Structure of Web-Based Victims Master Databaseof the Life Rebuilding Process-A Study of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011Munenari INOGUCHI
Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery, Niigata University, Japan

Keiko TAMURA
Risk Management Office, Niigata University, Japan

Reo KIMURA
School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, Japan

Takashi FURUYA
Center for Risk Management and Safety Sciences, Yokohama National University,Japan

Haruo HAYASHI
Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, JapanSUMMARY: (10 pt)
The Great East Japan Earthquake occurring on March 11th in 2011 has two serious issues; one is many local
governments were affected at once which means “wide-spread catastrophe”, the other is the earthquake caused
not only ground-shaking but also huge tsunami, liquefaction and explosion accident of nuclear plant whichmeans “complex catastrophe”. These caused that the criteria and workflow to certificate the qualification forsupport programs differ in each local government. Against this issue, we proposed the development of Victims
Master Database (VMDB) that can manage the real-time situation of victims’ life rebuilding progress. In thisresearch, we designed the system requirements investigating their actual response flow in affected governments,
and developed the standardized management system of VMDB. Now, we installed this developed system into
Iwate prefecture, and local responders at affected governments in Iwate have utilized this system aiming tosupport victims’ early life rebuilding effectively and fairly.
Keywords: Victims Master Database, Life Rebuilding, Integrated Database, Work Flow Analysis

1. Introduction
1.1. History of the Victims Master Database (VMDB)The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011 at 14:46. In contrast to previous
disasters, a variety of factors contributed to the damages observed in this earthquake. These factors
included seismic vibration, a tsunami, liquefaction, and a nuclear disaster, which resulted in building
damages, building losses, ground damages, and environmental damages, respectively. Afflicted areas
span multiple prefectures, and 241 cities, wards, and "cho" districts. In fact, villages in 10 prefectures
received aid based on Disaster Relief Act.
Experiences from past disasters have lead Japan to establish a variety of well-organized support
services to help victims rebuild their lives. However, the current standardization of workflow neededto effectively offer these support services and build support tools are not sufficient. The amount ofwork required is extremely large because the disaster area is widespread and a large number of people
require support services. Therefore, the establishment of a workflow and support tools would be
beneficial. Herein, we describe the generation of a VMDB to improve the efficiency of providing
support for victims.
The building of the VMDB system has been an ongoing effort in conjunction with municipalities
that have experienced previous disasters. The history of the VMDB system is detailed below.
a) The 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake
We developed a Disaster Victims Certificate application and issuance system to efficiently provide

support to disaster victims. An industry–academia support team coordinated the governmental
activities in the City of Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture, and issued a large number of certificates over threedays immediately following the disaster. Our system was utilized in city hall.
b) The 2007 Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake
Upon request from the City of Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, we provided support for life
rebuilding initiatives as an industry–academia team. Our support spanned the following areas
concerning life rebuilding of disaster victims: (1) building damage certification survey, (2) generating
digital data of building damage certificates, (3) building a database to issue disaster victim certificatesthat encompassed a support system to receive applications and to issue certificates, (4) managing
disaster victim certificates issuance, and (5) building a management system of disaster victim support
initiative. The City of Kashiwazaki utilized this system to realize the goal of "life rebuilding activities
that leave no one behind."c) Survey that lead to the launching of a system to issue Disaster Victims Certificates — Tokyo, 2010
In FY 2010, Tokyo launched an initiative to build a system that "consistently conducts life
rebuilding support activities from building damage certification survey to life rebuilding using adisaster victims database in a proactive manner," based on experiences from past disaster sites
including Kashiwazaki City and verification that took place afterwards. Tokyo evaluated the activitiesof the industry–academia support team and its system, and subsequently rolled-out a customized
system that was appropriate for the ward and city of Tokyo. The objective of this collaborative project(Tokyo plus industry–academia support team) was to realize a standardized support system that would
be effective in the event of an epicentral earthquake in Tokyo.
1.2. A VMDB was necessary in the Great East Japan Earthquake
A major concern in the disaster areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake is the inability to share a
big picture of life rebuilding support initiative. To be specific, this is largely due to three issues: (1)Each municipality department is unable to view the activities of the other departments, (2) they areunable to determine how much support each victim is receiving, and (3) they are unable to determine
how much support has been provided to the disaster areas. As a solution to these issues, our researchdeveloped and implemented a disaster victim life rebuilding support system that facilitated a timely
recovery process.
This VMDB system differs greatly from past systems in four specific aspects: (1) The masterdatabase schema is standardized, (2) the system is implemented in a stable network, (3) common andnecessary applications are developed through disaster victim support service provisioning, and (4) thesystem is compatible with other activities because it utilizes an Excel format (CSV) for the import andexport of data. We believed that these four improvements would enable utilization of the system bymultiple municipalities, thus supporting life rebuilding processes in the entire disaster area.

2.

Work Flow Analysis of the Administrative Support for the Life Rebuilding Process

In our design of a standardized VMDB, we analyzed various work flows using the system. This
work flow analysis highlighted the fact that the system could be deployed by municipalities atdifferent stages of support activities to deploy the system in the mid-flow. In addition, the record datathat is generated is made available for review in real-time.
In the event of a disaster in Japan, local governments provide many types of administrative services
to victims. Before the provision of these services, victims have to be identified and apply to the
support programs. Victims are identified on the basis of building inspections for the assessment ofbuilding damages. The results of the building inspection are compiled in a database and certification of
the degree of building damages are in turn granted to the victims.
Previously, a basic database was constructed to manage the certifications for the degree of building
damages. However, this database did not contain geo-reference information. Therefore, this databasehas limited utility for providing basic information for providing subsequent support services tovictims.
In order to circumvent these issues, in this research we decided to develop a database to house theresults of building inspections with geo-reference, and to grant certification of the degree of building
damage based on this geo-database. Furthermore, we proposed to develop the VMDB to store avariety of victim information that can be used in concert with the geo-database of building damage
certification to facilitate effective and prompt support services to victims. Local responders can also
use the VMDB to provide a plethora of administrative support to victims. The proposed effective work
flow is shown in Figure 1.

Child Care

National HealthService

Property Tax

Disaster Relief
Fund

Demolition of
Damaged
Housings

Urgent Repair

Temporary
housings

Relief Money

Public Nursing
Insurance

Reduced Rates andExemption to Payment

Relief Programs

Insuring Effective and Prompt Service to Victims
based on the Victims’ Master DB
Granting Certification of the Degree of Building Damages to Victims
Constructing Database for the Results of Building Inspection
with Geo-reference
Carrying out the Building Inspection for Assessment of Building Damages

Figure 1. Work Flow of Administrative Support

3. Four Viewpoints in the System Design
3.1. Standardization of the Database Schema
Data schema used in the system should be standardized in order to facilitate sharing among multiple
municipalities. The database table entries are dependent on the type of work. Moreover, the system hasapplications that allow for the conducting of searches and the consolidation of these table entries. It is
important to note that work flow analysis results described in the previous chapter clearly demonstrate
the need for each disaster victim life rebuilding support service to individualize their table design tomeet the wide variety of information processing needs. Additionally, as the life rebuilding support
phases progress, new support services and services from different municipalities can always be added.
This makes it difficult to standardize the database schema to support all disaster victim life rebuilding
support services.
We provided a solution through this research by constructing the VMDB with a group of tables thatare described in the following paragraphs:a) User Manager Tables
This group of tables manages user login. A municipality is identified for a logged-in user andsearchable range of information is determined. The logged-in user is also has the right to browse,
update, export, import, and other operations.
b) Master Information Tables
This group of tables manages basic information regarding individual victims and households. In
addition to basic identifying information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and family member,these tables contain data regarding ownership of real properties, degree of damages, and vital status ofindividuals (alive, dead, or missing). These pieces of information dictate which support services
should be provided.
c) Work Information Tables
This group of tables manages support processes for various services. These tables have entries thatare shared among all types of work, including name of activity, support recipient unit, progress ofsupport, and remarks. Support recipient unit is described as individual, household, or common-law
household, with the management of common-law households being based on the way that theindividuals lived at the time of disaster that are different from household constituents as listed in the
Basic Resident Register. There are four major phases in terms of support progress, which can befurther subdivided into ten steps. These four phases are color-coded for easy recognition on
application screens as: 0, not applicable; 1, support initiated; 2 to 8, support in progress; and 9, supportcompleted. In particular, the category, "support in progress" can be further divided into seven steps foreach type of work. There are also other provisions for flexible data management including theorganization of information using XML, thus allowing municipal employees to manage data using
Excel.
3.2. System Implementation in a Stable Network Environment
The VMDB contains a large quantity of personal information. This necessitates implementation ofthis system on a stable network environment that ensures security. All municipalities in Japan sharethe closed network Local Government Wide Area Network (LGWAN). LGWAN is used to provide
municipal services in normal time over a secured environment. Access from outside the network is
restricted, which limits the threat from unauthorized users. It is important to note that LGWAN has
different communication bandwidths between major cities and rural cities, small "cho" districts, andvillages. The smallest bandwidth is 1 Mbps. If municipalities are the only users of this VMDB, then it
is practical to implement it on the LGWAN. Because this system does not exist during normal times
and it is instead deployed after an occurrence of a disaster, we limited the number of communication
ports over a network to minimal.
3.3. Development of Common and Necessary Applications for Disaster Victim Support Services
In order to provide services effectively, a dedicated application that is customizable for each service
needs to be developed. However, life rebuilding support services cannot be predefined, which meansthat new services are created as support services are being provided. To accommodate this situation,
we listed features common and necessary to all services. Screens are also designed so that common
information that is necessary to all services is displayed as an individual ticket. Information that isnecessary for each service is displayed in a window that is dedicated to each service. (Figs. 2 and 3)

Common Informationof each Victims family

Progress Situationof Each Support Program

Menu
of VMDB System

Figure 2. Screenshot of Common Information for Providing Support Services to Victims

All kinds of Support
Services relating toVictims

Detail Information of How to Provide Each
Support Program to Victims

Figure 3. Screenshot of Detail Information about How to Provide Each Support Program

3.4. Interoperability with Excel
Many of municipal employees use Excel to manage their support activities. Excel is easy and usefulto use because of its simple filtering, charting, and aggregating features. However, Excel is not
appropriate to build a dataset because it is not bound by a concept of field and record like databasetables.
Our system is designed to allow downloading data in Excel format so that municipal employees canwork on the Excel files. It is also possible to read Excel files that contain service provision data using
the system, so that these pieces of information can be consolidated. If municipal employees add ordelete information in their Excel files, these modifications will be reflected in the system to be sharedby other departments. An application of this system is schematically depicted in Figure 4.
Granted Certification ofDegree of Building Damage(Excel or Access File)

Residents’ Ledger① Import Common Information to VMDB

Fixed Asset Tax Rolls⑥ Cleaning Data stored in VMDB

List of Dead Persons⑤ Import Excels into VMDB

Victims Master Database
SystemExcel with
Common Information
and Response Logs

② Export Excel for

Excel with
Common Informationfor Support WorkWork
Practice③ Record Process of Providing Support Services④ Modify Database Information

Figure 4. How to interoperate with Excel

4. Implementation and Operation of the System
4.1 Development of the VMDB System
We developed the system to be used in disaster areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake based on
the system requirements as described in the previous Chapter. We used the configuration shown in
Table 2 to develop this system to realize a stable operation in a short development period.
Table 4.1. Development environment of this system
Development Language

Adobe Flash Builder 4.5

OS
DBMS

Windows Server 2008 R2
SQL Server 2008 R2

cross-platform
browser plug-in

Adobe Flash Player

Internet Browser

Internet Explorer

Middleware

Client4.2. Implementation of the System
In Iwate Prefecture, 12 cities, "cho", and villages along the coast suffered damages, and many
victims are currently trying to rebuild their live. As a shared infrastructure for all these cities, "cho",and villages, we installed a server within the Iwate prefectural office to implement the VMDB system.
We have selected a server driven by a 20-core CPU with 128 GB memory and a 4 TB HDD, based on
an assumption that a 6/12 of the municipalities will simultaneously access the database with at leastten employees.
This server was installed on a LGWAN (also called Iwate Information Highway) that connects
cities, "cho", and villages in Iwate Prefecture. This enabled network access from information terminals
at each municipality in a closed environment with a high level of security, and safe and stable system
operation.
The server data is regularly backed up so that the system can be recovered to the state immediately
before a system fault. Access from terminals in each municipality is always monitored with an accesslog. This enables identification of person(s) that make an unauthorized access.
4.3. Operation Verification of the System
This system was installed on the server at the Iwate prefectural office, and to date it is delivering thestable services. As many as twelve municipalities in Iwate Prefecture suffered damages due to tsunami
along the coast, and three cities inland suffered damages due to vibration. Out of these fifteen
municipalities, seven of them have registered their data and started using the system.
The City of Miyako was the first to deploy this system. They registered as many as 64 operational
data from five departments that share the duty of life rebuilding support services for victims in an
integrated manner. Moreover, Excel data that have been downloaded from this system are used tovisualize rebuilding processes on maps, which in turn are used to identify new issues and generate
initiatives. Other municipalities are expected to follow Miyako City to enter a full-fledged deploymentof the system.

5. Conclusions
In this research, we designed and developed a VMDB system to facilitate the provision of effective
life rebuilding support services in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. This system has
been designed to allow ease of use by multiple afflicted municipalities. Furthermore, theinteroperability using Excel makes the database accessible to multiple municipal service providers.

The operational stability and security of the data is maintained using the LGWAN, which is a closed
network among municipalities. This system is currently installed on a server at the Iwate prefectural
office, and is being used by afflicted municipalities.
Although the system developed through this research is based on experiences from past disasters,
knowledge about wide-area, complex disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake is notadequately incorporated. We are planning to make revisions to the system in order to combat thechallenges that will surface as this system is continually used. Earthquakes are expected to occur in
Tokai, Tonankai, and Nankai regions around Japan in the middle of the 21st century. We would like tofurther improve this system to aid in the early recoveries from these potential future earthquakes.

AKCNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was supported by: (1) Crisis Management and Long-Term Recovery Projects under “Special
Project for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation in Tokyo Metropolitan Area” by MEXT, (2) JST, PRESTO"Information Environment and Humans" and (3) Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up) #22710161, JSPS.

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