this News
letter, the lecture given to us in the
open lecture by Prof. K. Sudo, theformer director of INCEDE, isintroduced. As given in the paper,
it is not an easy work to start a newactivity without any help from thepublic. Our ICUS was lucky
enough to overtake the networks offormer center “INCEDE”, andsucceeded in enlarging therelations with other organizations,
universities and industries
throughout the world.
Three years have passed since
ICUS started its activities in April,

2001. Many projects have been
performed among the staff membersof ICUS related to urban safetyengineering. Since April of 2001, 6
new staff members joined ICUS :Prof. S. Misra, Dr. T. Endo, Ms. M.
Yoshimura, Prof. T. Takahashi, Prof.
M. Setojima, and Prof. R. Amano.
But after one to two years of stay, 4
members, Dr. S. Ochi, Prof. S.
Misra, Prof. T. Takahashi and Prof.
M. Setojima have already left ICUS,
working hard during their stay in
ICUS. The secretaries of ICUS havealso changed: Ms. N. Shiuchi, Ms.
C. Murakami, Ms. V. Aravinthan,
Ms. Y. Ochi, Ms. S. Hazarika haveleft ICUS but Ms. E.Yoshimoto and
Ms. T. Fujita are taking over theirworks.
On May 5, we have a celebration
day for children in Japan. To
celebrate, large carps made of cloth
are hoisted in tall poles and let themswim in the air as shown in theInternational 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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

photograph. The carps are believed
to be live and strong fishes andpeople wish their children to growup with high spirits like carps.
Although members of ICUS arechanging year by year, we wish all
the members including former
members to support our activities
like the carps in the photograph.
Although ICUS is becoming one of
the top centers in Japan, we hope
our center to be one of the mostactive international center for urban
safety engineering throughout theworld.
(by Uomoto )Swimming carps and Mountain Fuji

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2
JULY -SEPTEMBER 2004

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

EARTHQUAKES DO NOT WAIT
LET’S CONSTRUCT A BRIDGE
BETWEEN THE RESEARCH OFFICES AND THE REAL SOCIETY
By
Nobuo FUKUWA*
Earthquake engineering experts
are greatly concerned about theoccurrence of three huge earthquakes
around the Nankai Trough, which islocated along the western coast ofJapan. These ear thquakes are
expected to shake vast regions withintensities over 6 in the Japanese
Metrological Agency scale. Whenthese earthquakes stroke in the past,
they created confusion in
the society and became
history turning point
events. The Japanese
history is closely relatedwith the occurrence of these events.
Along the Nankai Trough, three
100-year return period events, theTokai, To-Nankai and Nankai
ear thquakes, have repeatedly
occurred, either as single or combined
events. In 1707, the three eventsoccurred at once and are known as
the Hoei Earthquake. In 1854, theJMA Seismic Intensity Distribution due to Tokai+To-Nankai+Nankai Earthquakes(by The Central Bureau of Earthquake Disaster Reduction, Japan)

page 2
Tokai and To-Nankai Earthquakes
stroke simultaneously and the Nankai
Earthquake followed after 32 hours.
This event is known as the Ansei
Earthquake. The last series ofcombined events occurred in 1944
and 1946 when the To-Nankai andNankai Earthquakes occur red,respectively. Because at that time no
Tokai Earthquake occurred, this event
is highly expected and 25 years ago, ashort term prediction system wasstarted to be prepared.
The Japanese earthquake researchcommittee of the National
Government has reported on March
2004 that the probabilities ofoccurrence of the Tokai, To-Nankai,and Nankai earthquakes in the
coming 30 years are 84%, 56%, and46%, respectively. The Central
Bureau of Earthquake Disaster
Reduction estimated the damage
expected in case these threeearthquakes occurred and reported its
results in 2003 as shown in the figurein the front page. In the worst casescenario, the estimated death toll wasapproximately 30,000, the number ofcollapsed and heavily damaged
houses, 1,000,000 and the economic
loss, 100 trillion yen. Compared withthe damage caused by the 1995 Kobe
Earthquake, the estimated death toll
and the structural damage/economic
loss are five and ten times larger,
respectively. Japanese total tax
revenue in 2004 is estimated as 41.7
trillion yen. Therefore, it can be said
that Japan has a great probability oflosing the equivalent of more than
two-year tax revenue in the first halfof this centur y. Japan should
recognize this situation.
The main cause of earthquake
damage is the existing low resistant
structures. In Japan, when a newbuilding design code is enacted, it is
not retroactive, i.e. existing buildings
do not need to comply with the newcode. Because of this, there areapproximately 13 million low
earthquake resistant houses in Japan.
Retrofitting these structures is the key
issue to reduce the earthquake
damage level. A huge damaging
earthquake in Japan may have aworldwide impact.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

It has been recognized that it isvery important to promote earthquake
disaster counter measures in the areasthat will face the Tokai, To-Nankai
and Nankai Earthquakes. These
regions are wide and located inwestern Japan. Approximately 40
million people live there in 10 million
houses. If a huge earthquake strikes,
one third of the total Japanese
population will be affected and self
defense forces and firefighters areneeded to cope with in this situation,
however, the numbers of these twoorganizations are both 150,000. It isclear that there will be a shortage ofhuman resources to respond wellagainst such a disaster. In thissituation, all the population should
engage in activities of rescue, firstaid, fire fighting, and life protection
as well as on mutual assistance inside
the community. There is no otherpossible way to deal with this disastersituation. In the case that threeearthquakes strike at once, thedamaged area will extend from Kanto
to Kyushu. Against such a hugedisaster, cooperation among
prefectures is fundamental. In order
to be able to help each other, thedamage in each region should be
minimized, thus increasing thecapability of each of them to respondindependently against the disaster.
What shall we, earthquake disasterfield researchers responsible of human
lives, do against this imminentsituation? Of course, research on
highly developed technologies such asbase isolation systems, healthmonitoring, vibration control, andothers are very important. I myself am
convinced that it is much more
important to spread the use ofearthquake retrofitting methods whichhave the minimum requirements tosafeguard the human life. Even if thesemethods are not perfect but manage tosave lives, they are very meaningful. It

is necessary to retrofit all structures byminimum requirement low cost
methods which can be readily
implemented. Earthquake disaster
research has no meaning if it can not
help protect human lives.
I know that it is not easy topromote retrofitting or to make thegeneral public understand its
impor tance. Therefore, thegovernment should improve its system
to promote retrofitting. In this sense, I
believe that the most important point is
to educate the people and show themthe situation that they would be facing
if an earthquake strikes and they have
not retrof it their houses. I am
convinced that it is necessary toincrease the public awareness byorganizing activities to let the people
understand the importance ofretrofitting. It is also important to bringup a generation of people who can
car ry out these activities. We,
earthquake researchers, are the people
called to reduce the earthquake
damage in the region, and therefore
should go from our research offices tothe society by carrying out awarenesscampaigns for the general public,
especially in the areas where thenumber of specialists is insufficient.
Because the number ofearthquake experts is limited, weshould collaborate and get support
from the media to help us create abridge between the specialists and thegeneral public. The key issues are theeducation of elementary, junior andhigh school teachers, voluntaries inthe disaster mitigation field, and mass
media people. The author and othersuppor ting members star ted
establishing various cooperation
systems among the public as shownin the figure below, as well as humanresource education system, colleges
for the training of disaster mitigation
leaders, and development of disasterCooperative activities at a regional levelpage 3
researchers can analyze it. We haveestablished satelite information
networks and TV conference systems
by which we can communicate withdifferent municipalities. With thissystem, the university can play a keyrole as a regional disaster responseorganization. I am currently developinga very economic seismometer, with acost of less than 100,000 yen/unit, andam aiming at installing it in allelementary school and businessbuildings in order to observe thevibration of these structures.
Educational activities using portable equipments to demonstrate thepublic the dynamic behavior of structures and the benefits of retrofitting.
mitigation education at elementary gather information related to groundschool. Useful tools for this purpose motion observations and building
are education materials such as damage. An appropriate disaster
portable dynamic structure behavior information system is therefore
simulators. The figure above shows required. The figure below shows thethree models produced by the author. earthquake disaster information system
These equipments are manually or recently developed at Nagoya
electrically motored and have a great University, where the author works.
impact on the public.
Cameras and seismometers are
installed at various locations in the
The university, where earthquake Nagoya University campus anddisaster experts are working, may be national universities around it. Throughregarded as a very important regional this system, photographs and strong
base for proper preparation and ground motion records can widely be
response in case of an earthquake. In a sent in real time. This information isdisaster situation, the university can displayed in multiple screens and many

If the general public is given theopportunity to seriously consider anearthquake and a disaster situation, it
may become possible to guide them totake proper disaster reduction
countermeasures. We, earthquake
disaster researchers, have many things
to do now. We are expected to takeinitiatives beyond our conventional
action boundaries.
*Professor, Environmental and
Safety Management,
Graduate School ofEnvironmental Studies,
Nagoya University

Earthquake disaster information system at Nagoya University. This system combines cameras and seismometers
to monitor the disaster situation in real-time at Nagoya University and surroundings.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

page 4

Reports Published by the Research Committee RC-39“Research on Sustainable Engineering for Urban Safety”(2)The Research Committee on Sustainable Engineering for Urban Safety (RC-39) established by the ICUS, has beenworking since April, 2002. Besides the members of the faculty of the Center, the committee comprises of 16 privatecompanies and research organizations.Reports written by the 5 working groups(WG) were published in March, 2004 in
Japanese. Research topic and the name of secretary of each WG are listed below. Following the last volume, ICUS Newslettervol.4-1, brief explanation of WG4 and WG5 are given in this volume.
WG1: Methods to handle aging infrastructure (Secretary: Mr. Kenji SHIBA, Shimizu Corporation)
WG2: Global environment (Secretary: Mr. Hidenobu NAKAI, The Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.)
WG3: Study on heat islands in urban environments (Secretary: Mr.Haruhido TSUBAKI, Kajima Corporation)
WG4: Disaster prevention and response (Secretary: Mr. Seiichiro FUKUSHIMA, Tokyo Electric Power Services Co., Ltd.)WG5: Developments in sensing technology and its applications (Secretary: Mr. Yukio AKAMATSU, Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.)

WG4: Disaster prevention
and response
Among the various risks we areexposed to, those of the current
concern are natural hazard disasterand terrorism. Since these two risks
are categorized into pure risk andunavoidable risk, it is very importantto accept these risks adequately andto construct countermeasures in themanner of disaster mitigation. In thisresearch, two model risks; one is theterrorist attack to SHINKANSEN,
the Japanese bullet train, and theother is the ear thquake, were
examined.
Before examining the terrorist
attack, the differences in themechanisms of terrorism risk andearthquake risk were identified, inorder to make the characteristics ofthe former clear in some aspects,
such as a def inition of risk,
backg round of occur rence,
consequences, methodology forquantifying risk, countermeasures,and so on. It was found that thelargest difference is the possibility tocontrol the risk. Based on theknowledge obtained, the scenario ofterrorist attack to SHINKANSEN
was constructed. Through thisexamination, vulnerable area andparts were illustrated, followed by theconcrete countermeasures for them.
For earthquake disaster reduction,although the most important andeffective measure is the retrofitting ofexisting low earthquake-resistantbuildings, the progress of retrofitting

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

program is still very slow. In thisstudy, the business model for
promoting the retrof itting was
proposed to overcome this situation.
Employing the model case withrealistic retrofitting cost, insurance
fee, effect of retrofitting on seismic
risk and so on, the effectiveness andfeasibility of the proposed businessmodel were demonstrated from theview point of total cost within thebusiness period.
A forum for the terrorism risk
was held and a technical paper titled“business model for promotion ofretrofitting existing low earthquakeresistant structures” was publishedduring the period of this research.
WG5: Developments in sensing
technology and its applications
It is necessary to monitor thepresent status and change of urban
infrastructure in order to maintain asustainable urban development.
However, there is yet to have any
systematic methodology for urban
infrastr ucture has not beensystematized enough yet, as theconcept of monitoring methodology
for a sustainable urban development
is new and the monitoring
methodologies are not well
examined.
The WG5, consisted of
specialists in the fields of monitoring
and application, has made a setof guidelines of monitoring
methodologies for sustainable urban

development through examinationand organization of materials in orderof importance for sustainability.
The guidelines consist of six
topics for monitoring methodology infour major application fields, suchas, aged infrastructure, disaster,
global environment, and urban
environment. The themes of six
topics are as follows;・interior damage to an aged
infrastructure
・reduction of man-made disaster・assessment of low-seismic
resistant building・assessment of heat island
・extraction of 3D urban structures
towards reduction of CO 2
emission・dream-inspiring monitoring
methodology for future
These guidelines consider not
only practically methodologies for asustainable urban development but
also new techniques and concepts
such as network with ultra small
s e n s r d ev i c e s , m o n i t o r i n gmethodology from the sky andcounterterrorism. It is a challenging
task to develop useful guidelines forsustainable urban development thatare multi-dimensional and multidisciplinary in nature. Although, ourexe r c i s e f o r t h e g u i d e l i n edevelopment is yet to achieve thefinal goal, we believe the concept
and the monitoring methodologythat are proposed by this group will
be useful for a sustainable urban
development in the future.

page 5Computational System for Evaluating the Oil Tank Sloshing
Risk due to Earthquake
Dr. Naoto Ohbo, Kajima
Corporation, was invited by Prof.
Amano to give a lecture to ICUS
members on computational systemfor evaluating the oil tank sloshingrisk due to earthquake on September
21, 2004.
The natural period of a liquid
retaining tank depends on the tankdiameter and the liquid depth.
Sloshing excitation is determined by
the power of the seismic groundmotion in this period.
The sloshing evaluation system,
which is installed in the oil tank base,uses real-time ear thquake
information, such as the event
location and magnitude determinedusing the ground motions recorded atstations close to the source, and the
local site conditions at the tank site to

Sloshing wave height in all tanks estimated by the proposed systemquickly estimate the expected groundmotion at the tank. With thisinformation, the tank diameter andthe liquid depth, the sloshing wave
height is rapidly estimated. Thisinitial estimation is recalculated andupdated when the “real” earthquake
motion reaches the tank base. The
figure above shows one example ofthe system output for a particular
earthquake ground motion and liquid
level.
In addition, the system evaluates
the damage probability based on therelation between the heights of thesloshing wave and tank, and delivers
this information to the manager.

The 7th ICUS Open Lecture
The 7th ICUS Open Lecture
wa s p e r fo r m e d a t I I S i n t h eafternoon of September 29,2004.
The title of the open lecture was“Prediction and Countermeasuresof Global Disaster in Asia”. About
200 audiences attended the meetingand interacted with the presenters.
In the open lecture, very
interesting and informative lectures
were given from the four famous
researchers, Profs. Kimoto, Takara,
and Mrs. awatsu and Kawamura.
The titles and lecturers were as
follows:1 ) P ro f. M a s a h i d e K i m o t o,Professor, Center for Climate
System Research, University ofTokyo:“Global Climate Variability
and Its Prediction”
2) Prof. Kaoru Takara, Professor,
Division of Fluvial and Marine
Disasters, Disaster Prevention
R e s e a rch I n s t i t u t e, Ky o t oUniversity:“Global Monitoring andCountermeasures
Against Storms and WaterRelated Disasters”
3) Mr. Takuyuki Kawazu, Senior
A s s i s t a n t fo r D i s a s t e rPrevention, Planning Division
Administration Department,
Japan Meteorological Agency:“International Network forOpen Lecture lively discussion

Monitoring the Seismic andVolcanic Activities”
4) Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura, Director,
Department
ofSocialRehabilitation Research Institute,
National Rehabilitation Center
for Persons with Disabilities:“Persons with Disabilities
and Old People as Active
P l a y e rs o f D i s a s t e r
Preparedness”
Finally, Prof. Taketo Uomoto of
ICUS made the concluding
remarks on this Open Lectureand expresses gratitude to theparticipants. Details of this Open
Lecture will be reported in thenext ICUS News Letter.

Lecture by Prof. M. Kimoto

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

page 6

ICUS New Staff
During this Newsletter Volume period, ICUS welcomes two new staff, Mr.Shogo HAYASHI and Dr. Jun-ichi
Susaki as a visiting Professor and an Assistant Professor, respectively. Mr.HAYASHI joined ICUS in July and
Dr.Susaki did in August. Here we present their self-introduction for our network members and readers.
I joined the ICUS as a VisitingP r o f e s s o r o n J u ly 1 , 2 0 0 4 . I
graduated from the Faculty of Law,
the University of Tokyo in 1970
and entered the Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications,former Ministry of Home Affairs.
Since then, I have been working asa specialist of law system for
taxation and public finance. I am
currently the Head of the Fire andDisaster Management Agency of
the above mentioned ministry of
the Japanese Government.
I b e l i ev e t h a t i n b o t h t h eacademic and administrative fields,
we have a strong specialization and

I received the Dr. Eng. degree incivil engineering in 2000 from the
University of Tokyo. I worked as an
Assistant Professor at the
Depar tment of Environmental
Information, Faculty of Informatics,
Tokyo University of Information
Science, till joining ICUS. My
current major research interests
include development of large-scale
vegetation monitoring systems using
satellite data based on data fusion
techniques.
In recent years, there have beenc o n c e n t r a t e d e ff o r t s t owa r d s
conservation of global environment
and importance of global

m o n i t o r i n g h a s b e e n w i d e lyr e c og n i z e d f o r t h a t p u r p o s e .
Meaningful global monitoring
requires stability and continuity in

Mr. Shogo HAYASHI

Dr. Jun-ichi SUSAKI

work independently in each field.
This causes a low efficiency andgenerates various problems. It istime to change our current style tointegrate isolated fields of expertisein order to effectively contribute toachieve our final goal of “humanhappiness, safety and security”.
As an ICUS member, I would
like to share experiences andexchange information with ICUS
network members in the world. I
am looking forward to getting new
ideas and developing a human
network.
order to analyze from the long-termv i ew p o i n t . T h e I n s t i t u t e o f
Industrial Science (IIS) of the
University of Tokyo, a leading
institute of remote sensing in Japan,
has been playing active role inr e c e iv i n g , p r o c e s s i n g a n d
distributing remotely sensed data.
On the other hand, urban safety is
one of the most pressing issues inJapan, and the techniques andstrategies to prevent and control
disasters are highly expected. As amember of IIS and ICUS, I shall put
efforts to contribute to such urban
safety issues as an expert of remotesensing.

ICUS Activity Records
・Prof. Uomoto attended the “4th ・Prof. Yasuoka attended the “XXthI n t e r n a t i o n a l S o c i e t y fo r
International Conference on
Photogrammetry and Remote
Advanced Composite Materials in
Sensing” at Turkey, Istanbul
Bridges and Structures”, at(July16-23).
Calgary, Canada (July20-24) andthe “3rd Civil Engineering ・Prof. Meguro and Ms. Yoshimuraa t t e n d e d t h e “ 1 3 t h Wo rl d
Conference in the Asian Region”
C o n fe re n c e o n E a r t h q u a k e
at Seoul, Korea (Aug.16-20), andEngineering” at Vancouver,“the International Conference on
Canada (Aug. 1-8).
ISO/TC71- Concrete, Reinforced
C o n c re t e a n d P re - s t re s s e d ・Prof. Ooka attended the “5thC o n fe re n c e o n t h e U r b a n
Concrete” at Istanbul, Turkey
E nv i ro n m e n t ” a t N a s h v i l l e ,(Sep. 19-24) .

Vancouver, Canada (Aug. 21-28).
・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand
for collaborative research at
RNUS (June 15-Aug 31).
・Dr. Kato visited AIT, Thailand forcollaborative research at RNUS
(July 2- 23).
・Dr. Susaki participated in the“ M e e t i n g o n O p e ra t i o n o f
MODIS Receiving Station andResearch using MODIS data” at
Bangkok, Thailand (Aug15-17).

Awards・Mr. Atsushi ONEZAWA and Mr.
Naoki TAKESHITA, students of
D r. Kato, won the excellent
presentation awards at the Annual

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

Conference of Japan Society of
Civil Engineers in September.
・Mr. Shinya Kondo, student ofProf. Meguro, won the excellent

p re s e n t a t i o n a wa rd s a t t h e
Annual Conference of Japan
Society of Civil Engineers in
September.

page 7

- RNUS Activities RNUS proposal was selected for
APN funding

their decision-making in climatechange and water and food security.

The Regional Network Officefor Urban Safety (RNUS) of
ICUS/AIT receives an award fromthe Asian Pacif ic Network on
Global Change (APN) to conduct a
research project titled "AnAssessment of the Socio-economic
Impacts of Floods under Climate
Change Conditions in Large Coastal
Cities in South and South-east
Asia". The APN was established asa regional research network thatwould focus on broadening globalchange research, providing support
for multi-disciplinary research andeducation and encouraging thedevelopment of sound science that
underpins national and international
policy-making needs in the AsiaPacific region. The award received
by RNUS is under the CAPaBLE
programme of APN, which is aconcrete initiative to realize parts
110 to 114 of the Johannesburg Planof Implementation for the World
Summiton
S u s t a i n a bl e
Development (WSSD) and has beenregistered as a WSSD Type II
Partnership Initiative to develop andenhance scientif ic capacity indeveloping countries to improve

The RNUS project focuses onunderstanding the flooding
characteristics under projectedclimatic and socio-economic
scenarios. It will integrate andanalyze existing data, information
and results and use existing tools for
simulating the flood behavior andimpacts. The project scope islimited to selected low-lying large
cities of the participating countries:
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. One
city from each country is identified
based on their representativeness forthe study. The research also focuseson identifying critical gaps in
information and policy and a set ofrecommendations will be made forbetter decision making to improve
the livelihood of the local people.
The figure shows the locations of
the six cities of South and Southeast Asia selected for conducting
case studies in the project.
Participation of RNUS in
GISIDEAS 2004 in Vietnam

Symposium on GeoInformatics for
Spatial-Infrastructure Developmentin Earth & Allied Sciences(GISIDEAS 2004), which was heldin Hanoi, Vietnam during 16-18
September 2004. The symposium
was organized by the Japan-Vietnam
Geoinformatics Consortium and themain theme was Geoinformatics
applications for monitoring,predicting, managing and mitigationof natural disasters. RNUS
Coordinator Dr. D. Dutta was amember of the Steering Committeeof the Symposium and heparticipated in the symposium topresent two technical papers titled"Development of Urban Building
Inventory for Bangkok using Very
High-Resolution Remote Sensing
Data for Disaster Risk Analysis"and "Impact of Urbanization in
Flow Characteristics in an Urban
River Basin in Japan using a GIS
Based Distributed HydrologicalModel", which were the outcomesof research works conducted at
RNUS. For further information
about GISIDEAS 2004, please visit
thef o l l ow i n g
we b s i t e ;http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/
gisideas04/.

RNUS joined the list of the
supporters of the International

The cities of South and South-east Asia selected for case studies

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 2

page 8
Editor’s Note
Japan has been facing a very
seismically active period. As
presented by Prof. Fukuwa, in themain article of this volume, we will
have the Tokai, To-nankai, andNankai earthquakes with M8 or
more, along the Nankai-Troughwithin 30 to 40 years. In northern
Japan, a M7.5 to 8 event, the Miyagiken-Oki earthquake, will attack withvery high probability, 85% and 99%
within 20 and 30 years, respectively.
Besides these huge earthquakes, thenumber of the events of M7 class,same as the 1995 Kobe earthquake,
which will occur before and after
huge earthquakes, is several times
larger than that of M8 events. The
total damage due to the 1923 Kanto
earthquake was over 40% of total
GDP of Japan at that time. The total
damage due to above mentioned
events will be larger than that. The
number of collapsed/heavily

damaged and moderately damaged
structures will be over one million andapproximately two million,
respectively.
The most important issue forearthquake damage reduction isretrofitting the existing low earthquake
resistant structures. There are threemeasures for total disastermanagement,
Mitigation,
Preparedness and Disaster Response,and Recovery and Reconstruction
Strategy. Although we can improve ourdisaster reduction capacity by wellbalancing these three measures, themost important measure among themis Mitigation which makes an effort toprevent the Hazard, a physicalphenomenon, to become a disaster, anegative impact to the society, by
taking optimal measures beforehand.
Even with a very good disaster
response system and optimum
recovery and reconstruction strategy, if
your structures are not strong enough,you can reduce neither the number ofInternational 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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineeringdamaged structures nor the casualties
that their collapse will cause.
Based on this understanding point,
we have been studying technicalmethods and social systems toincrease the seismic capacity ofexisting low earthquake resistant
structures in developed anddeveloping countries. For developed
countries, incentive systems forpromotion of retrofitting and fordeveloping countries, very low costand efficient retrofitting methods, areproposed. By our proposed new
incentive system, the total damage canbe drastically decreased and thus, thecost burden to both government andcitizens, reduced. By our economicaland efficient retrofitting method,
typical adobe and/or masonry houses
can be retrofitted by approximately
US$100. I hope that using these study
results, an earthquake safer
environment can be realized.
(K. Meguro)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 3
OCTOBER -DECEMBER 2004

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS OF PERSONSWITH DISABILITIES
By
Hiroshi KAWAMURA*The United Nations World
Conference on Disaster Reduction(WCDR) held in Kobe in January2005 gave me most impor tantf i n d i n g s r eg a r d i n g d i s a s t e r
preparedness for persons withdisabilities as follows:a. Tsunami Disasters on 26th
December 2004 could havebeen significantly reduced if ane a r ly wa r n i n g s y s t e m a n d
Tsunami preparedness were
well developed. As soon as theearthquake happened, experts
knew the magnitude of thepotential disaster caused by theT s u n a m i b u t t h e r e wa s n osystem to disseminate thecritical information in time andi n a n a c c e s s i bl e a n dunderstandable form.
b. Although detailed statistics onvictims is not yet available,
children and foreign travelersa r e b e l i ev e d t o b e a m o n g
v u l n e r a bl e k i l l e d by t h e
Tsunami incident in addition to
old people and persons withdisabilities.
c. There are best practices on
Tsunamipreparedness
developed by many coastal local
governments in Japan. However,Lecture delivered by Dr. Kawamura(ICUS Open Lecture, Sep. 29, 2004)

the Tsunami preparedness for
persons with disabilities andthose from foreign countries isstill to be developed.
d. Japan Autism Societys u c c e s s f u l ly
heldaninternational symposium on
disaster preparedness of persons
with Autism Spectrum
Disorders (ASD) in association
with the WCDR to identify the
special needs of persons withASD.
e . Wo r l d M e t e o r o l og i c a l
O rg a n i z a t i o n(WMO)
successfully held the Thematic
Session on Disaster Reductionof the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) in
the framework of WCDR to
identify the key role of theInformation
andCommunication Technologies(ICT) development.
We r e c og n i z e t h e c r i t i c a limportanceofdisaster
preparedness of all levels including
personal knowledge and training
level. The outcome of WCDR was
not just for immediate response orreconstruction but also for longterm disaster reduction andp r e p a r e d n e s s . T h e l e s s o n we

page 2learned from the Tsunami incident
must boost the development ofinternational collaboration forearly warning, response, disaster
reduction and preparedness
development.
The key lesson of the Tsunami
incident was the development ofunderstanding on disasters such as
imagination of each disasterincluding evacuation routing.
Of course each individual has
individual requirements. If wedevelop our imagination well, we
will be able to identify somespecial needs such as;a. If you are challenged by visual
impairments and/or hearing
impairments, how do you know
the early war ning andevacuation route?
b. If you are challenged by motor
disability, how do you get
assistance to evacuate?
c. If you have cognitive/intellectual
disability to understand thewarning, how do you develop
your capacity of understanding

and respond?
d. If you are on a beech in foreigncountry without knowledge ofthe local language, how do you
cope with early warning?
The key role of ICTdevelopment is obvious when we
identify special needs ofindividuals and try to meet thoserequirements. In this context,
forthcoming WSIS Tunis Summit
to be held in November 2005, inparticular its 10 Years Plan of
Action to be decided will be ofcritical importance to implement
necessary accessibility built into
the system for early warning andevacuation.
In conclusion, I believe that
persons with disabilities and others
so called vulnerable people interms of disasters are potential
active role models to identify
individual requirement that needs
to be met by disaster reduction
activities including development of
preparedness.

Presentation in Global Forum on
Disabilities in the Information
Society(Mr.YAMANE)*Director,
Department of Social
Rehabilitation
National Rehabilitation
Center for Persons with
Disabilities(NRCD)

Suggestions for Accessible Disaster Preparedness Information
Delivery:a. Internet
b. TV/Radio analog/
digital broadcastingc. Mobile phone
d. Public information displays suchas Kiosk and ad-board
e. Streaming mechanism withadaptable bit rates and formats
f. Portal service with distancelearning support
Language:
a. Multilingual capabilityb. Alternate text presentations incorresponding languages
c. in simplified languages; such as“easy to read”
d. in Braille/finger Braillee. in sign language/tactile sign language
f. Pictograms
Visual expressions:a. Visual signs and landmarks
b. Alternative visual expressions
for text contentsc. Geo-spatial awareness on way
finding support

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

Tactile expression/Vibration:
a. Vibration standards
b. Tactile indicator for exit,
entrance, etc.

Interactivity:
a. Role playing game capability
b. Simulations and training

Audio expression:a. 3D audio has potential to identify
the way for evacuationb. All textual presentation need to
be associated with audio output
c. Alternative audio description
d. Ubiquitous system in association
with audio guidancee. Alarm sound andmessage construction

Easy straight forward media
capturing/editing process:a. Semi-automatic capturing support
b. Capacity to start with one shot
project
c. Capacity to combine multiple
projects
d. Templates support

User interface for manipulationof devices:a. Single key/simple switch action
supportb. Voice command/recognitionc. Refreshable Braille support
d. Touch panele. Automatic turn on when alarming
comes
f. Gesture recognition commands
g.Automatic optimization for
individuals/locations

Others:a. Olfactoryb. Puppets
c. Avatarpage 3

ICUS & IITK Organized Third International Symposium
on Urban Safety in Agra, India

October 18

Speech given by Prof. Dhande, Director of IITKanpur
Bangalore and formerly Director,
CBRI, Roorkee, delivered Keynote
CONTENTS
address in the inaugural session.
Plenary sessions
About 150 delegates from India
a n d 3 6 d e l eg a t e s f r o m o t h e r ・From Ground Shocks to Air Blasts-Multiple-Hazard
Protections
c o u n t r i e s p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e ・Optimal Improvement of Storm Sewer System for Inner
Bangkoks y m p o s i u m , wh e r e a b o u t 6 0 ・Recent
Advances in Assessment Technology oftechnical papers were presented in
Infrastructures in Korea
Resistance of FRP-Concrete Sandwich Panels
the oral and poster sessions. The ・Impact
・Surface Climatic Impacts of Urbanization in the Ho Chi
Minh City, Vietnam: An Integrated Study with Remotepapers have been printed in theSensing and Modeling
Proceedings of the symposium both ・Durability
Design for Concrete Structures for Urban
Safety in Thailand
in the form of a book and a CD・Vulnerability Assessment of Existing Engineered androm.
Non Engineered Structures of Dhaka City using RVS
and NDT Techniques
Based on the deliberations, aresolution calling for g reater
Parallel sessions
cooperation
among
the
to Masonry Buildings in Dien Bien Phu
professionals and organizations in ・Damage
Earthquake
the region was adopted in the ・New Concept for Retrofitting Concrete Structures with
Unconventional Materials
closing session. ICUS and IIT ・Hydraulics Computations to Study Flood Control for
Hanoi City
K a n p u r a l s o s i g n e d a n ・Urban
Building Inventory from VHR Remote Sensing
Memorandum of Understanding for
Imagery for Earthquake Risk Analysis in Bangkok
closer cooperation in researcha c t iv i t i e s i n a r e a s o f m u t u a l
SCHEDCULE OF SESSIONS(*)
interest.
by Dr. Sudhir MISRA Date Time Session
09:00 -10:30 Inaugural session
Associate Professor
11:00 -13:15 Plenary session I
Department of Civil Engineering
14:30 -16:15 Plenary session II
IITKanpur

October 19

The International Center for
Urban-Safety Engineering, Instituteof Industrial Science, University ofTokyo and the Department of Civil
Engineering, Indian Institute of
Te c h n o l og y, K a n p u r, I n d i a ,organized the Third International
Symposium on New Technologies
for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in
Asia at Agra on October 18-19,
2 0 0 4 . S ev e r a l n a t i o n a l a n dinternational professional andgovernment organizations also
supported the symposium
financially and otherwise.
The symposium sought to bring
together experts in areas of design,
construction and maintenance ofurban infrastructure and thoseengaged in development of new
tools that could be used for better
asset management. It also provided
a for um for decision makers,
practicing professionals andresearchers to share their expertisei n d iv e r s e a r e a s s u c h a s
infrastructure planning anddevelopment, application of newt e c h n o l og y, n o n d e s t r u c t iv e
eva l u a t i o n o f s t r u c t u r e s a n drehabilitation methods.
Professor SG Dhande, Director,
IIT Kanpur chaired the inauguralsession along with Professor
Yoshifumi Yasuoka, former Deputy
Director-General of the Institute ofIndustrial Science, University ofTokyo. Prof Mahesh Tandon,
President of the Indian Concrete
Institute, and leading structural
consultant of Delhi was the Chief
Guest and Professor R N Iyengar of
Indian Institute of Sciences,

Opening ceremony of the Symposium

16:30 to18:00

Plenary session III

09:00 to
10:45

Parallel session A
Rehabilitation of
Structures

11:00 to
12:45

Parallel session C Parallel session D
Planning andStructuralEngineering and Monitoring of
Infrastructure
Seismic
Performance

14:00 to16:00

Plenary session IV

16:00 to
16:30

Closing session

Parallel session B
Remote Sensing
and GIS* Papers in the poster session were on display throughout
the duration of the symposium

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

page 4

Central Part of Niigata Prefecture
was Striken by M 6.8 Earthquake on October 23, 2004
On October 23, 2004, at 17:56,
a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, with a
focal depth of 13 km, stroke thecentral part of Niigata Prefecture.
This earthquake was the first eventin which the derailment of a bullet
train was observed since they
entered service in 1964.
Fortunately, this service line is notvery congested and at the time ofthe earthquake only one of thelanes, the one bound for Niigata,
was being used. As a result, no fatal
victims were reported.
Due to this earthquake, strong
ground motions with Japanese
Meteorological Agency (JMA)
Intensity 7, which corresponds tothe highest intensity in this scale,were observed. This is the first timesince the JMA changed its
def inition, from a humanperception based definition to an
instrumental observation based one.
Peak ground accelerations up to 1.7
g and peak ground velocities up to
133 kines were observed. These
values are much higher than thoseof the ground motion during the
1995 Kobe Earthquake. Based onearthquake response spectrum
anaysis, in the short period range
from 0 to 1.0 sec, the response
acceleration was over 6,000 Gals.
Because of this earthquake, 40
people were killed, 9 of them due tostr uctural collapse. The othervictims died for other reasons suchas shock, exhaustion, stress, and theeconomy class syndrome. The latter
was caused by the long periods thatthe residents had to sleep in theircars, in uncomfortable positions,because of the insecurity of theirhouses and their fear due to thehuge number of aftershocks. The
number of people injured was
4,500, whereas the number ofcollapsed, moderately damaged, andslightly damage houses were 2,800,
10,600, and 88,500, respectively.
One of the most importantcharacteristics of this earthquake ist h e h u g e n u m b e r o f l a rg e
aftershocks. Another major
characteristic is that it occurred in a
mountainous area which was hit byheavy rainfalls and typhoons justprior to the earthquake occurrence.
These previous events saturated andloosen the soil, and therefore whenthe earthquake stroke the mountains l o p e s wh e r e p a r t i c u l a r ly
vulnerable. For this reason, thegeotechnical related damage waswidespread and much moreconsiderable than the structural
damage.
Due to the severe winter andhuge snow fall that is common inthis area, houses are built withsmall openings, to keep them warm
and robust foundations andTypical buildings in the affected
area, an old damaged (upper) anda new intact (bottom)

The bullet train derailed for the first time since it started operations in 1964

Distribution of JMA Intensities at the earthquake hit area
during the main shock on October 23, 2004, 5:56PM

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

structural elements to resist thes n ow we i g h t . T h e s e f e a t u r e s
increase the overall structural
strength and thus it is not surprise
to observe that most of the collapse
houses were either old or presented
soft stories in the 1st floor wereopen space, such as parking or shop
is allocated.
(by K. Meguro)

Bullet train viaduct pillars exhibited concrete spallingat the sections where longitudinal rebars were cut

page 5

ICUS Members Joined Regular Maintenance of The Disaster
Mitigation Facilities at Metropolitan Expressway Tunnels
Fo l l ow i n g t h e t r a g i c f i r e
accident of the Nihonzaka Tunnel
in 1979, great efforts to improveroad tunnel safety have been
made in Japan. During November
2004, Mr. Takafumi Takahashi,
the executive director of The
Metropolitan Expressway Public
Corporation (MEPC) and ICUS
former visiting Professora r r a n g e d t wo f i e l d t r i p s t oobserve the disaster mitigation
facilities of MEPC tunnels and toattend their regular examination.
The MEPC has a total length ofa p p r ox i m a t e ly 2 8 3 . 3 k m a n dcarries around 28% of the arterial
vehicular traff ic in the Tokyo
Metropolitan area.
Several ICUS members joined
the visits to Asukayama andKasumigaseki Tunnels. The fieldvisit started at the tunnel disastermanagement office, where all thefacilities inside the tunnels arer e m o t e ly m o n i t o r e d . A b r i e fexpansion of the disastermitigation and emergency
facilities was presented. Inside
the tunnels, these facilities wereobserved as well as maintenance
operation of f ire-hydrant andsprinkler systems.
(by S. Elkholy)

Examination of performance of foam fire-hydrant
by Prof. Meguro

Verification of water sprinkler system

Open Campus of IIS Chiba Experiment Station

Children looking at exhibition

The Institute of Industrial
Science (IIS) of the University ofTokyo organized an open house at its
Chiba Experiment Station on
N ov e m b e r 1 2 , 2 0 0 4 . I C U S
participated in this event andpresented its research activities tothe visiting students from the Yayoi
elementary school. At the Uomotolaboratory section of the ICUS
presentation, Mr. Hoshino and Mr.
Nishimura, the technical assistantsof the Uomoto laboratory, guided

and explained the research works tothe students. After the explanation,t h e s t u d e n t s we re g i v e n a nopportunity to make models using
their hands from cement paste castin bread dough. Students were highly
impressed by this experience andthat were reflected in their letters
written to the institute. We hope thatt h e s t u d e n t s ga i n e d go o dimpressions and knowledge about
concrete technology.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

page 6

ICUS Signed MOU with IIT Kanpur
On October 22, 2004, ICUS
signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) with theIndian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur (IITK) to collaborate inresearch and other academic activities,
in the f ields of Urban Safety
Engineering. One of several categoriesof the academic exchange andcooperation is “Organizing academic
meetings, symposia and workshops”.

ICUS held the Third International
Symposium on "New Technologies
for Urban Safety of Mega Cities inAsia" jointly with IITK at Agra, India(Oct. 18-19) as a part of that.
A team from the ICUS visited IIT
Kanpur, India on Oct.22 after the
symposium at Agra, and discussed
possibilities of closer understanding
and joint research between the two
institutes.

ICUS Renewed Contract of RNUS with AITICUS recently renewed its
collaboration with the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT), Thailand on
the operation of the Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety(RNUS). RNUS was established at
AIT in October 2002 towards
strengthening its researchcollaboration in South and South-east
Asia. With the successful progress ofcollaborative activities at RNUS in
the last two years, ICUS signed anagreement with AIT in October 2004
to foster the collaboration for anotherthree years. Signed on 22 October
2004 by Prof. Taketo Uomoto, ICUS
Director and Prof. Jean-Louis

Armand, AIT President and, through
RNUS, SCE and ICUS cooperate inpromoting urban safety engineering
utilizing advanced engineering
technologies. The signing ceremony
was witnessed by ICUS faculty
members, Prof. Reiko Amano, Dr.
Kimiro Meguro, and Dr. Junichi
Susaki.
RNUS’ activities revolve aroundurban disaster mitigation,
infrastructure maintenance andenvironmental monitoring. Since its
inception in October 2002, RNUS has
initiated several collaborative research
projects in the areas of healthmonitoring of urban infrastructure,utilization of very high resolution
remote sensing for urban inventory
and catastrophic disaster risk
management in Bangkok as well as
the socio-economic impacts of coastal
floods in South and South-east Asia
under climate change conditions.

ICUS Activity Records
Fourth International Asia-Pacific・All ICUS members participated in
Environmental Remote Sensing
the Third International Symposium
Symposium” at Honolulu, Hawaii
on "New Technologies for Urban(Nov.8-13) and the “25th Asian
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia" atConference on Remote Sensing” atAgra, India (Oct15-20).
Chiang Mai, Thailand (Nov21-26)
・Profs. Uomoto, Amano, andwith Dr. Endo.
Meguro visited AIT, Thailand forcollaborative research at RNUS, AIT ・Prof. Meguro attended WSSI meetingat Nanyang University, Singapore(Oct.22-23).
(Dec.5-8).
・Prof. Uomoto attended the “FirstInternational Conference of Asian ・Prof. Ooka visited RNUS, AIT to givea seminar (Nov. 21) and attended theConcrete Federation” at Chiang“Celebration of the 60th Anniversary
Mai, Thailand (Oct.27-31) with Dr.
of the Department of Architecture ofKato, and the “Event of
the National Cheng Kung
International
Activities,
University”, Taiwan. (Nov. 22-25).
CICHE2004 (Selected for JointSeminar Speakers)” at Kaohsiung, ・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand forcollaborative research at RNUS
Taiwan (Dec.1-3).
(Sep.7-Dec.31). During this period,・Prof. Yasuoka attended the “SPIEhe attended the “International
Conference on Advances inIntegrated Mekong RiverManagement”, Vientiane, Lao (Oct.
24-28) and the “International
Conference on Sustainable Water
Resources Management inChanging Environment of the
Monsoon”, Colombo, Sri Lanka(Nov. 17-19).
・Dr. Susaki participated in the“Meeting on Operation of MODIS
Receiving Station and Researchusing MODIS data” at Bangkok,
Thailand (Aug15-17), and the “25thAsian Conference on Remote
Sensing” at Chiang Mai, Thailand(Nov.22-27).

Visitors to ICUS
Some of the international visitors to
ICUS during the period of
October-zDecember 2004 arelisted below.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

・P ro f s . Yu a n x i a n G u , Ya n g
Haitian and Gengdong Cheng,
Dalian University of Technology,
China (Oct. 28).

・Prof. Chongrak Ploprasert, Asian
Institute of Technology, Thailand(Nov. 5).

page 7

- RNUS Activities Workshop on urban safety lessons
from Japan
Over half of the world’s populationis concentrated in urban areas covering
just 4% of the world’s surface. Mega
cities in particular are characterized bya high population density andtremendous pressure on supporting
infrastructure. It is estimated that by2015, Asia will be host to more than
50% of the mega cities in the world. A
phenomenal growth in the number ofhigh-rise buildings and otherinfrastructure in these cities is clearly
foreseen, though a balance is often notensured with measures for theirmaintenance. Safety of infrastructure
is foremost important for sustainableurbanization and economic
development in Asia. RNUS
organized a workshop on “Urban
Safety for Sustainable Urbanization:
From Experiences of Japan” at AIT on
22 October 2004 by inviting threeprominent academicians; Prof. Taketo
Uomoto, Prof. Reiko Amano and Prof.
Kimiro Meguro of ICUS, theUniversity of Tokyo, Japan to talk on
how urban safety issues are addressedin highly urbanized Japanese cities.
Various issues related to durability ofurban infrastructure with proper safetymeasures including measures against
disasters like earthquake and fires withthe conventional and new technologies
were addressed by the speakers. Prof.
Taketo Uomoto talked on
Maintenance and management ofurban infrastructure in Japan todecrease risk of injury to public. Prof.
Reiko Amano talked on “Water Screen
Fire Disaster Prevention System in
Underground Space”. Prof. Prof.
Kimiro Meguro presented about the
Universal Disaster Simulator towards

A snapshot from the workshop venue
earthquake disaster mitigation in
Japanese cities. The workshop,
coordinated by Dr. Pennung
Warnitchai of RNUS, was wellattended by over 65 participants from
AIT and various gover nment
institutions and private organizations
from Bangkok.
RNUS receives research grantfrom UNU
In July 2004, RNUS received a
research grant from the United Nations
University, Tokyo, Japan to conduct
research on “Risk Analysis due toCatastrophic Urban Floods using GIS,
Remote Sensing and Surface-River
Model”. The research project isfunded by UNU from its Multi-hazard
Risk Assessment Core Research
Budget. The main scope of the project
includes a case study in Bangkok city
for risk analysis due to catastrophic
urban flooding. The work will coversimulation of catastrophic floods due
to extreme rainfall events andassessment of its socio-economic
impacts using an existing urban floodrisk assessment model in a part of the
Bangkok city, which is mostvulnerable to floods. The one-year
long project is scheduled to complete
in July 2005.

Dr. Dairaku and Dr. Ooka during their seminars at AIT

Seminar Series on urban safety
The Regional Network Office for
Urban Safety (RNUS) of ICUS/AIT
initiated a seminar series on urban
safety in 2003 by inviting experts fromdifferent countries to talk on various
related issues. As a part of this series,
two seminars were organized in
November 2004. On 15 November
2004, RNUS invited Dr. Koji Dairaku,
Researcher at the Disaster Prevention
Research Group under the National
Research Institute for Earth Science andDisaster Prevention in Tsukuba, Japanto give a seminar the “Role ofOrography and Soil Moisture in
Hydrological Transitions Associatedwith Monsoon Onset in Southeast
Asia”. In the seminar, Dr. Koji Dairaku
presented his research on Asia
monsoon region, particularly Thailand,
to study the mechanism of atmosphericlandsurface interaction using regional
climate models. Understanding of thismechanism is essential for accurate
prediction of rainfall, which can beutilized for urban flood forecasting. On
22 November 2004, RNUS invited Dr.
Ryozo Ooka, Associate Professor at theInternational Center for Urban Safety
from the University of Tokyo, Japan togive a seminar on “Numerical
Simulation of Atmospheric
Environmental Problems”, Dr. Ooka
discussed turbulence modeling andexplained its applications inunderstanding environmental problems
such as wind environment around abuilding, pollutant dispersion in an
urban street canyon, urban f ire
spreading and heat island phenomena.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 3

page 8
Editor’s Note
We theoretically understandthat the earth is active andmoving, however, we have neverimagined that it would reallymove as much as on December
26, 2004. The images and movies
on the earthquake and thetsunami were far more than we
imagined.
The disaster this timedemonstrated the difficulties inobserving and predicting it.
Before the event we need tod e p l o y w i d e a n d g e n e ra lobservation system linked withprediction system, and when it
would unfortunately happen it
should be switched to the sitefocused, pinpointed and veryfrequent observation systemlinked with the counter measures
including evacuation.
A t t h e T h i rd E a r t hObservation Summit held in
February, 2005 at Belgium theten-year’s Implementation Plan

for building a comprehensive,
coordinated, and sustained earth
observation systems was adopted.
“Reducing loss of life andp ro p e r t y f ro m n a t u ra l a n dtechnological disasters” wasra i s e d a s t h e t o p i t e m o f 1 0
specific areas of socio-economic
benefit in observing the earthsystem. In a series of Erath
Observation Summit Japanese
Government declared that Japan
would contribute to the eartho b s e r v a t i o n i n t h re e f i e l d s
including global warming/carbon
cycling, climate change/water
cycle and disaster mitigation over
Asian and Oceanic regions.
The mission of the ICUS covers
from observation, modeling tocountermeasures for the disasterprevention. “It surely happens
wh e n we fo rge t i t ” , t h e v e r yfamous remark by Dr. Torahiko
Terada. We, the ICUS, will do ourbest for the next event which ofcourse we would not like to have.
(by Y. Yasuoka)

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Banda Aceh(before Tsunami)

Banda Aceh
(After Tsunami)© 2005Digitalglobe
http://www.digitalglobe.com/

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI,
26 DECEMBER 2004
By
Teddy BOEN*
On December 26, 2004, a great earthquake of M9.0, followed by a devastating tsunami struck the Indian
Ocean countries: Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand killing morethan 300 thousand people and leaving almost a million homeless. It was the 4th largest earthquake since
1900, sending a wave of shock, and drawing sympathy and assistance offers from across the world. In
Indonesia, over 200 thousand people were killed and 700,000 were displaced. This was the worst natural
disaster experienced in its history in which Banda Aceh and North Sumatra suffered the most. This
article is a quick survey report giving the overall information on damages to the engineered and nonengineered buildings with a touch to infrastructure damages in Indonesia.
On Sunday morning Dec 26,
2004, Banda Aceh was holding a
10km marathon and someparticipants had already reached thefinishing line. At 07:58:50 WIT(Western Indonesia Time), the earth
was struck by a strong earthquake ofM9.0. Almost everybody panicked
and lay down on the ground. Afterthe shaking stopped, people
wandered watching some collapsedbuildings in the city. A TV reportereven toured the city to checkdamaged and collapsed buildings. At

around 08:42 WIT, the first tsunami
wave reached the coastlines of Banda
Aceh and some people started
shouting: “water, water from thesea”. Many people started runningtowards the city center. At around
08:53 WIT, a second wave, more

Area damaged by the tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004 (Meulaboh, Indonesia)

page 2

Source of map: OYO International

Sites surveyed
powerful than the first one, swept
the coastal area and caused
significant catastrophe.
Approximately at 09:15 WIT,
the third and most powerful wave
hit the coastal area up to a distanceof about 4km inland bringing
destruction along its path. Most of
the buildings that collapsed were
non-engineered buildings and were
subjected to tsunami forces such asbattering, scouring impact andbuoyancy. After the third wave,
Banda Aceh was inundated up to aheight of approximately 2m forabout 30 to 40 minutes andsubsequently, water started flowing
back to the sea. At around 11:00
W I T, t h e wa t e r l ev e l wa s
approximately 30-40 cm.
The tsunami curse throughout
the coast
There were two zones affectedby the tsunami: Zone 1 and Zone
2. The first includes the coastal
areas which were destructed bytsunami forces such as battering,scouring, impact and buoyancy. In
Banda Aceh, this zone goes up to
3 k m i n l a n d . Z o n e 2 wa s t h einundated part, where the tsunami
force was reduced but the wave
caused flooding, dumping mud anddebris.
This
area
was
approximately 0.5 to 1.5km further
inland.
Disaster episodes
along the tsunami waves
In areas where the beach isgently sloped, the tsunami waves
were very powerful and this isevident in places like: Lhok Nga,
Ulhue Lhe, Kr ueng Raya andMeulaboh. The damage wasmostly by the battering andscouring forces of the tsunami.
This was observed from the debris
originating from frames of timberhouses which were practicallydisintegrated into building
components. In case of masonry
construction, walls were shatteredinto pieces of almost equal size.

Inundation height measured from house wall
(Banda Aceh, Indonesia)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

Damaged and inundation zones in Banda Aceh(enlarged map of small marked zone in the left side map)
Reinforced concrete columns wereripped off from the foundations,and beam and column connections
were severely damaged.
In harbors with deep water, thetsunami wave strength was reduced
and the dominant force wasbuoyancy. This was observed at
Lhok Nga cement factory jetty at
Ulhue Lhe harbor. The jetty wasprotected by breakwater walls.
The areas closer to the center ofBanda Aceh were damaged by
impact force. This impact force was
exaggerated by the mud density
which is larger than that of thewater. It was observed that thetsunami traveled upstream rivers andlagoons and subsequently spilledover the landward areas. It was also
seen that, in hilly areas, tsunami
waves r un up to much higher
elevation along hill slopes andvalleys than those in plain areas,
although the strength was less.
The tsunami wave heights were

Inundation height measured from trees(Banda Aceh, Indonesia)

page 3
estimated from measurements ofwater level traces on walls and trees.
They were: (a) Meulaboh (Western
Coast), about 4 m, (b) Lhok Nga(West of Banda Aceh), about 15 m
(run-up height against hillside), (c)Banda Aceh, about 8m in coastal
areas Zone 1 and about 2-3m inZone 2, and (d) Kr ueng Raya
(North coast), about 6m (watermark
on coastal side wall of the Mosque).
“Water, water from the sea”………An early warning
When people saw a huge wave
approaching the coast, somepeople started shouting, warningthat a flood was coming, andstarted running towards the centerof the city. However, the people ofcoastal areas were not “trained” toevacuate immediately upon hearing
this “early warning”. Most of themd i d n o t h av e a ny i d e a t h a t atsunami wave could be dangerous
to them. Due to this “early
warning”, approximately 30% of
the coastal area population
survived the tsunami while theother 70% were literally wiped out
together with their houses. Similar“early warning” procedure wasalso practiced in Meulaboh.

Source: Kompas, 15 January

People ran to higher ground after the first wave – Banda Aceh.

Source: Korem 012

People ran to higher ground after the first wave – Meulaboh.

The fate of the city
Two building types can be collapsed due to the shaking of thei d e n t i f i e d : a ) E n g i n e e r e d Dec. 26, 2004 earthquake.
Buildings, and b) Non-Engineered
Buildings.
The typical cause of damage toreinforced concrete engineered
Engineered buildings consisted buildings in Banda Aceh duringmostly of reinforced concrete the Sumatra Earthquake was the
structuresve r t i c a l i r r eg u l a r i t i e s wh i c hcreated abrupt changes in stiffness
A l m o s t a l l “ e n g i n e e r e d ” and strength that concentrated
buildings in Banda Aceh were forces in an undesirable way. Poor
unaffected by tsunami but some quality of concrete and detailing

Kuala Tripa Hotelalso contributed to the collapse of
those engineered buildings.
N o n - E n g i n e e re d bu i l d i n g s
c o n s i s t e d o f : i ) bu r n t b r i c kmasonry with sand and cement
mortar, and ii) timber buildings
The majority of the buildingsthat collapsed in Banda Aceh cityand villages in Lhok Nga, Krueng
Raya, and Meulaboh city were

Office of the Department of Finance

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 4

Lhok Nga (Zone 1)
non-engineered buildings
consisting of two types. The first
type was a one or two-storey
building made of bur nt brickconfined masonry using sand andPortland cement mortar. The roof
mostly consisted of galvanized ironsheets. All those buildings used
RC “practical” columns and beams
as confinement. The second type
was timber construction consistingof a timber frame and also timberplanks walls and usually usedgalvanized iron sheets as roof. Ther a t i o o f t h e s e t wo t y p e s o f
structures estimated is to be 30 %to 70 %.
Most of the one to two-storey
buildings collapsed due to thetsunami and not due to theearthquake ground motion though
it was responsible for the walls to
crack in some places.
The ill fate of infrastructure
facilities
Roads: Most of the main roads
in Zone 1 were covered by hugeamounts of tsunami debris.
Several parts of the road from
Banda Aceh to Meulaboh were
washed away by the tsunami.
Bridges: Several bridges in Banda
Aceh were destroyed: the one at
Iskandar Muda area and the otherleading to Lhok Nga. Along theroad from Banda Aceh to
Meulaboh (distance approx. 270km), several bridges were washedaw ay. Po r t s : A p a r t o f t h e
Meulaboh Port was washed away
but the supports were still in tact.
Power supply: The main power
plant in Banda Aceh was not

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

Debris and mud at Meulaboh (Zone 2)
affected by the shaking or tsunami.
However, many distribution poles
and wires in the affected areas
collapsed. Telecommunicationand Water supply: Though thesewere not very much affected, some
telephone junction boxes andunderground water piping systemwere damaged.
Emergency responses and needs
after the disasterR i g h t a f t e r a n y d i s a s t e r,
it is essential to restore
telecommunications immediately.
This makes emergency responseeasier and faster, and reduces panic
among the community.
The challenge of the recovery
is not to repeat mistakes from pastdisasters, among others, how toprevent NGOs, local as well as
foreign, from bringing in “alien”
materials and products such as
knockdown houses which are notcompatible with the local culture.
A l l g ov e r n m e n t o f f i c e r s ,community leaders and donors are
discussing recommendations to
relocate the destructed villages andalmost all of them are relying on
NGOs/donors who have shownwillingness to “adopt” certain
villages. Appropriate planning andanalysis shall be made prior torecommendation for implementing
post earthquake disaster relocation.
Risk to the Indonesian economy
It is predicted that the Acehtsunami will not have a significant
effect towards the Indonesian
economy and the 2005 national
growth would be 5-6%. It is also

estimated that the tsunami will notcause negative effects towards the
expectation and risk perception on
the Indonesian economy and will
not disrupt either investment plansor the exchange rate performance.
The last drop
In spite of the fact that thetsunami most probably will not
disrupt the Indonesian economy,
the loss of jobs could be cripplingat the local level. Even though thedamage to agricultural land is only
10%, it will take many years to
r e c ov e r. Fa r m e r s l o s t t h e i r
livestock and equipments. The
aquaculture losses were quite
significant. Apart from all thosementioned earlier, the tsunami also
swept and destroyed many roads,
bridges, drainage systems, water
piping, electrical lines, andtelecommunication towers. The
repair and rebuilding of those all
and the resettlement of displaced
people will take many years andwill need a considerable amount offund, which may be a substantial
percentage of the country grossdomestic product.
*ICUS Network Member
from Indonesia
Note: A comprehensive report on
the damage survey of the 2004
S u m a t ra E a r t h q u a k e a n d
Tsunami disaster in the Indian
Ocean Rim countries will soon be
published as ICUS REPORT
2005-01. It can also be obtained
f ro m t h e I C U S we b s i t e(http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
wwwe/publications/index.htm).

page 5

A Report on UN World Conference
on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan
The World Conference on
Disaster Reduction, organized by theUnited Nations International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), washeld in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture,
Japan during January 18-22, 2005.
The organizational activities of theconference were carried out by the
Hyogo Cooperation Committee,
which was formed for organizing theconference to bring together
academics, government officials,
representatives of NGOs and otherexperts in the areas of disaster
reduction. The Mega conference
included a variety of events during
the f ive-day period includingintergovernmental meetings, thematic
sessions, public fora, workshops,
exhibition booths, poster sessions andstudy tours. It drew about 5,000
participants from around the worldthat included representatives of 168
countries and numerous internationalorganizations.
The conference was composed ofthree main processes: anintergovernmental segment, a thematic
segment for knowledge exchange, anda forum for public participation. The
Intergovernmental segment provided
the venue for delegates to makestatements, discuss and negotiate on
the outcomes of the conference forfinal adoption. The Thematic segment
consisted of three high-level roundtables; 1) Disaster Risk: The Next
Development Challenge, 2) Learning
to Live with Risk, 3) Emerging Risks:
What will tomorrow hold? and anumber of parallel sessions clusteredunder five themes as well as a regionalsession for exchange of experience

Prof. K. Meguro and Dr. D. Dutta
during their keynote presentations
at the UNU Public Forum

Mr. Toshizo Ido, the Governor of
Hyogo Prefecture, addresses theconference participants
and lessons learned from each region.
The Open forum included anumber of thematic seminars, open
house meetings, exhibitions andposter sessions organized by NGOs
and the academia.
The conference took place lessthan a month after the catastrophic
tsunami disaster of the Indian Oceanof December 26, 2004 that claimed
over 300,000 lives. It was dominatedby various events and discussions
related to tsunami disasters anddevelopment of early warning
systems.
The conference also marked ten
years since the Yokohama conference
organized by the United Nations
International Decade for Disaster
Reduction (IDNDR) in May 1994,
where United Nations member statesdrew up an action plan for a safer
world. The Kobe conference aimed toreview the progress on the plan since
the Yokohama conference. In theconference, it was deliberated that
although much progress had takenplace on the technical front in the lastten years, disaster losses and povertybased vulnerability were still out ofcontrol. The “Review of the
Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action
for A Safer World” summarized theaccomplishments since the adoption of
the 1994 document. It noted the gaps
and challenges for the future, including
the need for “more tangible
commitments” for translatingpromises into action.
In the closing session, thedelegates adopted the “Hyogo
Declaration” and the “Hyogo

Framework for Action 2005-2015,”
which are aimed at assessing ongoing
efforts to lessen the effects of natural
hazards and determining what further
action is needed. In the declaration,
they emphasize the importance oftranslating the Hyogo Framework for
Action into concrete actions to lessen
risks and vulnerabilities to natural
hazards through integrated cooperationand information-sharing mechanisms.
The action plan for the upcoming
decade seeks to substantially reduce
losses from natural disasters and todevelop an international early warning
system and a global information
network for that purpose. It also points
out the need to establish international
schemes to respond to disasters acrossborders and notes that unplanned
urbanization, environmental
destruction and climate change may
raise disaster risks.
Coordinating disaster mitigation
activities around the world is adaunting task due to various issues,level of priorities, participations,commitments, actions and funds.
Through the IDNDR, UN have beensuccessful in raising awareness against
natural disasters around the world andinformation dissemination through theestablished national committees or
focal points for the decade. However,its limitations in taking leadership in
reduction of disaster impacts towards“sustainable development” in mostvulnerable communities around theworld have been witnessed.
At the end of the Kobe conference,
it appears that United Nations is up
again in taking the leadership fordisaster reduction worldwide, it isacting fast to see success in its efforts
to setting up effective tsunami early
warning systems around the world.
But the task of coordinating andintegrating efforts to enable allcountries at risk to minimize losses
from natural disasters is likely to be acomplex and difficult one. The world
will watch carefully how the words of“Hyogo Framework for Action 20052015” are translated into action in the
coming decade to build resilience ofnations and communities to disasters.
(by D. Dutta)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 6

ICUS Signed MOU with NUS and NTU, Singapore
ICUS has signed a Memorandumof Understanding (MOU) with
National University of Singapore(NUS) and Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) to collaborate inresearch and other academic
activities in the field of Urban and
Safety Engineering on March 28 and29, 2005, respectively.
These universities will be hosting
the Fourth International Symposium
on “New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia”

National University of Singapore

Nanyang Technological University

The 8th ICUS Open Lecture
The 8th ICUS Open Lecture washeld at IIS in the afternoon of
February 28th, 2005. The title of thelecture was “Messages from theDisaster Scene”. About 100 people
attended the lecture. There werefour speakers, Mr. Shogo Hayashi,
Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Mr. Katsumi
Seki and Prof. Masamitsu Tamura.
The TOPICS were as follows:
1 . M r. S h o g o H a y a s h i ,Commissioner, Fire andD i s a s t e r M a n ag e m e n t
Agency (FDMA): “FDMA’s
activities towards large-scaledisasters in Japan during
2004 and it’s future issues”.
2. Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Leaderof Special Fire ResearchGroup, National Research
I n s t i t u t e o f Fi re a n dDisaster: “Investigation of
S p e c i a l Fi re c a s e s a n dlessons learnt”.
3. Mr. Katsumi Seki, Director,
Construction Planning
Division, Policy Bureau,
Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport:“Emergency Managementfor Disaster Reduction – A
field perspective”.
4. Prof. Masamitsu Tamura,
Professor Emeritus, The
University of Tokyo, Guest
P ro fe s s o r o f Yo k o h a m a

National University:“Recent safety problems andpotential issues in the 21stCentury”.
Finally Professor Taketo Uomoto
of ICUS made concluding remarkson this Open Lecture and expressedgratitude to the participants.

The 4th International Symposium on “New Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia” on October 18-19, 2005
On October 18-19, 2005, the
4th International Symposium on
New Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia will be helda t N a ny a n g Te c h n o l og i c a l
University in Singapore. Prof. Pan

Tso-Chien, Professor of Nanyang
Technological University will behosting
this
symposium(TCPan@pmail.ntu.edu.sg).
Application of registration andsubmission will start soon. Further

details can be obtained from theWe b s i t e s l i s t e d b e l ow.
h t t p : / / i c u s . i i s . u tokyo.ac.jp/isus05/ a n d
h t t p : / / w w w. n t u . e d u . s g / p t r c /USMCA2005.

ICUS Activity Records
・Prof. Uomoto and Prof. Meguro
visited Nanyang TechnologicalU n i v e rs i t y a n d N a t i o n a l
University of Singapore, Singaporet o s i g n a M e m o ra n d u m o f
Understanding (March 27-30).
・Prof. Meguro carried out Sumatra
Earthquake and Tsunami disaster
investigation in Sri Lanka (Feb. 1725) and in Thailand (March 9-13).
・Prof. Ooka attended the “ASHRAE
Winter Meeting” at Orland, USA.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4(Feb. 5-11), and “Geo Exchange
meeting” at Vancouver, Canada(March 16-19), and the “Annual
meeting on AGS” at Boston, USA.
(March 20-24).
・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand
for collaborative research at
RNUS (Jan. 22-March 30), andattended the “Map India 2005
International Conference” at
Delhi, India (Feb. 7-9). He also
participated in field survey andmeeting in Guwahati towards
developing a project on urban
f l o o d r i s k m a n age m e n t a t
Guwahati, India (Feb. 10-12).
・Dr. Susaki visited AIT, Thailand
as a JICA expert of remote sensing(Feb. 1-Jan. 31, 2007).
・Dr. Endo visited Thailand forresearch on forest fire in Hauy
Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary(March 13-17).

page 7

RNUS hosted the Secretariat of the International
Symposium on Transboundary River Basin Management
organized by UNU, AIT and Thammasat University
In recent years, development
activities and research surroundingA s i a n i n t e r n a t i o n a l r iv e r s ,especially the Mekong River has
expanded. Yet, many efforts in thedownstream are disconnected fromthose in the upstream and viceversa. These communications gaps
seriously hamper improving theunderstanding of basin hydrology
and forecasting its future status. To
improve regional cooperation andfacilitate discussion amongscientific community in riparian
countries who share interest andi n c e n t iv e t o u n d e r s t a n d o n eanother's views, United Nations
University (UNU) organized thesymposium on “Role of Water
Sciences in Transboundary River
Basin Management” together with
the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) and Thammasat University
during March 10-12, 2005 in Ubon
Ratchathani, Thailand.
T h e s y m p o s i u m wa s a n
academic meeting that served as avenue for information exchangea m o n g t r a n s b o u n d a r y wa t e r
stakeholders working on Asia’sinternational rivers. The focal
i s s u e s o f t h e m e e t i n g we r e :1) Modeling and Monitoring,2) Stakeholder Par ticipation,3) Transboundary Cooperation and
4) Scientif ic Networking.

Part of the Mekong River and close
to the Cambodian border, where theM e k o n g r iv e r s l o p e s s t e e p
downwards over a 20km stretch tocreate a 30 m head and water
passage is separated into narrow
strips by numerous rocky islands.

The symposium brought
together over 50 water professionals and academicians from 12
countries to share their experienceand knowledge in various casestudies particular to their basins,emphasizing both risks and paths tocooperation.

The symposium was successful
i n e s t a bl i s h i n g a n e t wo r k o fresearchers for future scientif ic
cooperation on transboundary river
basin management. The next eventf o r f o l l ow - u p a c i t iv i t i e s i s abrainstorming session going to beheld at AIT in June 2005 to
The two-day technical program f o r m u l a t e a n a c t i o n p l a n f o rof the symposium included six research and development.
technical sessions organized under
the four focal issues of the meeting.
The secretariat for organiA total of 31 papers were presented z a t i o n a l a c t iv i t i e s o f t h e
in these sessions. After the six symposium was hosted by thetechnical sessions, a special session Regional Network Office for Urban
wa s h e l d t o d i s c u s s r e s e a r c h Safety (RNUS) of ICUS/AIT andcooperation on transboundary river Dr. D. Dutta, the Coordinator ofbasin management with special RNUS, acted as the Secretary offocus on Mekong River Basin.
the Organizing Committee. Those
who are interested to obtain a set of
On the finalday, a field trip was the symposium proceedings canorganized to visit the Khong Pha write to the Symposium Secretariat
Peng waterfall, located in the Laos at rnus@ait.ac.th.

Participants of the symposium held at the Tohsaeng Khong Jiem Resort,Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, March 10, 2005

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 8
Editor’s Note
Four years have passed since I
became a member of ICUS.
Meanwhile, the lineup of ICUS
had been established.
A large number of activities
have been done. The results havebeen accumulated. However, thespeed at which I am writing mymanuscript is slow as usual. The
reason though is not known.
T h e t h re e m a i n re s e a rch
subjects I am dealing with are( 1 ) U r b a n e nv i ro n m e n t a l
problems that are related toatmospheric environment,(2)Urban safety problems
related to fire, and(3)Urban energ y problems
related to environmental
control(1) and (2) have been conducted
as an academic activity in ICUS.
Some students have graduatedin these four years under myguidance.
As cooperation work with thesestudents, a number of research
results for the above-mentioned (1)(3) have been achieved in these four
years.
In the days to come, I will be
informing these results through ICUS.
ICUS is able to offer a meetingvenue for researchers coming fromvarious countries around the world.

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Personally speaking, I had
opportunities to visit many countries
through ICUS.
I am looking forward to meeting
and working with people who areinterested in my research.
(by R. Ooka)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1
APRIL-JUNE 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

FIRE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
ACTIVITIES IN 2004
AND AN APPROACH TO THE FUTURE
By
Shogo HAYASHI*
Large-scale disasters in 2004
and response activities by the Fireand Disaster Management Agency(FDMA) of the Ministry ofInternal Affairs and Communications as well as FDMA futureplans are reported in this article.
With regard to the existing fire
defense situations in Japan, allc i t i e s , t ow n s a n d v i l l a g e s

Large-scale disasters in 2004

(hereafter referred to as
municipalities) take administrative
responsibility for their own fire
defense activities.
The FDMA is a government
agency which manages f ire
defense organizations in all partsof the country. The FDMA, as anational organization, is in chargeof f ire f ighting and emergency

medical and rescue services as
disaster preparedness and f irst
response for emergency under theassumption of damage caused bysevere earthquakes and floods.
DISASTERS – 2004
The year of 2004 wasremarkable for a number of natural
catastrophes like torrential rains

A glimpse of the activities at Fire, Disaster and Risk Management Centerpage 2and frequent typhoons that had not
struck in recent years. Earthquake
also showed up its ugly face.
About three to six typhoons
affect the Japanese landmass eachyear. However, the islands wereaffected by ten or more of themin 2004.
Ty p h o o n n u m b e r 2 3 i nparticular brought about severe
damage killing 95 people in
Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan is usually prepared fordisasters which occur due to 40-50
m m o f r a i n p e r h o u r. S eve r etorrential rains exceeding 100 mm
per hour affected the Niigata,
Fukushima and Fukui Prefecturesin July 2004.
Many earthquakes have rocked
Japan since last decade. The
earthquake which rocked Chuetsu
district in Niigata Prefecture on
October 23rd left a strong
impression in particular (see ICUS
Newsletter, Special Issue 2005).
The occurrence of frequent
earthquakes is not a phenomenon
specific to the last year. Japan is
now in an extended period whenearthquakes will frequently occur.
COUNTERMEASURESBY THE FDMA
The Fire, Disaster and Risk
Management Center, establishedwithin the FDMA, is equippedwith systems for analyzing
pictures transmitted fromhelicopters as well as for checking
responses by the FDMA. This
enables the advance units to besent forward to specific locations
damaged by hazards in any
emergency.
Last year, the emergency fire
response teams were dispatched todisaster-struck areas four times;
namely to Niigata, Fukushima,
Fukui and Hyogo Prefectures, andf inally to Chuetsu, Niigata
Prefecture.
The members sent from eachprefectural f ire defense
headquarters to the areas damagedby the 1995 Kobe Earthquake met
with various problems. By lettingthese problems be a lesson,
Emergency Fire Response Teams
were established in 1995 with a

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

Action plan of Emergency Fire Response Team

Rescue operation by Emergency Fire Response Teamview to prepare for conditions
requiring human aid in eachprefecture. The Fire Organization
Law was revised in June, 2003 andin the April 2004, this law wasformally enforced.
The International Rescue Team
(IRT) of Japan was one of the firstteams to ar rive at some of theareas struck by tsunami occurringin the Indian Ocean (see ICUS
Newsletter, Vol.4, No.4, 2004) andcarried out an invaluable numberof first aid and rescue operations.
On the 28th of December 2004,
over 80 persons in all including
f i r e a n d e m e rg e n cy s e r v i c e s
personnel medical staff and police
personnel were dispatched. The
relief work of the Japanese rescue
team was highly appreciated andm a d e h e a d l i n e s w h i c h we r ereported by the CNN and BBC at
t h e e n d o f t h e ye a r. J a p a n i sequipped with countermeasuresystems against disasters and cancontribute towards relief in casesuch a disaster occurs in Asia orsurrounding areas.
CHANGING CONDITIONS
Conditions with regard to firefighting and disaster preparedness
are continuously changing.
First, the occurrence of largescale disasters is indeed a matterof great concern.
Second, the law concerning themeasures for protection of thepeople in armed attack situations
etc. was enacted in the Diet lastyear. Two situations are assumed
i n t h i s l aw ; o n e i n c a s e s o femergency where missiles are shot
into Japan by a hostile country or
infiltrators enter Japan. The otherone is for urgent countermeasuresagainst acts of terrorism.

page 3
Third, recently, in particular,industrial disasters have occurred
frequently. Therefore, companies
are required to complete andstrengthen their fire and disaster
preparedness systems.
The preparation of fire defense
systems in response to damage
caused by the above mentioned
matters must be forwarded fromthe national point of view withconsideration to international
cooperation. Based on this view, it
is very important that the fire anddisaster preparedness systems inmunicipalities need to be further
improved.
COUNTERMEASURESBY THE FDMA
FOR THE FUTURE
In order to strengthen thesystem for taking any initial action
as a national duty in response todisasters, an overall revision of thesystem of the Fire, Disaster andRisk Management Center was
made. The system was improvedt o b e a bl e t o t a ke a ny a c t i o nrequired even in case of complete
power failure or the destruction offacilities due to earthquakes andother hazards. The FDMA had
poor results with regard to
dispatching logistics and supportu n i t s l a s t y e a r. T h e F D M A
members lost no time in arriving
at areas damaged by hazards.
However, it could not be estimatedhow long teams would have to staythere. Hence, it is vital to improve
the logistics and support systems.
In response to the convening ofa World Fire Defense Agency
Commissioners Conference forstrengthening international
cooperation, the first conference
was held with representatives fromten countries. It was seen in thisconference that there are few
countries which have a nationalorganization such as the FDMA in
Japan. As can be recognized fromthe response to the great damagec a u s e d by t h e 2 0 0 4 S u m a t r aearthquake and tsunami, theinter national network forf ire f ighting and disaster
preparedness is urgently in needof strengthening.

Activity of International Rescue TeamThe most important problem
to be solved in the future is tostrengthen the systems linking themunicipalities. Firstly, it can bepointed out that systems forcommunicating satisfactorily withother cities, towns and villages ofJapan have yet to be established.
Secondly, there is a problem inthe preparation of widespreadadministrative radio installations
for disaster preparedness. Thirdly,
a reconnaissance helicopter canbe dispatched before taking
command of emergency disaster
response teams. Full command istaken after studying the images ofthe scene sent from the helicopter.
If necessary, support units can bedispatched. We are planning toprepare a system, in which a
portable earth station can receive
images via satellite, in all parts ofJapan. Four thly, over 60% of
disaster victims are elderly. Last
year, we recognized that regional
disaster prevention in acommunity is eventually mostimportant for rescuing elderly
persons living alone. Fifthly,municipalities are lagging behindbadly in taking ear thquake
proof ing measures for disasterprevention stations. Promotion
activities with regard to thisproblem have been carried out incooperation with the FDMA andI C U S , I I S , t h e U n ive r s i t y o f
Tokyo. Finally, with consideration
to the importance of a regional

disaster prevention system, aconcept of relief and refuge
stations has been proposed toregional bodies. At present, there
are about 24,000 primary schools
all over the country. Information
with regard to fire fighting andcrime prevention in ordinar ytimes is to be collected at empty
classrooms utilized as disastermanagement stations byconsidering a school district as
one unit area. These classrooms
can also be used to strengthen thedisaster preparedness capacity inthe school area while securing
regional safety in ordinary times.
These classrooms can be used as
relief and refuge stations where
information about safety can berelayed in the event of disasters.
We hope this plan of utilizing
unoccupied schools as disastermanagement stations will spreadthroughout the countr y in thelight of the aforementioned
projects.
The actions taken by the
FDMA as well as issues to be
dealt with in the future have been
described above. We will takefurther positive actions with av i ew o f s e c u r i n g t h e ove r a l lsafety of our country.
*ICUS Visiting Professor,
Commissioner of the FDMA,
Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, Japan

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 4

Guidelines for Promoting Seismic Retrofitof Critical Facilities for Disaster Management
Published by the FDMA and ICUS Collaboration
In the Mid Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake of M6.8, according to
the Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA), occurred on October 23rd
2004, four towns and village
offices suffered severe damage.
These were centered on theareas with seismic intensity of
JMA scale 6 or more, andemergency response activities wereseriously interrupted in operations
by their severe damage. Thesebuildings were constructed before
1981 when the Japanese seismic
design code was revised and were
designed based on the old code.
This earthquake damage made us
strongly feel the necessity andimportance for seismic retrofittingof the critical facilities for disastermanagement.
In response to such lessons,Fire and Disaster Management
Agency (FDMA) has justcompleted the guideline incollaboration with ICUS and manyarchitect offices and construction
c o m p a n i e s . T h i s e ff o r t h a s asignif icant meaning as the f irst
collaboration made by industry,
government and academic society.
Until now, many examples havebeen published related to theseismic retrof it of buildings,
however, this guideline has specificfeatures like providing information
to people who are involved in thelocal governments to understandthe importance of seismic retrofit
of critical facilities such as city or
town halls, school buildings, firestations which are expected to play
an important role in case ofdisaster. This guideline is designed
to make local government people
understand easily about key issues
such as basic judgment of seismic
capacity evaluation and effective
retrofit procedures, necessary cost,working time by the introduction of
actual examples of seismic
retrofitting.
Following is a table of contentsof this guideline.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

Critical facilities for disaster management

Role of the facility[CHAPTER-1]
Why is Seismic Retrofit Necessary
for Critical Facilities?
1-1 What is the current earthquake
risk in Japan?
1-2 What is a critical facility?
1-3 What level of retrofit is required?
1-4 What are the causes making
the retrofitting difficult?
1-5 What are the types of damages
to buildings?
1-6 What types of buildings arevulnerable to earthquake?
[CHAPTER-2]
Procedures for Seismic Retrofitting
2-1 What is seismic capacity
evaluation?
2-2 Preliminary screening toretrofitting – A flowchart
2-3 What should be investigated?
2-4 What is the output of seismic
capacity evaluation?
2-5 Cost and time for evaluation?
[CHAPTER-3]
Seismic Retrofitting Method andExamples:3-1 What is seismic retrofit?
3-2 Which method of retrof it isbetter?
3-3 Which is the popular retrof it
method?
3-4 Is there any external retrof it
method?
3-5 What is vibration control?
3-6 What is base isolation?
3-7 Model examples of seismic
retrof it.
3-8 List of practical examples ofretrof itted buildings.
I sincerely wish this guideline
will be widely used by many people
who are involved in the local
governments and enhance disastermitigation and contribute to thesafety of the country.
Prof. Y. Nakano, IIS provided his
valuable advice for the above project.
(by Reiko Amano,
Visiting Professor, ICUS
General Manager of Kajima Corp.)page 5

Seconded to Asian Institute of Technology
Several months have alreadypassed since I have been seconded
to Asian Institute of Technology(AIT), located in the suburb of
Bangkok, Thailand. When I
ar rived, January semester had
already started. I took over theclass shared with another
instr uctor, and f inished f inal
examination by early May. Because
AIT has a semester system, theperiod from early May to earlyAugust is summer vacation forstudents. They seem to enjoy
studying and staying at their home.
I'm seconded to Remote
Sensing and GIS Field of Study,
School of Advance Technology as
an expert of Japan International
C o o p e r a t i o n A g e n cy ( J I C A ) .
Dispatch of JICA experts to AIT
by Japanese government started in1969. Experts for long-term, i.e.
more than six months, amount to
118 persons. Most of the experts
have been seconded to departments
related to civil engineering as they
have expertise in the same field. At
present, AIT has only two JICAe x p e r t s . To d a t e , J a p a n h a scontributed g reatly to theimprovement of AIT, especially inthe f ields of civil engineering.
H owev e r, J a p a n s t a r t e d t owithdraw support to AIT graduallya s we l l a s U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d
G e r m a n y, w h i c h u s e d t o b eimportant supporters for AIT.
Other than JICA experts, there areother Japanese faculty members,
f o u r d i r e c t ly h i r e d a n d t h r e e
seconded by other institutes ofJapan.
Regarding remote sensing, AIT
has continued an outstanding
position among the Southeast
Asian countries. AIT has a"Geoinformatics
Center"consisting of two divisions. One ofthem is "Asian Center for
Researches of Remote Sensing", aresearch-oriented division. The
other is "GIS Application Center( G AC ) " , a t r a i n i n g - o r i e n t e ddivision. Geoinformatics Centerhas two antennas for receiving
satellite data, suppor ted by

Institute of Industrial Science(IIS), The University of Tokyo.
The received data are processedand distributed to IIS under several
joint projects between AIT and IIS.
I a m wo r k i n g a t t h e G e o informatics Center most of thetimes. As staffs are from many
countries, e.g. Thailand, Vietnam,
India or Sri Lanka, I enjoy talking
and sharing a considerable amountof information with them.
From a research viewpoint, I've
started fundamental researches
related to disaster mitigation. This
year, Thailand had severe drought
in almost all of provinces. I citesome articles from Bangkok Post,
an English newspaper published in
Thailand.
Sugarcane plantations coveringover 60,000 rai (1 rai=1600 square
meters) in three districts ofSuphan Buri are dying as watersupply from the local Kra Seaw
dam stopped for the f irst timeyesterday due to severe drought.
Agricultural areas in Doembang
Nangbuat, Nong Yasai and Sam
Chuk districts also depend on
water from the earth dam, which islocated in Dan Chang district andhas a capacity for storing 240
million cubic metres of water. The
4.25-km-long dam blocks the Nam
Seaw River which flows from
Uthai Thani. Only 20 million cubic
metres now remains in its reservoir
so the dam must stop discharging
water for cultivation and keep thewater to maintain its own physicalcondition, according to Thongthos
Nokchan, the dam's irrigation andmaintenance chief (March 21).
T h e n u m b e r o f p r ov i n c e ssuffering from drought has been
reduced from 72 to 16 by rainmaking operations, Agriculture
and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat
Keyuraphan said. Of these only
four or five, including Chumphon
and Surat Thani, are now badly
affected as there is insuff icientwater for agricultural use. Cloudseeding would now focus on theseareas. A total of 1,070 seedingflights to relieve the dry spell weremade from nine rain-making
centres from March 15 to April 9.
On April 9 alone, rain wasreported in 30 provinces: eight in
the North, six in the Central Plain,seven in the Northeast and nine in
the South (April 11).
Remote sensing can be ap owe r f u l t o o l f o r d r o u g h t
monitoring because onset ofdrought is gradual and can bedetected by long-term monitoring.
In order to develop a droughtmonitoring system, I started withfield measurements to model thephenomenon on the surface fromremotely sensed data. Finally, I'dlike to contribute to the mitigationof such severe disasters throughremote sensing technique for twoyear stay in Thailand.
(by Junichi Susaki)

Drying dam in Nakhon
Ratchasima province(Upper: April 23, Lower: June 11, 2005)

Seeding into dry paddy fields in
Buri Ram province. Farmers are
eager for rain. (June 12, 2005)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 6

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSEThe Institute of Industrial Science
conducted the OPEN HOUSE during
June 2-3, 2005. The various
Departments and their respective
Laboratories are open for public
viewing during this time. ICUS
participated in the same byexplaining its numerous activities inboth Japanese and English. The topic
of focus for ICUS was “Towards
Safer and Securer Built Environment
in Mega Cities in Asia.” About 270
People visited ICUS this year.
Under the umbrella of the ICUS
title, the research titles of ICUS
members were as follows:
1) Prof. Taketo Uomoto:-Development of Technologies for

Increasing Durability of Concrete
Structures
2) Prof. Kimiro Meguro:-Today’s Issues of Japanese
Disaster Countermeasures: Ten
Years after the Kobe Earthquake3) Dr. Taikan Oki- Re-Spotlight on Flood Disaster
Mr. Chuko Hayakawa, a member of the4) Dr. Ryozo Ooka:
House of Representatives, visiting ICUS
-Sustainable Urban Design with
CFD Simulation-Diffusion of Contaminants in Urban
Area and Natural Ventilation5) Dr. Yoshitaka Kato:-Development of MaintenanceManagement System for Existing
Concrete Structures(by M. Yoshimura)
Lecture for high school students

ICUS New Staff
Dr. Taikan Oki has joined ICUS
since April 1 2005 as Associate
Professor. Trained in Civil
Engineering at the University ofTokyo, Dr. Oki now r uns theLaboratory for Hydrology and Water
Resources Engineering at the Instituteof Industrial Science, the University ofTokyo. He is assigned to the Council
for Science and Technology Policy,
Cabinet Office of Japan, to support
policy making, prioritization andevaluation of measures for scienceand technology in Japan, particularly
to support the development of thethird master plan of national scienceand technology development from2006 to 2010. He has served as a leadauthor for the IPCC Four thAssessment Report as well as acontributing author for the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Dr. Oki was a visiting scientist at theNASA/ Goddard Space Flight Centerfor 1995-1997, and he spent a few
years at the Research Institute of
Humanity and Nature in Kyoto. He
was one of the associate editors of the
JGR- Atmospheres of the American
Geophysical Union. Dr. Oki iscurrently chairing the IAHS Hydrology

System Project (GWSP), and Global
Soil Wetness Project (GSWP). His
research interests include: global waterbalance and hydrologic cycle; world
water resources assessment and thevirtual water trade, impacts of climatechange on hydrological extremes andwater resources managements, landatmosphere interaction and its
modeling; inter-annual variation of
global climate and the Asianmonsoon; application of remotesensing in hydrology.
(by T. Uomoto)Dr. Taikan Oki
2020 Working Group, and he was thewinner of the Tison Award of the
IAHS in 2003. He is a science panel
member of a few international
research projects, such as GEWEXAsian Monsoon Experiment (GAME),
Global Land Atmosphere System
Studies (GLASS), Global Water

ICUS welcomes
Dr. Rashmi Iyengar,
who joined ICUS from
April 2005 to assist in
the preparation of
ICUS publications.
Prior to joining ICUS, Dr. Rashmi
she completed her training to be a
medical doctor from India.

ICUS Activities

AwardsWork- shop” at Iguassu Falls
・Prof. Uomoto and Dr. Kato visited(April 1-11).
AIT, Thailand for a meeting at
・Prof. Ooka attended the “Global
RNUS (May 2-4).
Advances in Heat Pump
・Prof. Meguro attended the “EarthTechnology Applications andquake Summit” at Lake Tahoe, USA.
Markets” at Las Vegas, USA(April 24-27), and “International( M a y 3 0 - Ju n e 4 ) , a n d t h e
Symposium on Floods in“ASHRAE Annual Meeting” at
Coastal Cities under Climate
Denver, USA (June 25-30).
C h a n ge Conditions” at AIT,・Prof. Dutta attended the “7thBangkok, Thailand (June 24-26).
IAHS Scientific Assembly” at・Prof. Oki attended the “IAHS
Iguassu Falls (April 5-12).
Hydro- logy 2020 Working Group

Prof. Oki won the Environmental Award at the Annual
Meeting of Japan Society of Civil
Engineers in May.
Prof. Ooka won the Technology Promotion Award at theSociety of Heating AirConditioning and SanitaryEngineers of Japan Standard inMay.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 7

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FLOODSIN COASTAL CITIESUNDER CLIMATE CHANGE CONDITIONSThe Regional Network office for
Urban Safety (RNUS) organized aninternational symposium on “Floods
in Coastal Cities under Climate
Change Conditions” during 23-25
June 2005 at the Asian Institute of
Te c h n o l og y ( A I T ) , B a n g ko k ,Thailand. The symposium wassponsored by the Asia Pacif ic
N e t wo r k f o r G l o b a l C h a n g e
Research (APN) under a year-longp r o j e c t . T h e s y m p o s i u m wa s
attended by 45 participants mainly
from South and South-east Asian
countries and Japan including
academicians, researchers, policy
makers and practitioners.
After a brief opening ceremony,the symposium was started with akeynote speech on Flood Control
Systems in Bangkok by the Director
General of Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration, Mr. Teeradej
Tangpraprutgul. In his presentation,
Mr. Tangpraprutgul discussed about
the history of flood in Bangkok, themain causes behind it anddemonstrated the existing systems
for flood prevention and future plans.
T h e key n o t e s p e e c h wa s
followed by three technical sessions
on the 1st day. The first two sessions

witnessed the different country casestudies conducted by the key
collaborators of the APN Project,
followed by in-depth demonstrationof the respective country policy
issues and strategy. The countrycase-study reports were presented
from Thailand, Bangladesh, India,
Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Pakistan (inorder of presentation). Thesesessions was chaired by Dr. Mukand
S. Babel and Prof. Addala N Swamy
respectively. Dr. Uditha Ratnayake
a n d D r. K S R a j a n we r e t h erapporteurs respectively. The day
ended with a brainstorming session
where the day’s presentations werediscussed and chalked out thecomposition of the policy guidelines.
The second day started with thecontinuation of the previous day’s
brainstorming on policy issues. Prof.
Ashim Das Gupta was the facilitatorof brainstorming session. The next
session of the day had the theme of
Climate Change Impacts chaired by
Prof. Tawatchai Tingsanchali. Thissession witnessed many different
researches conducted at The
University of Tokyo, AIT, Universiti
Sains Malaysia and Thammasat
University. The presenters revealed
their simulation and possible risks

due the climate change.
After lunch break, a technicaltour was arranged to the Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration(BMA). At BMA headquarter, theparticipants listened to a presentationon the Department of Drainage andSewerage and then visited the Krung
Kasem Pumpoing Station and Si
Praya Treatment Plant.
The third day started with thesession titled Tsunami and Coastal
Flooding chaired by Dr. Junichi
Susaki and rapporteur Dr. Yoshitaka
Kato. This session had someattention-grabbing
i nv i t e dpresentations by Prof. Kimiro
Meguro of The University of Tokyo,
Japan, Dr. Pennung Warnitchai, AIT,Dr. Srikantha Herath, UNU, Mr.
David Hastings of UNESCAP and
Mr. Ole Neilson from Geoscience
Australia also.
The symposium concluded withthe last brainstorming session
chaired by Dr. Mukand S. Babel.
This session outlined the policy
issues of the discussed countries anddeveloped a guideline for the policy
maker to combat the climate change
impacts and coastal flooding.
(by Dushmanta Dutta)

Some of the participants of the symposium on 23rd June before the Keynote speech

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 8
Editor’s Note
The Sumatra earthquake
occurred about 6 months ago.
Although large natural disasters
have not occurred in Japan thisyear, man made disasters such as
terrorism, rail accidents haveoccurred at a global and local
levels, respectively. Hundred ormore people were killed when atrain (Fukuchiyama line) of the WestJapan Railway Company derailedon the 25th of April this year. ICUS
sent its heartfelt condolences.
We should be ready to executecountermeasures for the disasters
that may happen in future. This is
one of the missions of ICUS andsome of those activities are
introduced in this volume.
There are two kinds of factors
which cause severe damage to oursocial life. The first is a disasterthat momentarily causes severe
damage such as earthquake,tsunami, floods, etc. The other is adisaster that gradually effects. Whenthe damage is gradual, it is difficult
to address the same. For instance,
environmental destruction, urban
infrastructure ageing, etc. The former
is “heel drop” as a killer shot, thelatter is “low kick” that is sober
though cumulative damage is large.
An amateur (society) obviously pays
attention to the killer shot. On theother hand, the expert concentrates
on low kick. The editor’s research isin the field of maintenance of urban
infrastructures. It is classified fromthe above-mentioned classification
into "Countermeasure for low kick"
I was seconded to AIT in the
middle of May 2005. Weekdays are
spent in AIT whereas the weekends
are spent in a hotel in Bangkok.
Many buildings are being

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

constructed rapidly in Bangkok until
midnight. It is very important to offer
facilities at the right time from theeconomic point of view. However, it
is a huge drawback that the qualityof the facilities decreases as a resultof the fast work. This was thesituation that Japan experienced
when the economic growth rate washigh. To solve this issue, it will costenormously. I sincerely wish
Thailand and other Asian countries
will not to be confronted with thesame problem as Japan had.
(by Y. Kato)PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 2
JULY-SEPTEMBER 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF ONLY EARTHQUAKES?
By
Taikan OKI
WHAT ARE PEOPLE IN JAPANAFRAID OF?
More than 90% of people in Japanare afraid of big earthquakes, but percentage of the people who are afraid ofextreme weather, such as typhoons,
torrential rainfall, and droughts, is lessthan 60% − recent survey by Tokyu
Agency Inc., an advertising agency,
illuminated the people’s consciousness
on their fear. Even though these twonatural disasters by seismic andatmospheric variations respectively are
the top two issues that people in Japanare apprehensive about their safety, why
are their perceptions quite different forthese two? The number of people whoare not afraid of wind storm and floods
is 4 times that of those who are notafraid of earthquakes. The survey by
Tokyu Agency Inc. was conducted in
September 2005. Its results are
consistent with the observation of thespecial public opinion poll conducted in
February 2005 by the Cabinet Office ofJapan which indicates that 34% of
people in Japan do not think they have
any risk from torrential rainfall or
typhoons.
In 2004, two torrential rainfall
events subsequently occurred in July
associated with the seasonal rain front
at Niigata and Fukushima, and Fukui
Prefectures and there were 10 landfallsof typhoons during the season. As aresult, over 200 lives were lost. If thesesurveys either by Tokyu Agency Inc. orby the Cabinet Office of Japan weredone in 2003, before the prominent
damage of 2004, awareness of the risk
against floods would have been muchless and people must have expressed
their fear mostly against earthquakes.
Actually, there was an earthquakeof magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scalein Chuetsu region of Niigata Prefecture
on October 23, 2004, and of course,
this disaster reminded the risk ofearthquakes for the people in Japan.
This might have been reflected in to theresults of the survey, as well.

Property damage due to flood caused by failure of embankment

page 2
donation compared to the weighted
total damage by each disaster.
Apparently, people suffered by floods
were not well treated and supported,and the situation is really unfair.

Damage by Natural Disasters
in FY2004

Ratio of the donation compared to
the weighted total damage

Victims and economic loss
due to flood
Above table is a list of damages
caused by natural disasters summarized
by Fire and Disaster Management
Agency, Japan for the Japanese fiscal
year of 2004, namely from April 2004
through March 2005. The number ofearthquake related death toll wasincreased till October 4, 2005. All thenumbers include the indirect damage,for example, those who lost their lives
during the evacuation or in the hospital,
and the period of counting the damage
is not set unlike the statistics of car
accidents in Japan, which counts only
the loss within 24 hours after accidents.
As is apparent from the table above,
many lives were lost due to floods in2004. The number is exceptional inrecent Japan as shown in above figure.
It was not rare a few decades ago for thedeath toll in a year due to floods to be
more than a few hundreds. But since
1982, when severe floods in Nagasaki
Prefecture resulted in 299 deaths or
missings, human casualties have been
decreasing even though the economic
losses have not decreased significantly.

The perception of higher interest inearthquake than flood can be observedin the number of articles onnewspapers. Below figure shows
typical example for the case of the
Asahi Shimbun NewsPaper. The
number of articles on the Typhoon No.
23 (TOKAGE) was the peak on
October 21, the next day of the mostserious damages were given and follow
up articles were on the page
space.However, after the big earthquake
hit Chuetsu region, Niigata Prefecture,in the evening on October 23, most of
the space were filled with the articles on
the earthquake and articles on thefloods were suppressed. Absolute
number of articles, photos and figureson earthquake were much larger
compared to those on floods, eventhough the total number of the death toll
due to the Typhoon No.23 only wasclose to 100; it was less than 40 at thatmoment by the earthquake.
This difference of the attention bymass media made difference for the
charity donation. Approximately 30
billion yen of charity donation were sent
for the earthquake; however, it was only
3 billion yen for the Typhoon No.23.
Left figure illustrates the ratio of theTransition of newspaper articles about Typhoon No.23(Asahi Shimbun Newspaper)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

FLOODS IN JAPAN IN 2004
Some characteristics are diagnosedin the floods of 2004. Although not surprising, disaster challenged people −either aged person over 65 years old or
handicapped person− accounted for
64% of the deaths or missings due tofloods and landslides in Japan in 2004.
Percentage of persons aged over 65
years is approximately 20% in Japan
now. It was a shock for experts of flood
disaster mitigation to hear the news ofaged person drowned in floods because
recent casualties were mostly by landslides, and only a few were lost due todropping into a flooded channel
accidentally or being confined in a basement. This fact initiated the discussion
on how to issue more efficient alert
information introduced below.
Many cases were observed where
people were isolated in their houses andcould not evacuate from the inundated
area. Because of the large area and thenumber of people affected, it took longtime for helicopters to safely transfer allaffected people to safe places.
Fortunately no serious damage wasreported but day nurseries and schools
were isolated and some children had tospend over night there. It is surprisingchildren were in day nurseries andschools when flood warning was issued.
We should not put too much priority for
efficiency in our daily activities but
should accept idleness underemergency; we should stay at homewith children and should not let them gooutside under severe weather conditions.
Other common feature of thedamage due to floods in the last year
was that the levees of main stream ofmajor rivers managed by the nationalriver bureau were fine even thoughwater level exceeded the dangerous
level at some locations. However, leveecrevasse occurred at the sections oftributaries of major river basins that aremanaged by prefectures.
Unfortunately, most of the hazard
maps or the inundation hazardous areas
were estimated for levee crevasse ofmain streams of major rivers, and inundated areas in the last year were notpage 3
foreseen. As bad luck would have it,flood forecasting systems were notgenerally installed and operated inthese tributaries.
It was known before, but it wasalso made clear by the flood disasters
in 2004 that higher levee can holdlarger floods, however, once leveecrevasse occur red, the damage
particularly close to the levee becomes
seriously severer. Practically it is
impossible to secure the safety of levee
for its all length, therefore, we should
consider the risk of levee failure andtheir impacts in the design of river
improvement measures.
W H AT L E S S O N S W E R E
LEARNT AND WHAT ARE THE
MITIGATION MEASURES?
It was recognized that the delays in
issuing flood alert to the local people by
the local governments were one of thecritical reasons that flood damages wereintensified. According to the recent
survey, it was suggested that disasterchallenged persons need additional one
hour, approximately, for theirevacuation. There were only two
categories of disaster related alert that
local government issued in the past:evacuation instructions and evacuation
directives. Reflecting on the disasters in
2004, evacuation preparation
information was added and thereactions local people should take when
they hear these three commands, wereclearly defined, which may have beendifferent in each local government. For
the case of flood alert, the “evacuation
preparation information” is issued whenwater table is expected to reach to thedangerous level within certain time,over which the safety of the leveecannot be guaranteed. The “certaintime” here is defined as the time within
the duration disaster challenged person
can evacuate and the accuracy of theinformation can be assured. Disasterchallenged person should evacuate
immediately and ordinary people
should start preparing for theirevacuation if they touch with the“evacuation preparation information.”
Evacuation instructions are issued when
the water table is expected to reach thedangerous level within certain time;“certain time” being the duration within
which ordinary people can evacuate.
All the people should evacuate

immediately. An evacuation directive isissued when serious disaster has alreadyhappened, such as levee crevasse,
finding of critical cracks in levees or alarge quantity of leakage of water,
failure of flood management facilities
such as water gates or pumping stations,or the reach to the dangerous waterlevel. People are suggested to evacuate
immediately if they can but they should
assure the safety of the evacuationroute. These three levels of alerts aredefined for storm surges, landslidedisasters, and tsunamis, as well. The
basic philosophy is the same as for thecase of flood alerts.
Mayors are responsible for issuingflood alerts, but practically speaking,municipal governments are not used toflood disasters and are not equipped tocarry out proper flood prediction. For
these typically small rivers a newconcept of “special warning waterlevel” is recommended. Mayors aresuggested to issue the “evacuation
preparation information” when thewater level reaches the “special
warning water level.”
WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT ARE GOING ON AT IIS/UNIV. OF TOKYO?
Oki and Kanae Laboratory, theHydrology and Water Resources Engineering Laboratory at the IIS, the University of Tokyo, has been working on
the global water cycle within thecontext of earth system science andworld water resources assessment
including the virtual water trade.
Corresponding to the recent floods
disasters in Japan, they have started todevelop a macro scale hydrologicalmodeling system which covers wholeland area all over Japan. Prototype
model was developed in 0.1 degree
horizontal resolution, and proved thatthe prediction by the Meso Scale
Model of the Japan Meteorological
Agency, which is delivered in real timethrough the internet, can be used forpractical flood forecasting. The
modeling system is now under revisionand improvement of its accuracy. The
merit of the modeling system is unlike
the classical rainfall-runoff modeling inhydrology; soil moisture distribution
can be obtained simultaneously, and is
expected to be used for the risk
assessment of land slides considering

the historical record of soil moisture
estimated by offline simulation.
Such a modeling system will also
be developed in Thailand under theJapan EOS (Earth Observation
System) Promotion Project (JEPP),
which was initiated by the approval of
the 10-year implementation plan of the
GEOSS ( Global Earth Observation
System of Systems). Even though thedemonstration project of thehydrological modeling system will be
developed in Mae Waang river basinnear Chiang Mai, Thailand incooperation with Thai Universities,
such as Kasetsart, Chulalongkorn, andKing Mongkut, and Thai Operational
Agencies such as Royal Irrigation
Department, Thai Meteorological
Department, and Royal Forestry
Department, hydrometeorological andclimatological studies should have ascope covering whole Indo-China
Peninsula and neighboring oceans suchas Andaman Sea and South China Sea.
This scope fits to the planning of new
project “Monsoon Asia HydroAtmospheric Science Research andPrediction Initiative” (MAHASRI) as a
successive project of the GEWEXAsian Monsoon Experiment (GAME).
Our project will have close relationshipwith GEOSS, MAHASRI,
IAHS/PUB, GWSP, GE-WEX/
GSWP, etc., and probably will have aname such as “GEOSS and
MAHASRI Experiment in Tropics”(GaME-T). GaME-T aims to investigate the “Scientific Basis for Hydrometeorological Warning System” inshort, medium, and long ranges forflood and drought management withthe basic understanding of Asian
Monsoon System and the latest
technology of monitoring andmodeling. All the interested researchersand stakeholders are welcome to join
the new project.
REMARKS
There are also many issues to be
discussed in this topic, such as theimpact of climate change, global
warming to the water resources management,the development of therobustness against flood disaster incommunity, integrated water resourcesmanagement incorporated with theland use management, but they will be
introduced in another occasion.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

page 4After ten years of my affiliation with INCEDE/ICUS- Greetings from the Monash University, Australia After ten years of my association
with this quarterly newsletter as a staffof INCEDE and then ICUS, for the
first time I am writing as a network
member of ICUS. It makes me
nostalgic with flash back of so many
interesting events and activities of
INCEDE and ICUS that I participatedin during the last 10 years of my stay at
the University of Tokyo. Walking
down the memory lane, I joined
INCEDE in August 1995 as a
Research Associate after obtaining my
M. Eng. degree in civil and water
resources engineering from the Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT). Soon
after joining INCEDE, I got many
wonderful opportunities to participate
in several international projects of
INCEDE in areas of urban disastermitigation. I was also assigned theeditorial task of the INCEDE
newsletters. Through these activities, I
got to know and work with many
enthusiastic INCEDE and ICUS
Network members and in the course oftime, I developed long lasting
friendship with many of them. I shallcherish our friendship in the days andyears to come and look forward to
having opportunities again to workwith from the Monash University.
I am grateful to the then INCEDE
Directors Prof. T. Katayama, Prof. K.
Sudo and colleagues Prof. S. Herathand Prof. K. Meguro for giving me theopportunity and support to complete
my Ph.D. from the University ofTokyo in 1999 as a working staff of
INCEDE. As INCEDE became ICUS
in 2001, I became a research staff of
ICUS. With the expansion of researchareas at ICUS to urban safety, our teamand activities were expanded. That
expanded the horizon for me to workwith some of the great researchers. In
2003, I was promoted to the positionof Associate Professor. Promotion
comes with additional loads; it was not
exceptional for me. I was immediately
assigned with the responsibility of
coordinating the activities of theRegional Network Office of Urban
Safety (RNUS) at AIT, which was
newly established for regional
collaboration of ICUS in areas ofurban safety. For this task, I joined the
School of Civil Engineering of AIT asa visiting Associate Professor.
Coordinating a new off ice waschallenging, but with the wonderfulsupport of my colleagues from ICUS
and AIT, I was successful inestablishing and expanding theactivities of RNUS and initiating
several collaborative research projects.
I thank Prof. Taketo Uomoto, theICUS Director for rendering his
unconditional support to me in myinitiatives at RNUS.
The ten years of my career at the
University of Tokyo is the mostsatisfactory and enriching experienceof my professional life so far. I takethis opportunity to thank all my pastand present colleagues at the
University of Tokyo for their kind
support to me during my stay.
I moved to Australia in July 2005
to join the School of Applied Sciencesand Engineering (SASE) of theMonash University as a faculty
member. At SASE, I am involved withteaching and research in areas of water

Gippsland campus, Monash University, Churchill, Victria, Austraria

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

engineering and science. SASE is
located in the modern and picturesqueGippsland campus of the Monash
University in the township of Churchill,
Victoria. The faculty of SASE consistsof a team of scientists and engineers ofvarious disciplines focusing on teaching
and research in multi-disciplinary areasof science and engineering. SASE
offers degrees and double-degrees inseveral fields of science by on-campus
and off-campus modes. The school alsooffers a range of honours, postgraduate
and research programs in science andengineering. One of the new programs
at SASE is the Bachelor of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering established
to meet the increasing demand of an
integrated program of civil andenvironmental engineering forsustainable development in the 21stCentury. The program provides broadbased capabilities for the design,
implementation and management ofcivil engineering solutions in anenvironmental context. If you are moreinterested to know about SASE or theMonash University, please feel free tocontact me any time by e-mail.
Finally, I extend my best wishes toall the colleagues at ICUS and RNUS
for their continued research endeavor
to enhance the safety and security of
Asian cities. I am looking forward tocollaborating with ICUS, RNUS and
its network members from my new
office in areas of water related urban
disaster risk management.
(by Dushmanta Dutta, Lecturer,
School of Applied Sciences
Engineering, Monash University
dushmanta.dutta@sci.monash.edu.au)

Dr. Dushmanta Dutta

page 5International Collaboration Between
Asia-Pacific Space Agencies for Disaster Reduction
A technical workshop of AsiaPacific Regional Space Agency Forum(APRSAF) titled “Disaster Reduction
through Effective Space Technology
Utilization in the Asia Pacific Region”
was held at Malaysian Centre for
Remote Sensing (MACRES), Kuala
Lumpur from May 24 to May 26, 2005.
APRSAF was established jointly by
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) and local space agencies of theregion. APRSAF12 will be held in
Kitakyushu-city, Japan in October, 2005.
The main themes of APRSAF canbe divided into two categories: (1)activities of local space agencies, and (2)international cooperation for disaster
reduction. As an example of local
activities, the National Institute of
Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN),
Indonesia reported about the remotesensing applications in disastermanagement in Indonesia. It has been
trying to improve the capability for early
detection, warning and response tonatural disasters, especially“Weather/climate anomalies”,“Droughts”, “Floods” and “Land/Forest
fires”. LAPAN has developed several
systems such as “Potential flooded area
monitoring system”, “Fire danger rating

system” and “Smoke dispersion
modeling”. Most of the systems
combine satellite data such as MODIS(spatial resolution 250m, 500m and1km) and NOAA (spatial resolution
1.1km) images, and meteorological data.
LAPAN also pointed out current
problems, e.g. lack of expertise forinterpretation of the results, shortage of
supporting field data for validation, andlack of models and algorithms for thedisaster specific. LAPAN informed thatit needs technical trainings on modelingand database creation for remotesensing/Geographic Information System(GIS), and regular update of databaseand national/international collaboration.
From the viewpoint of aninternational cooperation, capacity
building and development of data
sharing network were mainly discussed.
JAXA has been supporting activities forcapacity building of remote sensing and
GIS through Geoinformatics Center,
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).
From the current fiscal year, these
activities are being implemented
through “Mini-project” as per local
needs. Trainees are expected to acquire
the knowledge and skills through miniprojects conducted by themselves under

Opening session of APRSAF
the supervision of AIT. Data sharing is
also one of the most important issues interms of disaster reduction. “AIT/JAXA
Digital Asia” project plans to develop adata network. It will require “nodes” indifferent countries to distribute thenecessary data efficiently. The projectplans to set up a data server at eachnode, and the server will be managed
by local space agencies. Many countries
expressed their willingness toparticipate, and installation of servers
and training of personnel are in
progress. Such international
collaboration is regarded as an
indispensable activity for the utilizationof remote sensing data for disaster
reduction.
(by J. Susaki)

Current Status and Countermeasures for Asbestos Problem
Professor Motoyasu Kamata of The
University of Tokyo, one of the bestexperts in asbestos removal techniquesin Japan, was interviewed about thestate of asbestos related problems inJapan and the measures being taken to
deal with them.
Recently, the damage caused byasbestos has been in the news in Japan.
Asbestos is the general term used forfibrous inorganic silicate minerals
belonging to the serpentine andamphibole groups with a length over
5µm and a thickness less than 3µm.
People tend to mistakenly believe thatasbestos itself is a toxin, but thesubstance itself exists in nature and is
not toxic. However, it is extremely fineand can get lodged in the lung alveoli
and other organs, and it is said to be thecause of mesothelioma. Fibers over acertain size are naturally expelled fromthe body, but those as fine as asbestos
accumulate within the body and lead toproblems. Also, the latency period ofasbestos is extremely long (sometimes

over 30 years) so it is often difficult toprove a causal relationship with theillness. Asbestos is highly fire-resistantand has excellent heat insulating
properties. Moreover, it is inexpensive.
These have led to its extensive use; it has
been used in construction materials
such as fireproofing boards and roofing
materials, ceiling spray, water pipes,
and so on. In line with increasingawareness of the damage caused byasbestos, use of spraying asbestos wasbanned by amendments to the Industrial
Safety and Health Law’s Ordinance on
the Prevention of the Hazards due toSpecified Chemical Substances in 1975.
It is said that if asbestos is solidified andis not dispersed, it is not harmful, but it
is inevitable that a certain amount isreleased during repair works anddemolition. Therefore, construction
works must be conducted with full
attention so that the asbestos is notdispersed into the air. At present, theBuilding Center of Japan is conducting
inspection and certification (previously

Spray asbestos(Asbestos center, Japan)
these inspections and certifications wereconducted with approval from the
Minister of Construction, but now they
are done voluntarily by the Building
Center) of methods that care about
prevention of asbestos contamination
and asbestos removal. However, there
are presently no punitive provisions andapplication of these methods is stilllargely up to the goodwill of thedeveloper and construction companies.
A legal solution is required for thismatter as soon as possible.
(by R. Ooka)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

page 6The 9th ICUS Open Lecture
The 9th ICUS Open Lecture washeld at Convention Hall of IIS in theafternoon of September 29, 2005.
The title of the lecture was “Safety
Problems of Structures in Japan.”
About 100 people attended thelecture. There were three speakers,
Dr. Tadayoshi Ishibashi, Dr. Makoto
K a n e u j i a n d P r o f . Te r u n o b u
Fujimori.
The topics were as follows:
1. Dr. Tadayoshi Ishibashi, Associate
Director, East Japan Railway
Company (JR East): “Seismic
Damage and Retrof itting ofRailway Structures”.
2. Dr. Makoto Kaneuji, Renewal
Group Leader, Technology
D eve l o p m e n t D e p a r t m e n t ,Kajima Corporation: “AssetManagement and Safety ofMotorway Bridges”.
3 . P r o f . Te r u n o b u F u j i m o r i ,Professor, Institute of Industrial
Science, The University ofTokyo: “Construction Safety inJapan from a HistoricalViewpoint ”.

Dr. T. Ishibashi

Dr. M. Kaneuji

Participants of the Open Lecture

All the three presentations werevery new and impressive to all thepar ticipants. Dr. T. Ishibashi
explained the details of the damage
to railway concrete structures causedby Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake
happened on October 23, 2004 (seeNewsletter Special Issue, Jan. 2005).
Dr. M. Kaneuji explained how theasset management of motorways are
now being done in Japan. Prof. T.
Fujimori explained the changes ofdesign concept for buildings since
14th century till now. Finally,
Professor K. Meguro of ICUS madeconcluding remarks on this Open
Lecture and expressed gratitude to
the participants.
(by T. Uomoto)Prof. T. Fujimori

CHAIN OF SURVIVAL AND AED
Coordinating with Tokyo
Emergency Association, Tokyo Fire
Department, ICUS conducted a
training seminar on Emergency
procedures and the use of AED(Automated External Defibrillator).
The tutors explained that during
emergency response, the mostimportant things to keep in mind are‘speed’ and ‘appropriateness’ of the
response. In these cases, Sudden
cardiac arrest (SCA) has been foundto be one of the leading causes ofdeath, can kill up to 50% of thepatients within the first 3 minutes(M. Cara, 1981). The cardiac ‘Chainof Survival ’ is an important
methodology for increasing thevictim's chance of survival. It
consists of 4 main steps as follows.
( i ) Early access to care (Call 119 orother Emergency No.)(ii) First Aid and Heart Massage(cardiopulmonary resuscitation,
CPR)(iii) Early Defibrillation – use of AED(iv) Move quickly to Hospital. The
tutors explained, demonstrated
and got the participants topractice these procedures.
An AED is a device about thesize of a laptop computer thatanalyzes the heart's rhythm for any
abnormalities and, if necessary,
directs the rescuer to deliver anelectrical shock to the victim. This
shock, called defibrillation, may help
the heart to re-establish an effective
rhythm of its own. AED is easy tooperate as it uses voice prompts toinstruct the rescuer on when to apply
the shocks. It was really a goodexperience to have this training in
CPR and AED skills. There wereabout 20 participants and we thank
ICUS for organising it.
(by K. S. Rajan, Researcher,
Shibasaki Lab. IIS)

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

Training of cardiac massage

Certification of Emergency
procedure training

page 7

Receiving a Doctor’s Degree from the University of Tokyo
The recent incidences ofdamaging earthquakes have clearly
revealed that retrofitting of low
earthquake-resistant houses is the
key issue for earthquake disaster
reduction. However, the homeowners
possess various reasons not toretrofit their houses and retrofitting
are not carried out widely especiallyfor private houses. Ms. Miho
YOSHIMURA was awarded Ph.D
d egree for her study on new
strategies for providing incentives for

retrofitting vulnerable houses. Basedon the analysis on current problems
through questionnaire survey forhomeowners, a new system forproviding incentives for retrofitting
was proposed. Its main concept isthat the government guarantees a
portion of the housing repair andreconstruction expenses if retrofitting
is implemented by the owner
following the guidelines before theearthquake and in spite of this, thestructure is damaged. Its effectivenesswas verified by simulation. In several
earthquake prone countries.
(by K. Meguro)

ICUS New Staff
We are glad to introduce our newcolleague Dr. Hisashi Kanada, whojoined ICUS as Project Research
Associate from August 1, 2005. Hereceived D. Eng. Degree from the
University of Tokyo in September
2004.
His research interests include
non-destructive inspection using
spectros-copy, and he received an
incentive award of 2nd invention
contest at Institute of Industrial
Science, the University of Tokyo in
2004.
A remote non-destructive methodthat can detect deterioration factors
such as carbonation, chloride content
or sulfuric acid attack would be anout-standing innovation in inspection

methodologies. In his research,
remote non-destructive material
detection of concrete was attemptedusing near-infrared spectroscopy. This
enables us to obtain chemical
information of concrete by justsensing reflected nearinfrared raysfrom the measuring plane.

Dr. Hisashi Kanada

In the case of civil infrastructures,the inspection area is large, andenvironmental condition or location
may be tough; therefore, it often
requires high labor and cost in order
to inspect concrete structures. Nearinfrared spectral imaging system wasalso introduced to scan distribution orconcentration of deleterious
substances two-dimensionally. Thismethod would prove to be a very
effective technique for inspectors.
Recently, he is involved indeveloping a new remote and nondestructive testing method for
concrete structures. Results ofresearch are expected to be applied
for field inspection.
(by T. Uomoto)

ICUS Activities
Cheju (Sep 3-5) and 2nd ICI• First student seminar was held andAsian Conference on Ecstasy in
25 students in ICUS reported
Concrete in Mumbai.
current research results (Jul 20).
• Prof. Uomoto attended ConMat'05 • Prof. Meguro visited Columbo, Sri
Lanka for a workshop on ‘2004
Third International Conference on
Tsunami Impact’ (Sep 15-19).
Construction
Materials:
Performance, Innovations and • Dr. Ooka attended The Sixth AsiaPacif ic Conference on WindS t r u c t u ra l I m p l i c a t i o n s , i n
Engineering (APCWE-VI) in Seoul
Vancouver (Aug 21-26), Korea(Sep 11-14) and 8th International
Japan Joint Workshop on the
Symposium on Fire Safety Science
Assessment of Infrastructures at(IAFSS) at Peking (Sep 18-23).
• Dr. Oki visited Visiting TMD,
RID, Phitsanulok site in Thailand
for meeting (Jul 24-27) andattended the Hydrology 2020
Meeting in Stockholm (Aug 2025).
• Dr. Kato stayed at Asian Instituteof Technology for his research
work at RNUS and education(May 24 - Jul 21, Aug 1 - Sep 8).

Awardso f B l o o d F l ow ’ a t t h e 3 rd • Dr. Elkholy Said Abd-elffatah• Prof. Uomoto received the Merit
International Conference on
Said, a researcher of Prof.
Award from Japan Concrete
Human-Environment System.
Meguro’s Laboratory, won theInstitute.
Excellence Presentation Award• Dr. Ooka won the Excellent • Mr. Masanori Ito, researcher ofProf. Uomoto’s Laboratory, won
at the 7th International Sum-mer
Presentation Award (Poster) for
the Incentive Award for the paper
Symposium of Japan Society of‘ D ev e l o p m e n t o f a T h re eof Annual Conference of the Japan
Civil Engineering.
Dimensional Human Thermal
Concrete
Institute.
Model AccountingforDirectionrdSome of the participants of the symposium on 23 June before the Keynote speech

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 2

page 8
Editor’s Note
A giant earthquake hit Pakistan
on October 8, 2005. An article ofnewspaper Bangkok Post on November 14, 2005 tells that morethan 86,000 people are known tohave died in the earthquake.
World Food Programme (WFP)
requested rich nations for funds todeliver vital aid to the damaged
areas. But delivery is facing severe
logistic problems. Because roads tomountain villages are crumpled,
covered with landslides or havealready been swept away,
helicopters cannot reach the destinations to deliver food and shelter.
People are still carrying on theirbacks. A series of news remind us ofseverity caused by disasters.
After about a year of the Indian
Ocean Tsunami of December 26,
2004, a five-day international work-

shop hosted by Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) was held in
Bangkok from October 2. Most of theparticipants, about 30 participantsfrom 10 Asian countries, were seniorhealth professionals and people
involved in policy formulation. The
agenda focused on the lessons fromtsunami, e.g. disaster preparedness
and management procedures for
dealing with the dead and missing.
As I have been in Bangkok andworking at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), located at a suburb of
Bangkok, for these nine months, I had
many chances to discuss tsunami
with Thais including AIT staff as wellas the public. The discussions showedthat nowadays many Thais knowwhat tsunami is and regard it as aterrible disaster.
A TV news program reported that
there was a drill of an evacuation fortsunami in Phuket island, Thailand.

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Many people were running after an
emergency notice was announced,
and some of them were smiling while
walking.
We Japanese have experienced
such drills many times sincechildhood. The drill conducted in
Thailand, however, may berecognized as a milestone from aviewpoint of disaster education. As
Prof. Meguro has repeatedly insisted,disaster education is quite important
to improve people's ability to imagine
disasters’ effects and make proper
decisions after a disaster happens. As
a result of tsunami aftermath, it
seems that the public is ready to beproactive for disaster preparedness
and mitigation. I strongly hope thatthe concept of "preparedness" fordisasters will be recognized widely
not only in Thailand but also in other
Asian countries.
(by J. Susaki)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 3
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

FROM GROUND SHOCKS TO AIR BLASTS:
MULTIPLE-HAZARDS PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS
By
TSO-CHIEN PAN *
Reflecting the rapid economic
growth and development, manyhigh-rise buildings and complex
infrastructure systems have been
constructed in recent decades inalmost all Mega Cities of Asia. Of
concern is the high concentrationof population and commercial
activities taking place in thesecities. Therefore, the consequencesof even a moderate disaster may beenormous in these cities. Recent
technological development has
motivated the devising of new
methodologies for sustainable
development of Asian Mega Cities
with adequate safety and security.
The importance of using advanced
tools in urban safety has beenrecognized by the International
Center for Urban Safety
Engineering (ICUS). This is theMap of epicentermotivation for ICUS to organize aseries of symposium in the AsianRegion. These symposiums
encourage trilateral communication
among researchers, practitioners
and policy- makers, whereby the
epicenter of this is evidently human
lives. Any improvement of urban
safety serves to better protect thecore of a community – human
lives.

Republic Plaza

page 2

Numerically determined displacement compared with recorded displacement
T h e Fo u r t h I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Symposium on New Technologies
for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in
Asia (USMCA 2005) was held in
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, during October 18-19,
2005. It was co-organized byProtective Technology ResearchCenter, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, and ICUS,
IIS, University of Tokyo, Japan.
About 100 participants fromvarious countries were present. The
countries included Australia,
Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Japanand Singapore. The participants
included engineering researchers,
defence scientists, design engineers
a n d m e m b e r s o f g ove r n m e n torganizations. The variation of theparticipant’s background supports
the philosophy of ICUS’s intent for
t h e s e s y m p o s i u m s . Fo r t h i s
symposium, the areas discussed
include safety assessmentand monitoring of existing
infrastructure, threat reduction
and consequence management,
structures subjected to seismic,
shock and impact loads,
environmental impact assessmentof urbanization, tsunamis, flood andenvironmental risk assessments.
During the symposium, the two cochairmen of the symposium, Prof.
Kimiro Meguro and Prof. Pan TsoChien, were interviewed by the
Channel News Asia Television
Station. During the interview, boththe co-chairmen emphasized theneed for the balance between
engineering solutions and theenforcement of these solutions.
Within the Singapore community, the concerns about urban
safety include: (a) the response ofbuildings subjected to far-f ield
earthquake ground motions; (b)ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

damage assessment of buildings
subjected to ground shocks; and (c)blast response of buildings.
FAR-FIELD EARTHQUAKEMOTIONS
Singapore is located in a low
seismicity region of Sunda plate.
The Sumatran fault and theSumatran subduction zone, arelocated more than 350 km away.
While earthquakes have neverp o s e d a ny r e a l p r o bl e m s f o r
Singapore, previous large
earthquakes have induced tremors
felt in Singapore. Like other mega
cities, the lack of free surface land
has prompted the construction oftaller buildings. These taller andflexible buildings may respond
more significantly to long period,f a r- f i e l d e a r t h q u a k e g r o u n dmotions.
On 26 December 2004, theGreat Sumatra-Andaman Islands
Earthquake (Mw = 9.0) occurred
off the northwest coast of Sumatra,Indonesia. The epicenter of thisearthquake is about 916 km westnorthwest from Singapore (figure
in previous page).
Since 1996, one of the tallest
buildings in Singapore, theRepublic Plaza shown in previous
page has been instrumented to
study buildings responses due towinds and far-field earthquakes.
The Republic Plaza is a 66-storey,
280 m high tower consisting of aframe-tube structural system with acentral core wall, in turn connected
to a ring of external columns by ahorizontal steel framing system at
every floor. From ambient vibration
tests, the predominant frequenciesof the building are found to be 0.19
H z a n d 0 . 2 0 H z , i n t h e t wo
horizontal directions.

Accelerometers are installed at
the basement level and the roof
level, along the two principle
directions of the building. The
accelerometers recorded thebuilding vibration during the Great
Sumatra-Andaman Islands
earthquake. The ground signals
recorded at the basement were usedas the input to the finite element
model of the Republic Plaza. Whensubjected to this input groundmotion, the response resultso b t a i n e d n u m e r i c a l ly we r ecompared with the recorded
responses shown in above figure.
At the roof level, the displacement
response obtained by the numericalmethod is reasonably similar to thatof the recorded response.
GROUND SHOCKS
Most mega cities have limited
free space. Singapore’s national
effort is to intensify its land use.
This has prompted under-groundspace development, leading to the
housing of ammunition storages
underground. As a result, groundshocks due to accidental
underground explosions and theireffects on surrounding buildings
are investigated.
Ground shock characteristics
can be segmented into two parts:
the major shock duration (Phase 1)
and the ensuing duration (Phase 2).
I t wa s s h ow n t h a t t h e h i g hfrequency nature of a ground shockleads to a large shear force withsmall deformation during Phase 1,
f o l l owe d by s i g n i f i c a n t
deformation during Phase 2. In
Phase 2, the responses of global
modes are signif icant, and thiswo u l d p o s s i bly c a u s e b e a m column joint failure.

page 3

Damage characteristics of a 6-storey RC frame to ground shocks
For non-seismically designed
beam-column sub-assemblies, it
has been experimentally observedthat the beam-column joints may
fail at an inter-storey drift ratio of
about 3 % of the storey height.
A non-seismically designed 6storey reinforced concrete (RC)frame was subjected to a simulated
ground shock. For the simulated
ground shock, the peak groundacceleration (PGA) is 124 gal, thepeak particle velocity (PPV) is 0.9
m/s and principal frequency isabout 200 Hz. By considering the
failure mechanisms of flexural
failure (FF), diagonal shear failure(SF) and joint failure (JF), thedamage for the 6-storey RC frame
subjected to the simulate groundshock was assessed.
A parametric study was
undertaken which involved thescaling of the PGA, PPV andprincipal frequency of thesimulated g round shock. The

Stresses and deformation for
short standoff

characteristics of the scaled groundshock leading to the various failure
mechanisms, are shown in theabove Figure.
AIR BLASTS
Effects of an air blast explosion
on a high-rise commercial RC
building resulting from a vehicle
bomb at the ground level area,
were investigated. The objective
was to investigate the effect ofstandoff distance on building
damage. The high-rise commercial
building selected for the study wasa 30-storey RC structure withframes and a shear wall core.
For a long standoff distancecase, the defor mation wasconcentrated at the ground column
and the beams of the second andthe third storeys. The beam
deformation was focused at its
ends where local damages
occurred like as the figure below.
However, for a short standoff

Stresses and deformation forlong standoff

distance, the dynamic deformation
was localized at the blastloaded
columns spanning the first and thethird storeys. The beams connectedwith these columns might thus
be damaged. Large residual
deformations were observed forthe blast-loaded columns and thebeams connected to them. Thus,
the beams connected to thesecolumns might be damaged asshown in the figure.
Compared with the case of longs t a n d o ff d i s t a n c e , t h e g l o b a l
response hardly existed in thes h o r t s t a n d o ff d i s t a n c e c a s e .
Furthermore, compared with thecase of long standoff distance, thedamage in the case of short standoff distance was more localized.
CONCLUSIONSIn summary, there is a need toinvestigate systematically theeffects of multiple hazards which
may include both natural and manmade events. In this article, themultiple hazards investigatedcomprised the effects of longdistance major Sumatra earthquakes, ground shocks, and air
blasts. The dynamic response of
the non-seismically designed
building structures in Singapore tothese multiple hazards has shown
varying characteristics.
This will pose a challenge tothe engineering community whomust strike a balance between
safety and economy in designingand constructing a building
structure to resist multiple hazards.
The consequences from any
extreme event of multiple hazards
could be devastating to mega-cities
due to the high concentration of
population and also the high-valueof commercial and f inancial
activities. However, it is importantto realize that the dynamic effects
o f t h e s e eve n t s h ave va r y i n gcharacteristics and frequency ofoccurrence.
* Director, Protective Technology
Research Centre, Nanyang
Technological University,
Singapore

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

page 44th International Symposium on New Technologies for
Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia at NTU, Singapore
On October 18-19, 4th International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in
Asia was held at Nanyang Executive
Centre, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore. The symposium
was co-organized by ICUS andProtective Technology Research Centre,
School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, and sponsored

by Center for Sustainable Urban
Regeneration, The University of Tokyo,
21st Century Center of Excellence
Program, Ministry of Home Affairs(Singapore), Shimizu Corporation,
CPG Corporation Pte Ltd. and Surbana
International Consultants Pte Ltd..
Seven keynote papers and 63
technical papers were presented. 97
delegates from 12 countries
participated in the symposium.

This symposium provided aplatform for sharing knowledge andforming a network among the Asian
researchers. The number ofparticipants are increasing and thequality of papers are improving at
each new symposium. The next
symposium will be held at Phuket,
Thailand on December 16-17, 2006.
Further details will be announced soon.
(by H.Kanada)

Number of participants per country

Number of presentation

Symposium participants pose for a group photo

RNUS Activities
RNUS Seminar
On October 20, RNUS organizedanother RNUS seminar on ‘Advanced
Technology for Urban Safety – Against
Disaster and Hazardous Environment’.
Four professors from the University ofTokyo were invited to give thepresentation. The presenters were Prof.
T. Uomoto, Prof. R. Amano, Prof. K.
Meguro,and AssociateProf.R.Ooka.
The content of this seminar covers
technologies applicable to prevent
various types of disaster and toevaluate hazardous environmental
condition. There were approximately
80 audiences in this seminar. Not only
staffs and students of AIT but thosefrom other institutes and engineersfrom construction companies alsojoined this event.
Field Trip to New Airport
RNUS held the field trip to the
new international airport of

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

Thailand on October19,2005.The on September 29, 2000 and aname of this new airport were foundation stone laying ceremony
conferred by H.M. the King as was held on January19,2002.
Suvarnabhumi or“GoldenLand”
The field trip which was led by
Dr. Tokuda began with a brief
introduction about the airport
construction and ended with a visit
to the construction of runways andterminals.
Suvarnabhumi airport has an
approximate area of 8,000 acres andis located around 25 km to the east
Prof.W. Kanok-Nukulchai gavea present to Prof. T. Uomoto
from the downtown Bangkok.
There are two 60-m wide parallel
runways (4,000 and 3,700 m.
respectively). Two parallel taxiways
were designed to accommodate
simultaneous departures andarrivals. The annual passenger
capacity is expected to be 45 million
at opening day and 100 million upon
Dr.Tokuda:Chief of Thai Obayaattaining the full capacity.
shi Corp in Suvarnabhumi Airport(by R. Sahamitmongkol)

ICUS PARTICIPA-

page 5

Pakistan and India was Struck
by a M 7.6 Earthquake on October 8, 2005
On October 8, 2005, at 3:50
(UTC), a magnitude 7.6 earthquake,with a focal depth of 26 km, struck the
North of Pakistan and North West ofIndia. Most damaged area is North
Western Frontier Province (NWFP),
and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)in Pakistan. Many cities, towns andvillages were heavily damaged.

Casualties in Pakistan and India(as of November 20, 2005
by UN OCHA Relief Web)

Casualties at schools in AJK,
Pakistan (as of November 20,
2005 by UN OCHA Relief Web)

Damaged buildings in Pakistan(as of November 20, 2005
by UN OCHA Relief Web)

Damaged school buildings in AJK,
Pakistan (as of November 20, 2005
by UN OCHA Relief Web)The statistics of humancasualties and structural damage areprovided in the following tables. Dueto this earthquake, approximately
75,000 people and 77,000 were killed
and injured, respectively. Mainly all
types of masonry structures weredamaged during this earthquake.
This earthquake occurred in a
mountainous area like the 2004 Mid-

Niigata Prefecture Earthquake, Japan.
So the geo-related damage waswidespread. Many roads were broken
and damaged. Therefore, many
people living in mountainous area
were isolated and could not evacuate
and get foods and tents. Military
carried affected people to refugeec a m p s o r m e d i c a l c e n t e r s byhelicopters. They made temporary
heliports at riverbeds and fields andused them.
One of the features of thisearthquake damage was that publicbuildings, especially school buildings
had heavy damage near the epicenter.
So many students and teachers wereaffected (see upper right table). School

Many public buildings were collapsed(Muzaffarabad)

Many large land slides were observed(Muzaffarabad)

Map of Damaged Area
(UN OCHA Relief Web)

Pancake collapse of building(Abbottabad)buildings located not near the
epicenter had also cracks in the walls.
As the earthquake occurred during
school time, students ran away fromclassrooms without their textbook,bags etc. After the earthquake, thestudents did not return to the schools
due to three reasons: “Students do notwant to come to school”; “Theirparents do not send them to school”;
and “Teachers do not want to go toschool”. So it is necessary to provide
psychological support to both students
and teachers and construct emergency
building for schools.
(by Shinya Kondo,
Researcher of Disaster Reductionand Human Renovation
Institution)

Temporary heliport set at dry riverbed(Alai)

Due to fear of earthquake, both students and teachers dislike attending
school even if the structural damage were not so severe (Mansehra)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

page 6

Potential of Coastal Industry in Tsunami Disaster Reduction
A year has passed since the hugetsunami generated by a M9.0
earthquake off Sumatra devastated
Indian Ocean rim countries. The
number of victims by this event wasreported as over 300,000. However,the number is still unconfirmed evenafter one year due to lack of proper
identity check and a large number ofdead bodies being carried away byhuge waves. Affected countries areseeking a reasonable approach to
improve their preparedness against
tsunami disaster to avoid the sameconsequence in the future.
Most straightforward approachfor tsunami disaster reduction
would be setting back from the coastline. However, it is not always an
acceptable solution for everyone.
As s how n in photos, the ir
livelihood is inseparably linked toocean. Beach front location whichallows guests good access to waterpleasure, nice ocean view andcomfortable sound of waves is anindispensable factor for resort hotels.
Fishers tend to live just next toshore line. They use beach as adock to maintain fishing boats andequipments, an yard to process thecatch and meeting space withneighbors for f ishers. With thisreality, tsunami warning system(TWS) can be a most practicalsolution.
Meguro Lab., IIS, The Universityof Tokyo has proposed a sustainable

Concept of Sustainable Tsunami
Warning System using MultiPurpose Maritime Observation
TWS concept using Multi-Purpose
Obser vation Buoy Network.
Important characteristics of thissystem are its simplicity, economical
efficiency and daily-usability. Indian
Ocean rim countries have lessresource of technologies, researchersand experiences of tsunami disasters
compared with Pacific Ocean rim
countries. So, it is important formonitoring tsunami which occurs inaround 100-year period continuously
without any interruptions to developa scheme to use and maintain themonitoring system on daily basis.
Industries inherent in coastal area
have strong need to collect various
kinds of information as shown in
middle figure above.Promotion ofcoastal industries and continuous
tsunami monitoring can beaccomplished by adding tsunami
monitoring function on the systemcollecting daily use information.
Minimum unit of the system is
one or two multi-purpose observationb u oy s o p e r a t e d by o n e b e a c hsociety. The cost to maintain thesystem should be shared by the beachleft: resort beach in PhiphiIs., Thailand right: a fishing village in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Networked Multipurpose
Buoy Systemsociety, who will receive the mostbenefit from the system. When manybeach societies install the system andjoin the multi-purpose observationb u oy n e t wo r k b eyo n d t h eadministrative or internationalboundary, it must be possible togather marine information neededon daily basis in much larger scale
and to get more advantage before
tsunami arrival even in case oftransoceanic tsunami.
Understanding and cooperationof local leading industries andg ove r n m e n t s a r e e s s e n t i a l t oimplement this kind of plan. We
had opportunities to talk with resort
hotel owners, managers and local
government officers in our fieldsurveys. It was found that hotel
owners and managers who did notreceive physical damage on theirp r o p e r t i e s b u t s u ff e r e d f r o mdecline of guests with harmful
rumors tends to have a strong
interests on our concept. We wish
to implement our concept incooperation with those local
stakeholders and contribute to thetsunami disaster safety in theircountries.
For further information: see
ICUS Report, Report on the 2004
Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami
Disaster, 2005- 01.
(by Masasuke Takashima,
Lecturer of FujiTokoha University)

INTER MAINTECH 2005
Inter Maintech 2005 was heldfrom November 15 to 18 at Tokyo
International Exhibition Center. This is
the only trade show in Japan which
focuses on diagnosis and repair as wellas maintenance related management
technology from industrial facilities tosocial-capital infrastructure related
facilities such as concrete and steel
structures.
ICUS set up booth and presented
the following research topics;
1. Diagnosis software for concrete
structures (concrete bridges, piled

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

3. Online monitoring system for aging
piers, tunnels)
concrete bridges
2. Development of new technique toOver 400 specialists visited our
detect deleterious substances ofconcrete using NIR spectral imaging booth and were interested in exhibits.
Various publications from ICUS weresystemalso distributed there. Stock ran out due
to heavy demand of ICUS publications.
ICUS will make a presentation at
The 10 Earthquake Technology EXPO
scheduled to take place at PACIFICOYOKOHAMA from February 2 to 3,
2006.Please come and visit our booth.
(by H. Kanada)
Booth of ICUS

ICUS PARTICIPA-

page 7

Open Campus of IIS Chiba Experiment Station
The Institute of Industrial Science(IIS) of the University of Tokyo
organized an open house at its Chiba
Experiment Station on November 11,
2005. There were 651 participants inthis event.
ICUS also participated in thisevent and presented its research
activities. The ICUS topic was“Towards Safety Improvement in
Mega Cities.” Research associate ofI C U S , D r. E n d o g u i d e d a n d
explained the research works to theparticipants.
Elementary school students
from near the experiment station
visited the facilities. They listened
to Dr. Endo intently. They attended
and drew picture on concrete blockat the Uomoto laboratory.
Professor Uomoto, the head of
Chiba Experiment Station gave a
special lecture on “Urban Safety on
Concrete.”(by R. Ooka)

Guidance by Dr. Endo

Special lecture by Prof. Uomoto

ICUS New Staff
ICUS is glad to welcome its new
staff, Dr. Raktipong Sahamitmongkol
who joined ICUS as Researcher from
October 1st, 2005.
He received his Ph.D degree fromthe school of civil engineering, theUniversity of Tokyo in September,2005. During his doctoral study, healso got the outstanding presentation
award at the annual meetings of Japan
Concrete Institute (JCI) and Japan
Society of Civil Engineering (JSCE).
His research interests are the usage of
expansive agent to prevent cracking
or to control cracking condition in
RC structure.
In his research, it was found thatthe expansive additive with suitablereinforcement not only induces
beforehand the compressive stress inconcrete, but it can also enhance theductile behavior of concrete. As aresult, the cracking of RC structure canbe effectively prevented. This
technique is proved advantageous toDr. Raktipong Sahamitmongkol

elongate the service life of important
infrastructure.
He has been assigned to station at
the Regional Network for Urban
Safety (RNUS) which locates in the
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT),
Thailand to activate morecollaborative research with other Thai
organizations.
Recently, he started more research
program including the study about theapplication of ferrocement to protect
the structural element in building
from bomb blasting, bridge inspection
in Bangkok Metropolitan Area, andthe application of NDT to inspect thecondition of concrete structure.
(by T. Uomoto)

ICUS Activities
Seminar at AIT (Oct 20-21).
• Project team was formed toconsider the role of The University • Prof. Meguro attended RNUS
Seminar at AIT (Oct 20-21), Worldof Tokyo Hospital in a time ofSeismic Safety Initiative board
disaster. The joint working groupmeeting in Singapore and visited
meetings are regularly convened.
Islamabad to investigate the• All ICUS members participated indamage due to northern Pakistan
the 4th International Symposium
earthquake (Oct 22-Nov 1).
on New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia at • Dr. Ooka attended RNUS Seminar
at AIT (Oct 20-21), International
NTU, Singapore (Oct 18-19).
S y m p o s i u m o n S u s t a i n abl e• Second student seminar was held
D ev e l o p m e n t o f A s i a C i t yand 25 students in ICUS reported
Environment 2005 in China (Novtheir current research results
23-27).
(Dec 9).
• Prof. Uomoto attended RNUS • Dr. Oki attended The Second PostGAME Planning Workshop in
Seminar at AIT (Oct 20-21) and
Thailand (Nov 4-7) and The Second
13th general meeting and working
Post-GAME Planning Meeting inof ISO/TC71 in Seoul (Nov 27-30).
Thailand (Nov 19- 24).
• Prof. Amano attended RNUS

• Dr. Kato stayed at Asian Instituteof Technology for his research
work and teaching duties at
RNUS (Sep 19-Dec 9) anda t t e n d e d a c o n fe re n c e o n
D u rab i l i t y o f R e i n fo rc e d
C o n c re t e u n d e r C o m b i n e d
Mechanical and Climatic Loads
in China (Oct 26-31) and visited
Vietnam Institute for Building
S c i e n c e & Te ch n o l og y t oexchange views (Nov 10-13).
• Dr. Yoshimura attended RNUS
Seminar at AIT (Oct 20-21).
• Dr. Sahamitmongkol stayed at
Asian Institute of Technology for
his research work and teaching
duties at RNUS (Oct 5- Dec 18).

AwardsThree graduate students; D. Itoh, Takeshita (Kato lab.) won the
T. Nanjyo (Meguro lab.) and N. excellent presentation award at 60th

annual meeting of Japan Society of
Civil Engineers (Dec 26).

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3

page 8
Editor’s Note
In November 2005, a big shock
struck Japanese society throughnewspapers, radio and TV. Mr.
Hidetsugu Aneha, a first-classcertified architect confessed that hefaked records to make substandard
buildings look like they met Japan's
anti-earthquake requirements. In thecommittee of Japanese parliament,
he mentioned that he began faking
earthquake safety data around 1998,
when a developer asked him to
reduce costs by decreasing theamount of steel reinforcements below
the compulsory minimum in a Tokyo
apartment project. He mentionedthat he was under heavy pressure
from the developer to reduce steel
reinforcements. Initially he refused
the request because of his pride as afirst-class certified architect. But
considering the reduction inconstruction cost and pressure fromthe developer, altimately hesuccumbed. The newspapers
mentioned that at leat 88 structures(as of December 28, 2005) which hehas designed may collapse in amoderate earthquake tremor.

Keio Presso Inn, Gotanda
has been closed for demolition
due to lack of adequate
earthquake resistanceSuch news were never reported inJapan until now. The person, whobought the houses paying a large
amount of money, lost everything
except the loan which was lent to him
by the banks. If such a disaster iscaused by the natural hazards(earthquake, tsunami, flood, fire, etc.),
people and Japanese government may
try to help the victims by all means.
But in this faked design case, it may
not be easy to request the people ofour country to support the victims.
The systems now being used in ourcountry are all based on Japaneseculture and ethics that people will not

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

try to do things bad, unless by accident.
But this news gave us a big warning toour culture: Ethics is no longer
efficient and “Learning makes a goodman better and an ill man worse” (Seethe above figure). “Safety” is now
becoming one of the most important
requirements in urban area, and ICUS
has been working to prevent andreduce the natural disasters for morethan 5 years. May be we at ICUS haveto widen our researches to man madedisasters, not only natural hazards andterrorism but also to the faked works
which have not been exposed yet.
(by T.Uomoto)

PRINTED MATTERICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2006

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

RECENT EARTHQUAKE RELATED ACTIVITIESIN BANGLADESH
By
Mehedi Ahmed Ansary *In the recent past, Bangladesh has
not suffered any damaging large
earthquakes, but in the past few
hundred years, several large
catastrophic earthquakes struck thisarea. So far, all the major recent
earthquakes have occurred away frommajor cities, and have affected
relatively sparsely populated areas.
This has limited the human casualty
and the economic losses. However,
earthquakes in Gujurat (India, 2001),
Bam (Iran, 2003), and Kashimir(Pakistan and India, 2005) have
amply
demonstrated
that
inappropriate construction technology
may lead to high casualty levels evenfor moderate earthquakes.

In 1897, an earthquake ofmagnitude 8.7 caused serious damage
to buildings in the northeastern part ofIndia including Bangladesh and over
1,500 people were killed. The
population around this region is at least
50 times larger than the population of1897 and cities like Dhaka, Kathmandu
and Guwahati have populations
exceeding several millions. It is a cause
for great concern that the next greatearthquake may occur in this region at
any time.
The extent of damage to structuresand casualty level due to an earthquake
in the future can be reduced by the
introduction of suitable mitigation
measures. These mitigation measures
can be categorized as structural and/or

non-structural. The structural measures
are those that directly influence theperformance of building stock throughstrengthening of code provisions andthe prevalent construction practice.
The non-structural mitigation
measures include improvement in thestate of awareness and preparedness
before a disaster, land-use control andother government policies, and the
response following a disaster. The nonstructural measures help to reduce theseverity of casualty levels following anearthquake. In order to reduce theconsequences of a major earthquake inthe cities of Bangladesh, it is necessarythat appropriate structural as well as
non-str uctural measures areundertaken.

Damage to a brick masonry building during the 1897 Great Indian Earthquake

page 2
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN
IN BANGLADESH
In 2001, the World Seismic Safety
Initiative (WSSI) sponsored the author
to participate in an interdisciplinary
reconnaissance team from developed
and developing countries around theworld to visit the earthquake affected
Gujarat state. It was a unique experience
for the author to visit and to get “live”
learning experience from an earthquake
devastated region with the presence ofexperienced people of different interestsand professional background. This
exposure motivated the author to workin the field of earthquake risk reduction.
In 1996, the author together with a
Bangladesh University of Engineering& Technology (BUET) team submitted
a project proposal to the Jamuna
Multipurpose Bridge Authority to install
seismic devices on the bridge (a 4.8 km
long RC bridge) and the surroundingarea. The Panel of Experts approved the
project on March 1997. The author also
developed a course on Earthquake
Engineering for postgraduate level at
BUET and for the last few years has
been offering the course at the
postgraduate level. In the following
paragraphs a brief summary of activities
undertaken by different organizations ofBangladesh to mitigate earthquake
disaster are presented.
BUET
The Department of Civil
Engineering, BUET offers postgraduate
courses on Earthquake Engineering,
Soil Dynamics, Structural Dynamics
and Vibration Analysis. So far 15
students completed their Master’s thesis
related to Earthquake Engineering field.
The Department of Civil
Engineering, BUET is working as aconsultant to monitor the seismic
instruments installed at the Jamuna
Multipurpose Bridge. In addition to theseismic instrumentation of the bridge,
there are a borehole accelerograph at 57
m depth and seven free-field seismic
instruments at Bogra, Natore, east andwest bridge approaches, Mymensingh,
Gazipur and Dhaka.
In January 2004, a linkage wasestablished between the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, USA and the
National Centre for Earthquake
Engineering, BUET with USAID
funding. Under this project several
BUET faculties were trained in various

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

Integrated hazard map
for Dhaka developedby a Master’s student at BUET
earthquake related topics in India for
one to two weeks.
Under the leadership of the author,
several BUET teams performed fieldsurveys after recent Bangladeshi
earthquakes. The author also visited
earthquake affected parts of Gujarat
state of India as mentioned earlier with
the Gujarat Earthquake ReconnaissanceInternational Team under the joint
sponsorship of Earthquakes andMegacities Initiative and WSSI. The
author has also contributed two reports:
one on unreinforced masonry and theother on mud houses to the World
Housing Encyclopedia Project.
Recently, BUET acquired 60 analog
SMA-I Type accelerographs from
Strong-motion Accelerographs For
Earthquake Loss Reduction Cities
Project of Consortium of Organizationsfor Strong-Motion Observation
Systems, a WSSI initiative. These
accelerographs are already installed at
the Public Works Department (PWD)
offices all over the country to acquire
earthquake data. These data will be used
to develop attenuation laws for
Bangladesh, which can be readily used
for earthquake hazard analysis andupdating of the existing seismic zonationmap.
A workshop on earthquake
curricula development was held at
BUET on July 22, 2004. Thirty four
faculties of different universities ofBangladesh attended and gave their
feedback. A report was published.
The Directorate of Continuing
Education, BUET, conducted the firstshort course on Earthquake Resistant
Design and Retrofitting of Buildings in
October 2004. In April and September
2005 similar short courses forProfessional Engineers andPolytechnical Institute teachers of
Bangladesh were offered. In July 2005,
the Ministry of Science, Information
and Communication Technology ofGovernment of Bangladesh provided afund to the author for a one-year project
entitled Earthquake Vulnerability
Assessment and Community
Awareness. Under this project, activities
for raising community awarenessregarding earthquake effects andvulnerability analysis of a ward of old
Dhaka will be conducted and remedial
measures will be proposed.
Recently, with the help of Prof.
Maksud Helali of the MechanicalEngineering Department of BUET, theauthor together with Dr. Noor has
developed an indigenous shaking table(3m x 5.5m) for checking structural
behavior under dynamic loading.

Indigenous shaking table
GOVERNMENT AGENCIESThe Disaster Management Bureau(DMB) was established with the help of
UNDP and UNICEF in 1993. Althoughinitially it was established to manage
flood and cyclone, after 1997
earthquakes in Chittagong and Sylhet
region, the Bureau started to train
different government officials andvolunteers about pre and postearthquake preparedness andmanagement techniques. For the last
couple of years, the Bureau has
conducted fifty or more earthquake
training workshops in different regionsof Bangladesh. In 2002, it also
published a Disaster Management
Training Manual. The second part ofthe manual has a complete chapter on
Earthquake Training Module andPublic Awareness Guidelines.

page 3The Ministry of Food & Disaster
Management (MoFDM) is currently
working as the government coordinator
for all activities regarding earthquakes.
Recently, they asked all the concerned
ministries, departments and armed
forces division to submit a Contingency
Plan in case of an earthquake. The
Ministry also compiled a list of available
rescue and recovery equipment
available in the country. The MoFDM
held a mock drill on April 12, 2005.
The second phase (2003-2008) of
the Program for Enhancement ofEmergency Response (PEER), a
USAID funded international project
includes Bangladesh together with fourother PEER affiliated countries − India,
Indonesia, Nepal and Philippines. The
program aims to strengthen andinstitutionalize capacities in emergency
and disaster response of the member
countries. A Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) in this regard
was signed between PEER andMoFDM in June 2004.
In 2001, the Bangladesh
Meteorological Department initiated a
project to establish four broadband
seismic stations at Rangpur, Sylhet,
Dhaka and Chittagong cities. The
installation of these seismic stations
will be completed soon.
The PWD is responsible forconstructing all the governmentbuildings of the country. For the last few
years, the PWD arranged several inhouse workshops to train their engineers
about earthquake resistant design. Also
the engineers of this organization havestarted to use seismic codes for building
design.
The Bangladesh Armed Forces
Division (AFD) played a significant rolein all the past disasters in the light of thetasks assigned in the “Standing Order on
Disaster, 1999” circulated by MoFDM.
Recently in consonance with thenational initiative, AFD chalked out acontingency plan for Dhaka city.
According to the AFD’s contingency
plan, the city is divided into eight sectors
with predef ined tasks after anearthquake. AFD will also activate the“Disaster Management and Relief
Monitoring Cell” at the Prime Minister’s
Office after an earthquake.
The Geological Survey ofBangladesh (GSB) is the oldest
organization in the country involved
with the development of seismic
zonation maps. The organization was
pivotal in developing the 1972 and 1979

seismic zonation maps. But unlike its
predecessor, the Geological Survey ofIndia (GSI) under the British rule, it did
not initiate any research in earthquake
field. Currently it depends on the US
Geological Survey (USGS) and GSI forearthquake source information. In
September 2004, GSB together with
USGS and UNESCO conducted a fourday long workshop on seismic analysis
for the South Asia region in Dhaka.
In January, 2006 DMB with theverbal instruction of Minister, MoFDM
has started to develop a comprehensive
Earthquake Risk Management Plan
which comprised two plans namely,
Earthquake Preparedness andEarthquake Response Plans. Also, theComprehensive Disaster Management
Programme under the MoFDM is
proposing a Comprehensive Disaster
Management framework for the South
Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) countries. This
will be placed at the SAARC Expert
Group meeting to be held in Dhaka inearly February, 2006.
BANGLADESH EARTHQUAKESOCIETY
Bangladesh Earthquake Society(BES), a non-government voluntaryorganization, was established on April
2002 and was registered on January
2003. The first election of the society
was held on August 2003 and thesecond election was held on December
2005. The BES members consist ofengineers, geologists, NGO activists andgovernment administrators.
After the July 2003 Rangamati
Earthquake, the author and othermembers of the Society visited theaffected earthquake sites and provided
the government with their technicaladvice. BES also organized two national
level workshops and held several
monthly seminars so far. The firstworkshop was jointly organized withRAJUK (Capital Development
Authority) in August, 2003 to train theengineers of Bangladesh about
earthquake resistant design. The second
workshop was organized together with
DMB, MoFDM in September, 2003 tosum up the findings of 2003 Rangamati
Earthquake. BES also successfullyorganized the First Bangladesh
Earthquake Symposium (BES-1) on
December 14-15, 2005. BUET and
BES jointly hosted the symposium.
More than 100 participants joined thesymposium, 40 papers were presented:

10 international and 30 local.
With the financial assistance of
USAID and the Cooperative for
Assistance Relief Everywhere (CARE),
Bangladesh, BES translated andpublished the International Association
for Earthquake Engineering’s
Guidelines for Earthquake Resistant
Non-Engineered Construction in 2004.
Recently the f inal draft of an
Earthquake Resistant Design Manualwas completed and will be jointly
published by BES and the CanadianInternational Development Agency
soon.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONSGuidelines for non-engineered
construction
Also many NGOs, privateorganizations, universities and mass
media are playing an important role inearthquake risk mitigation in
Bangladesh. CARE-Bangladesh,
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society,Oxford Committee for Famine Relief,
ActionAID, CARITAS, European
Policies Research Centre, FrancoBangladesh Association of Scholars andTrainees, Grameen Jonokallyan
Sangsad, Safety Assistance for
Emergencies, Bangladesh Insurance
Academy, BRAC University,
Chittagong University of Engineering &Technology, Institute of Engineers
Bangladesh, Institute of Diploma
Engineers Bangladesh, Military Instituteof Science & Technology, Shahjalal
University of Science & Technology,
Real Estate and Housing Association of
Bangladesh, Institute of Architects
Bangladesh are some of thoseorganizations.
*Professor, BUET, Dhaka,Bangladesh & Secretary General,
Bangladesh Earthquake Society

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 4Comparative Studies on Urban Earthquake Disaster Management
The 6th Workshop on“Comparative Studies on Urban
Earthquake Disaster Management” washeld on January 18, 2006 at the Kobe
International Conference Center. It wascosponsored by the Research Center for
Disaster Reduction Systems at theDisaster Prevention Research Institute,
Kyoto University and ICUS and wasattended by approximately 100 people.
This time the topic was: “Towards adrastic increase of retrofitting of existing
low earthquake resistant structures −Comparative study of the environment
surrounding seismic retrofitting activities
in different countries.”
Recently, Japanese society has been
shocked by the scandal of faulty
apartment buildings, mainly RC
buildings, deliberately designed andconstructed without following the
Earthquake Resistant Design Code.
When the next big earthquake comes,
they will surely perform poorly. However,these will not be the only affectedstructures. If the number of the buildings
related to this scandal is compared to thetotal number of existing low earthquake
resistant buildings in Japan, the later isspeakers to share their ideas. Dr.
Yoshimura introduced the successful
retrofitting experiences of California State,
US, particularly the case of Berkeley City.
She compared the system there and inJapan highlighting social, individual, andstructural differences. Prof. Murakami
pointed out that even old structures canperform well during earthquakes in spiteof their age as long as they are wellconstructed − using good materials, at
locations with good soil conditions −and have good maintenance. This was thesituation observed during the 2000 Tottori
Earthquake. She stressed that high quality
houses represent a good social stock
which is needed in countries like Japan
characterized by low birth rate and aging
population. Mr. Fujimura shared his
believe that for solving the issue at hand,the business driving force is essential. He
explained his own activities to promote
retrofitting such as training of housebuilders and developing and obtaining
approval for new retrofitting methods.
The presentations were followed by alively panel discussion in which there wasProf. Meguro pointed out key issues an exchange of questions and answers.
(by K. Meguro)
for protecting building stock

15,000 times larger. The panorama iseven darker if the wooden houses withlow earthquake resistance, whose number
is over 10 million, are included in the
count. This situation is common to bothdeveloped and developing countries. In
the symposium, Prof. K. Meguro, Dr. M.
Yoshimura, Prof. H. Murakami(Yamaguchi University) and Mr. B.
Fujimura (Waseda Shopping Street
Association) discussed this issue fromdifferent viewpoints.
At first, Prof. Meguro made an
overall explanation of the similarities anddifferences in developed and developing
countries in their quest to protect theirbuilding stock. He made emphasis on thetechnological and social viewpoints of the
problem. He then invited the other

RNUS Activities
RNUS Seminar
RNUS Seminar on ‘Advanced
Technologies toward Sustainable
Concrete Structures’ was held on
January 17th, 2006. The speakers were
Prof. Toyoharu Nawa and Dr. Pipat
Termkhajornkit from the Hokkaido
University and Prof. Somnuk
Tangtermsirikul from the Sirindhorn
International Institute of Technology,
Thammasat University.
Prof. Toyaharu Nawa presented thedevelopment of various types ofsuperplasticizers and the production ofhigh performance concrete. Prof.
Somnuk gave a presentation about boththeoretical background and practice ofzero-slump concrete in Thailand, while,
Dr. Pipat Termkhajornkit made apresentation entitled ‘XRD and Its
Application in Cement and Concrete
Field’. The seminar was well received
by AIT personnel.
Special Visit of Prof. H. Mutsuyoshi
It was a great honor for RNUS towelcome Professor Hiroshi Mutsuyoshi
and Assistant Professor Takeshi Makifrom Saitama University on March 15th,
2006.
On this occasion, Prof. Mutsuyoshi
kindly gave the special lecture entitled‘Structural Damage due to 2004
Niigata-Ken-Chuetsu Earthquake’ to
AIT staff and students. The presentationdelivered special characteristics of the
Niigata-Ken-Chuetsu earthquake andpromising technologies to prevent
sudden failure and to minimize theresidual deformation of structures underseismic loads.

ICUS Director Visited
the AIT President
On March 21st, Prof. Uomoto
visited AIT and held a meeting with
Prof. Said Irandoust, the current
President of AIT and Prof. Worsak
Kanok-Nukukchai, the Acting Dean of
the School of Engineering andTechnology. The meeting was also
attended by Dr. Pennung Warnitchai,Dr. Susaki and Dr. Kato. The director of
ICUS and the president of AIT agreed
to strengthen the collaboration between
their institutions and to promote more
activities in the region.
(by R. Sahamitmongkol)

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSERNUS Seminar Snapshot

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

Meeting participantspage 5

ICUS Signed MOU with LCM Research Center, PARI, JapanOn January 18, 2006, ICUS
signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) with The Life
Cycle Management (LCM) ResearchCenter, the Port and Airport ResearchInstitute (PARI) in order to collaborate
in research and other academic
activities.
LCM Research Center was
established on April 1, 2005 to respondto the demands of efficient operationand maintenance of infrastructures. The
Sustainable Engineering Division of
ICUS aims to develop new technologies
for the evaluation of structural safety.
The two centers will exchange personnel
and will provide research cooperation in
the f ield of maintenance andmanagement of new technologies forstructural safety and other fields ofcommon interest.
(by H. Kanada)Prof. T. Uomoto and Dr. H. Yokota,
Director of LCM Research Center

Prof. Uomoto Visited BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Director of ICUS, Prof. T. BUET. Prof. Uomoto also met the Government of Bangladesh. Prof.
Uomoto, visited Bangladesh University President of the Institute of Engineers in Uomoto met Mr. Abu Sadek and Dr.
of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Bangladesh, Mr. Akhter Hossain and MA Noor, members of the Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh from February 17 to discussed issues of mutual interest. Mr. Concrete Society, and the President of
19, 2006. He was accompanied by Dr. Hossain also holds the post of Secretary the Bangladesh Earthquake Society,
Mehedi Ahmed Ansary. During his of Ministry of Energy and Power, Prof. JR Choudhury, at his office. At thevisit, Prof. Uomoto met Prof. Md. Alee
end of his visit, Prof. Uomoto delivered
Murtuza, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of
a lecture on non-destructive testing at
BUET and Prof. Md. Mazharul
the BUET seminar room which was
Hoque, Head of the Department ofattended by about 100 people. The
Civil Engineering, BUET. They
lecture was presided by the Head of
discussed the establishment of an ICUS
the Department of Civil Engineering,
branch office at BUET (South Asian
BUET, Prof. Md. Mazharul Hoque andNetwork Office for Urban Safety
BUET VC Prof. Md. Alee Murtuza wasEngineering: SAUS) and collaborative Prof. T. Uomoto presenting ICUS brochures the Chief Guest.
to Prof. Md. Alee Murtuza VC, BUET
research activities between ICUS and(by M. A. Ansary)

Contract for the Establishment of IIS Office at Chula Unisearch
On March 21, 2006, Prof. Uomoto
visited to Chulalongkorn University as arepresentative of IIS. He and Prof.
Ekasit Limsuwan, Director of Chula
Unisearch signed the contract for theestablishment of a collaborative
research office.
Both parties agreed to establish a
local office in Chula Unisearch in orderto support the activities of IIS professors
when they have research activities inThailand.
Chula Unisearch was founded
under Chulalongkorn University on Feb
14th, 1986. It was the first agency inhigher education institution in Thailand
created to put knowledge and expertiseof its faculty members to the public
service. Chula Unisearch is determinedto create for faculty members andresearchers the environment to help
solving the country problems bystudying, analyzing and solving issues incollaboration with concerned agencies.
(by R. Sahamitmongkol)

Ceremony participants

Professor Meguro Appeared in NHK TV Program
On January 16, 2006, Professor
Meguro appeared in the TV program“Close Up Gendai.” This is NHK’s
current affairs program, broadcasted
from Monday to Thursday at 19:30.
The TV program was concernedwith the lack of earthquake resistance ofold wooden houses. Lessons from the1995 Kobe earthquake have not beenlearned and many wooden houses are
not reinforced against great earthquakesyet.
He suggested promotion systems
such as renovation grant, tax cut andpreferential treatment based on thehouse hold’s current situation.
(by T. Uomoto)Prof. K. Meguro and Ms. H. Kuniya,
Anchorperson of Close Up Gendai

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 6

Workshop on Disaster Management at The University of Tokyo Hospital
The first collaborative workshop
on disaster management between
ICUS and The University of Tokyo
Hospital was held on February 1,
2006 at the hospital auditorium.
It was held for doctors, nurses
and administrative staff in order togive them a better understanding of
the current problems, and to raise
their disaster awareness.
A project team was formed toconsider the role of The University ofTokyo Hospital in a time of disaster.
ICUS members are investigating thesocial demands of a disaster basehospital during a disaster situation
and based on these findings propose
an adequate disaster management
manual.
Prof. Meguro delivered apresentation on the importance of an
efficient disaster management manual
while Prof. Amano outlined thebackground and future plans of the
project. Dr. Yoshimura introduced
countermeasures against greatearthquakes and the role of a disasterbase hospital and Dr. Kanada
presented the necessity of reviewing
the current disaster management
manual. The workshop was attended
by more than 100 participants who
were impressed with the presentations.
(by H. Kanada)

ICUS PARTICIPA-

Prof. Amano outlined the project

10th ICUS Open Lecture Was Held
The 10th ICUS Open Lecture washeld at the Convention Hall of theInstitute of Industrial Science (IIS),The University of Tokyo (UT) in theafternoon of March 16, 2006. The titleof the lecture was “Communication of
Scientific Technologies and Risk
Management Technologies to the
Public.” About 80 people attended thelecture.
Prof. Marie Oshima (IIS, UT),
Dr. Toshiko Kikkawa (Associate
Professor, Faculty of Business andCommerce, Keio University), and Dr.
Yayoi Tanaka (Associate Professor,

Department of Civil Engineering, UT)
delivered the following speeches:
1. Prof. Marie Oshima: “Importanceof communicating scientif ic
technology to the public.”
2. Dr. Toshiko Kikkawa: “How tocommunicate risk information to
the public.”
3. Dr. Yayoi Tanaka; “Drawbacks ofcommunication by engineers.”
Prof. M. Oshima emphasized thatscientists and engineers should pay
more attention to increase public
understanding of their research andintroduced some activities forcommunicating research results toyoung generations such as junior andsenior high school students. Dr. T.
Kikkawa
explained
howunderstanding of risk information isdifferent between engineers and thegeneral public. Finally, Dr. Y. Tanaka
showed examples of poor
communication between engineers
and the general public in the processof public involvement in city
planning.
Prof. T. Uomoto delivered
concluding remarks on this Open
Lecture and expressed gratitude to thepresenters and participants.
(by M. Yoshimura)

Prof. M. Oshima

Dr. T. Kikkawa

Dr. Y. Tanaka

Announcement of USMCA 2006
The 5th International Symposium on
New Technologies for Urban Safety ofMega Cities in Asia (USMCA) will beorganized by the School of Engineeringand Technology, AIT, Thailand and ICUS.
The symposium will be held at Cape
Panwa Hotel, Phuket in Thailand on
November 16-17, 2006. The scope of thesymposium covers the following areas.
• Safety Assessment of Existing

Infrastructure and Buildings• Planning for Development andMaintenance of Urban Infrastructure• Environmental Impact Assessment of
Urbanization• Advanced Technologies fo r
Monitoring and Assessment for
Urban Safety• Disaster Management Engineering• Application of Remote Sensing toEnhance the Safety of Society• Rehabilitation and Retrofitting of
Urban Structure against Disasters
Your participation is crucial for themeaningful discussion and success ofthe symposium. For more information,please access the symposium website at
http://www.sce.ait.ac.th/rnus/usmca2006(by R. Sahamitmongkol)

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSE

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 7

THE 10TH EARTHQUAKE TECHNOLOGY EXPOThe 10th Earthquake Technology
Expo/Natural Disaster Recovery Expo
was held on February 1-2, 2006 at
Pacifico Yokohama. This is the biggest
exhibition of advanced technologies
for reducing disasters. It has been
held every year after the 1995 Kobe
Earthquake. This year more than
9,000 people including risk managers
in private companies, local
government officials and structural
engineers visited the exhibition.
Hundred thirty booths weredisplayed and ICUS prepared a boothfor presenting the Integrated

Information System for Total Disaster
Management. This is a leaning tool
developed by Prof. Meguro researchgroup in ICUS to increase thepeople’s disaster awareness and toeffectively reduce disasters. Over 400

visitors enjoyed the experience of
operating it.
ICUS is willing to join the
Earthquake Technology Expo again in
the next year.
(by M. Yoshimura)

ICUS Booth

Integrated Information System
for Total Disaster Management

Dr. Mehedi Ahmed Ansary joined
ICUS as a Project Associate Professor
on January 16, 2006. He graduatedfrom the Department of Civil
Engineering, BUET in 1991 and joinedat the same Department as Lecturer inJune 1991. He obtained his PhD in Civil
Engineering from the University ofTokyo in 1996. He was promoted toProfessor in the Department of Civil
Engineering, BUET in 2006.
His research interest is urban
disaster mitigation which includes
development of microzonation maps forcities of Bangladesh, assessment ofbuilding and lifeline vulnerabilities,

characterization of strong groundmotion from free-field and bridge
monitoring data, raising awarenessamong citizens of Bangladesh throughsimplified experimental techniques andeasily understandable guidelines forearthquake resistant construction, study

ICUS New Staff

Dr. Mehedi Ahmed Ansaryof other urban disasters such as floods,
fires and tornadoes, etc.
He is currently working as the
Secretary-General of Bangladesh
Earthquake Society which is affiliatedwith the International Association ofEarthquake Engineering. He is also theProject Director of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, USA and the
National Centre for Earthquake
Engineering - BUET Linkage project
funded by USAID, Bangladesh fromJanuary, 2004. He is a member ofconsultative panels of several
Government agencies of Bangladesh.
(by T. Uomoto)

ICUS Activities
14-21), AGS Annual Meeting 2006 in• Prof. Uomoto visited BUET to discuss
Bangkok (Mar 18-23), and Global
the establishment of an ICUS branch
Water System Project/Scientificoffice there (Feb 17-21) andSteering Committee in Oaxaca,
Chulalongkorn University to sign the
Mexico (Mar 22-26).
contract for the establishment of an IIS
collaborative research office (Mar 20- • Dr. Ooka attended 2006 ASHRAE
Winter Meeting in Chicago, 86th AMS
22).
Annual Meeting in Atlanta (Jan 21• Prof. Meguro attended an Earthquake
Feb 2), and AGS Annual Meeting
Summit in Beijing (Feb 19-23). He
2006 in Bangkok (Mar 18-23).
also visited Algeria and Pakistan (Mar17-26) to conduct microzonation • Dr. Ansary visited BUET to discuss theestablishment of an ICUS branch
studies and shaking tableoffice there (Feb 17-21).
demonstrations of his proposal local
acceptable, simple and economical • Dr. Kato stayed at AIT for his research
work and teaching duties at RNUS
masonry retrofitting method.
(Jan 10-18, Feb 27-Mar 22, Mar 26• Dr. Oki attended IPCC AR4 WG 2
31).
Conference in Merida, Mexico (Jan• Dr. Susaki attended the ASEAN
Subcommittee on Space Technology
and Applications in Hanoi (Feb 1517) and the Forum on Monitoring of
Global Environment from Space at IIS(Mar 12-19).
• Dr. Endo visited Bangkok to carryout data processing of ANHRR and
MODIS (Mar 4-14).
• Dr. Yoshimura visited Istanbul toarrange the workshop with Istanbul
Technical University and toinvestigate the urban structures ofGarata area (Mar 17-26).
• Dr. Sahamitmongkol stayed at AITfor his research work and teaching
duties at RNUS (Dec 29-Mar 29).

AwardsDr. Oki, Dr. Sinjiro Kanae (IIS) Associate of University of Yamanashi)
and Dr. Yukiko Hirabayashi (Research won the Annual Prize of the Journal of

Hydraulic Engineering, Japan
Society of Civil Engineers (Mar 7).

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 8
Editor’s Note
The importance of the BusinessContinuity Plan (hereafter referred to as
BCP) that takes into account theexperience gained from the series ofcoordinated terrorist attacks in the
United States and the Niigata Chuetsu
Earthquake is being increasingly
recognized in Japan. For example,
advanced enterprises in the UnitedStates specify the Recovery Time
Objectives (RTO: the target timerequired for the recovery of corebusinesses or basic services in cases
when enterprises face emergencies suchas natural disasters, fires and terrorist
attacks) and make positive use of experts
on data-back-up. Furthermore, a system
for PDCA (plan-do-check-act) withregard to the BCP is set in place. In thisrespect, the BCP plays an importantrole in business activities at large andthis plan has been carried out atmanagement levels.
The ratio of Japanese enterprises
applying the BCP is limited to about
8%. It will be indispensable to fully
promote its implementation as well as toput it into practice at management

The role of BCP (Guideline of The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency)
levels. The concept of the BCP
originated from dealing with the IT
industry. In its earlier stage, it wasapplied mainly to infrastructural
enterprises or financial firms. At present,
it is being widely applied to otherbusiness areas. Moreover, thestandardization of the BCP has begun to
be discussed at the International
Organization for Standardization.
Enterprises will inevitably be required toadopt the BCP within 1~2 years. The
BCP will become one of the mostimportant company assets and will

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
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

represent a competitive advantage forthose companies who adopt it.
At present, ICUS and The
University of Tokyo Hospital are
studying how the latter should function
as a disaster base hospital during largescale emergencies, such as in the case of
severe earthquakes. Taking the role of adisaster base hospital during
earthquake disaster is very importantand that is why it is necessary toinvestigate the BCP for The Universityof Tokyo Hospital.
(by R. Amano)

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