ICUS NEWSLETTER

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

VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1
APRIL – JUNE 2008

REMOTE SENSING FOR MONITORINGURBAN SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
By
Yoshifumi Yasuoka*
Monitoring of urban safety and environment requires measurements of a wide variety of variables
covering physical, chemical, biological, or geographical aspects. Furthermore, it needs to regularly
observe extensive areas. A comprehensive and efﬁcient monitoring system may not be realized withconventional ground observation methods only.
Remote sensing is an observation tool to identify objects or measure their characteristics without
directly contacting them. Recent developments in remote sensing technologies have been remarkableand very rapid. Observations with one meter spatial resolution and one nanometer spectral resolution
from space are also realized. These may provide an efﬁcient tool to observe a wide range of land
surface, atmosphere and ocean variables over extensive areas at regular intervals.
In this article, new technologies in remote sensing are surveyed, and their applications are
introduced, with emphasis on the monitoring and assessment of urban safety and environment.
REMOTE SENSING
Remote sensing utilizes electromagnetic radiation as a media forthe measurement. The measurement
principle in remote sensing is basedon the fact that all matter reﬂects, absorbs, penetrates and emits electromagnetic radiation in a unique way
with respect to wavelength. This
unique characteristic of radiation iscalled spectral signature of matter,and it enables to identify objects, orquantify their characteristics.
In remote sensing, the reﬂected oremitted electromagnetic radiationfrom a target is detected by a device
called a “remote sensor.” Cameras
or scanners are typical examples ofthese. A vehicle to carry the sensor
is called a “platform,” and satellite
or aircraft are usually used. Remotesensing from satellites or aircraft

enables us to observe a wide rangeof variables over extensive areas atregular intervals.
The performance of a remote sen-sor is determined by various speciﬁcations including spectral range,
spectral resolution, spatial resolution,observation width (swath), or obser-

3-D city model of Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo,
obtained from IKONOS and ALS data

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Page 2
vation frequency. Different types ofremote sensor have been developedwith respect to these speciﬁcations.
The table on top of this page summarizes the speciﬁcations of typical remote sensors used for environmental
and disaster monitoring. High spatial
resolution sensors such as LANDSAT
TM, SPOT HRV, or IKONOS areused for local or regional observation, whereas low spatial resolution,
but wide coverage and high observation frequency sensors such as
NOAA/AVHRR, ADEOS/OCTS,
and TERRA/MODIS are used forcontinental or global scale vision.
NEW TECHNOLOGYDEVELOPMENT IN REMOTESENSING
High-spatial resolution observation
Spatial resolution is one of themost important sensor characteristics in remote sensing. It has been
dramatically improved in the last 20
years, and, today, one-meter spatial
resolution is realized with satellite
sensors. From these images, individual buildings or tree canopies can be
identiﬁed from space. High spatial
resolution observation enables us toretrieve more detailed information
on human settlements, land surface
characteristics or topography fromremotely sensed data. The ﬁgure
below shows an example of building
distribution detected from IKONOS
image with one meter spatial resolution over the central area of Tokyo,
Japan. In this image very ﬁne spatial
structures of the buildings and theroads are identiﬁed.

Speciﬁcations of typical remote sensors
Satellite

SensorLANDSAT
SPOT
ERS-1
JERS-1
JERS-1IKONOS
ALOS
ALOS
NOAA
ADEOS
ADEOS
TERRA
TERRA

TM
HRV
SAR
OPS
SAR
Pan/MSSAVNIR-2
PRISM
AVHRR
AVNIR
OCTS
ASTER
MODIS

Wavelength(μm or GHz)
0.45-12.5
0.50-0.89
5.3 GHz0.52-0.86
1.275 GHz
is./Near-infrared
0.42-0.89
0.52-0.77
0.58-12.5
0.40-0.92
0.40-12.5
0.52-11.3
0.66-14.2

tens in satellite and airborne systems.
New hyper-spectral sensor systems
have the capability of observing land
surface in a couple of hundreds ofchannels. For example, the Hyperion
on EO-1 has 256 channels. Airborne
sensor systems such as CASI and
AVIRIS have more than 200 channels
and their spectral wavelength resolution is as narrow as several nanometers. Data from the hyper-spectral
sensors have indicated the possibilityof observing new urban risk variables,
including concrete degradation, orvegetation stress conditions, which
could not be observed by the conventional sensors.

No. of
bands
7
4
1
4
1
1/4
4
1
5
4
12
14
36

Spatial Res.
(m)
30
10-20
20
18
18
1-4
10
2.5
1000
8 ｰ 16700
15 ｰ 90250-1000

Swath
(km)
180
60
100
75
75
11
70
70/35
2700
80
1400
60
2330

Cycle
(day)
17
26
35
44
44
11
46
46
0.5
41
41
16
16

3-D Observation
Laser ranging technology enables
us to observe the height of the targets
from space. For example, Airborne
Laser Scanner (ALS) can be used tomonitor 3-D structures of buildings
and trees with high accuracy. Today
integration of high spatial resolution satellite data (e.g. IKONOS)
and the topographic data from ALS
enables us to produce detailed three
dimensional data which is very useful for disaster or environmental
assessment in urban areas.

Coupling remote sensing
with modeling
Remote sensing may provide efMicrowave range observation
fective information on the current
With optical remote sensing, we can status of environment or disasters,
not observe the ground through cloud however, it can not predict the future.
or haze. Microwave remote sens- Physical models are required to preing has the advantage of all weather dict the future. Recent developments
observation due to its longer wave- in modeling of atmosphere, ocean
length. This observation capability and land have been very rapid andenables us to monitor land surface model prediction of the earth system
conditions regularly even in heavily has been getting accurate. Still there
clouded regions including tropical is a prediction error since the earth
regions or high latitude regions. A system is too complicated to be modSynthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is eled. Effective integration betweena typical microwave sensor which remote sensing and modeling may
Hyper-spectral observation
enables high spatial resolution obser- signiﬁcantly reduce model simulaNumber of spectral channels in vation. Microwave remote sensing tion error since remotely sensed disconventional remote sensors has been has also the capability of monitoring tribution of system parameters may
limited to 10 or at most to several precipitation and soil moisture.
be used for boundary conditioning,assimilation/nudging or validation.
There have been studies to integrate
remote sensing and modeling to improve model prediction and estimation. The ﬁgure on the top left cornerof the next page depicts an example
of heat island model simulation inTokyo coupled with remotely sensed
land cover distribution. It was shownthat the accuracy of the estimated land
surface temperature was signiﬁcantly
improved by integrating vegetation
Distribution map of buildings over Shinjuku area, Tokyo, extracted from distribution observed by satellite data
IKONOS image (color represents the building inventory number)with a meso-scale climate model.

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Page 3

With integration between
Without integration
remote sensing and modeling(only with modeling)
Simulation of land surface temperature
with integration of remote sensing and modeling
APPLICATIONS OF REMOTESENSING TO URBANMONITORING
Environment and disaster variables
for urban safety monitoring measured by remote sensing range fromphysical, chemical, biological tosocio/economic variables. They also
vary from practical/operational toresearch level. Examples of parameters are summarized as follows.
- Practical level
Land: land surface temperature, topography (Digital Elevation Model),3-dimensional structures of buildings and vegetations, land coverclassiﬁcation, vegetation classiﬁcation, vegetation index (Normalized
Difference Vegetation Index, etc.),
soil index, human habitats
Water: surface temperature, water
quality including suspended sedi-ment and chlorophyll, surface windvector, sea-ice
Atmosphere: temperature, water
vapor, cloud
Others: precipitation- Research level
Land: detail land cover classiﬁcation, detail vegetation classiﬁcation, soil type classiﬁcation, soil
moisture, LAI (Leaf Area Index),
biomass, tree height, canopy structures, NPP (Net Primary Productivity), CO2 ﬂux (NEP: Net Ecosystem
Exchange), chlorophyll/lignin/cellulose in tree canopy
Water: chlorophyll (high accuracy),algae
Atmosphere: CO2, CH4, water vapor, ClO, NOx, SOx, O3, aerosols

Earthquake damaged area observedby ALOS AVNIR-2 and PRISM(from JAXA website)
cities obtained from MODIS data.
They are critical in assessing urban
heat island which has been a serious
issue in most of Asian mega-cities.
The ﬁgure above shows land surface conditions and 3-D structures
over the area damaged by the 2008
Iwate-Miyagi earthquake observedby ALOS AVNIR-2 and PRISM
sensors. These variables might not
be obtained without new remotesensing technologies.
CONCLUSIONS

Pyongyang

Urban safety monitoring withremote sensing has potential advantages as follows:- it does not disturb the object inmeasurement- it can cover extensive areas in ashort time
- it can measure parameters in thesame spatial and temporal scale
for any area of the world- it can cover land, ocean and atmosphere areas where we can not
get into and where we can not do
direct observation.
Development of remote sensing
technology has been very rapid,
and today various types of remotelysensed data are available, ranging
from high spatial resolution data for
local monitoring to wide coveragedata for regional/global monitoring.
It is still difﬁcult to realize operational and practical monitoring with
only remote sensing or only groundobservation. It is expected that an
integrated environment and disastermonitoring system for urban safetyassessment will be accomplished.

Tokyo
Land surface temperature maps over Asian cities
obtained from MODIS data

*Executive Director, National Institutefor Environmental Studies and former
ICUS Professor

The ﬁgure on the bottom of thispage depicts land surface temperature distributions in Asian mega

BeijingShanghai

Seoul

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Page 4

Prof. Sawada: 35 years with remote sensing progressI started my new post as professorof ICUS on April 4, 2008. Before
that, I had been working as Principal
Research Coordinator for International Issues in the Forestry andForest Products Research Institute(FFPRI), an incorporated administrative agency, in Tsukuba. My
specialized field is remote sensing
and forest information including geographic information system (GIS).
At the age of a sophomore, I readabout infrared photography ona newspaper and decided to join
the Department of Forestry of the
University of Tokyo for studying forest remote sensing. After I obtained
my Master’s degree there, I started
working as a researcher of FFPRI in
1978. I worked also as adjunct andpart-time teacher at the University ofTokyo and the University of Tsukuba
from 1990 to1994 and 1996 to 2003,
respectively.
After developing software systems
for processing Landsat images
for a few years, I studied radar
remote sensing for about a year
in the University of California at
Santa Barbara. In 1986, the French
Government allowed me to stay as
a visiting scientist for a year at theInternational Institute of Vegetation

Map of the University of Toulouse.
It is my honor to introduce myresearch projects in the past on thisoccasion.
1) Mapping and resource evaluationof natural forests: Very little information on natural forest is available
because of the problem of accessibility. Satellite images and aerial
photography were used to evaluate
typical natural forest resources.
Distribution and available volume oftrees were determined by integrating
remote sensing and GIS data.
2) Development of early detectionand early warning system for forest
ﬁre: We installed the NOAA satellite
receiving system in Indonesia anddeveloped the early detection system
for suppressing ﬁres in 1997. Basedon this experience, a similar system

Fire spread risk map of Japanwas set up in Japan to monitor theSouth East Asian countries. These
operational information systems
using remote sensing brought us the
Ministers Prize of the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology of Japan in 2001.
3) Information for land managementof the Mekong River Basin: The
Mekong is an international riverwhich flows through China, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia andVietnam. Because the development of
cities and living environment depend
on availability of water resources,
watershed management is a very
important issue. We clarified theenvironment conditions of the last 20
years using the flux tower data andsatellite data, such as NOAA, SPOT
and LANDSAT. We were awarded
the national order by Cambodian
Government for this activity.
These results were applied to estimate carbon fixation of forest for
the Kyoto Protocol under the United
Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change. As an ICUS member, I would like to promote studies
on monitoring of environments underclimate change, which have big inﬂuence on urban safety.
(By H. Sawada)

Upgrading the seismic performance of wooden buildings
I got my Ph.D degree from the Department of Architecture, Graduate
School of Engineering, the Universityof Tokyo in 2001. My research interest is wooden structures and wood
engineering for buildings.
Japan has a longstanding heritageof wooden buildings. At the sametime, Japan is a country beset byearthquakes. Wooden houses in Japan
have suffered great damage causedby strong earthquakes.
Many types of wooden buildings
were built long time ago in Japan.
One of the wooden building category
is the detached wooden house. Thesehouses, built especially over 30 years
ago, have the problem that they havepoor seismic capacity and are damaged by earthquakes. Targets of myresearch group are the seismic diagnosis and reinforcement methods forexisting wooden houses. To clarify
the seismic performance of existingwooden houses, we conducted full-

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

scale shaking table tests and evaluated damages of existing wooden
houses after earthquakes. At the sametime, it is important to create awareness among homeowners about thedanger of earthquake so that a good
housing stock can be prepared.
In other categories, traditional
wooden buildings are not only buildings but also cultural assets in Japan.
Traditional wooden buildings likeshrines, temples, town houses (Machiya) and folk houses (Nouka) werebuilt by carpenters who were not
structural engineers. They built themusing empirical, not engineering,knowledge. Recently the seismic per-Full-scale shaking table test

formance of traditional wooden buildings is gradually made clear. Even
there are some seismic elements that
we cannot make clear yet, traditional
wooden buildings can be reinforced.
To upgrade the seismic performance of wooden buildings, different
ways should be taken according to
the category of the buildings. A simpliﬁed design method is required for
detached wooden small houses and amore sophisticated method could be
used for traditional wooden buildings.
Researches on both aspects should be
made.
(By M. Koshihara)

Preservation of districts with groupsof historic buildings "Narai-juku"

Page 5The Research Committee 62 (RC62), “Technologies for Evaluation ofAging Infrastructure Performance
Degradation,” held its ﬁrst meetingon June 24, 2008. In order to evaluate present and future performance ofinfrastructure, knowledge from two or
more specialized ﬁelds, such as material science, structural engineering,
geotechnical engineering, and so forthis necessary. Although these studies
have been performed separately ineach ﬁeld, an appropriate methodology for combining these results has not

RC-62 held meeting

yet been developed. ICUS has established RC-62 in order to consider thisproblem and regular meetings will beheld with the member companies fromvarious specialized ﬁelds in civil engineering in order to build relationships
and create the environment for joint
action. Self-introductions by committee members will be done from theﬁrst to the third meetings.
On this occasion, Mr. Kurita and
Mr. Inada (Shimizu Corporation), Mr.
Sato (Sankyo & Co., Ltd.), Mr. Amano(Hozen Maintenance & Management

Engineering Co., Ltd.), Dr. Odabe(Sumitomo Osaka Cement), Mr. Kado
(Osmos Technology Association ) and
Mr. Koike (Geo Search) introduced
themselves.
(By Y. Kato)

RC-62 meeting snapshot

14th Open Lecture was heldRecently, people are thinking more
often about climate change and getting anxious about how our urban life
will be affected by it. Furthermore,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC) was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize last year. For
these reasons, ICUS focused on
climate change and urban safety issues in the 14th ICUS Open Lecture
entitled “How does global warming
change urban environment?”
Approximately 150 participants attended the lecture. Three well-known
professors delivered lectures address-

ing the followings topics: “what kindof changes our society will cause in
the future,” “what kind of life adaptation and relief measures are the bestsolutions,” and “what we shall tackle
immediately.”
Dr. Y. Yasuoka, former ICUS Professor and now Executive Director at
the National Institute of Environmental Studies, moderated the lecture, andProf. Meguro, ICUS Director, gave
the welcome speech. Speakers were:- Prof. Mimura, Ibaraki University
and leader author of the IPCC fourth
assessment report working group.

- Prof. Hanaki, the University of Tokyo and leader researcher of measures for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
- Prof. Sawada, former Forestry andForest Products Research Institutemember and currently ICUS Professor. Prof. Sawada is a leader inthe ﬁeld of forest research to tackle
global warming.
The closing remarks were given by
Dr. Yasuoka. After the Open lecture,a small party was held and attended
by approximately 60 people.
(By T. Endo)

Prof. N. Mimura

Prof. K. Hanaki

Prof. H. Sawada

ICUS joins IIS Open House

ICUS jointed the IIS Open House
which was held for three days, fromMay 29 to 31. In this event, our institute is open to the public and experts
to share our research outcomes withthe visitors. Overall 8,500 people
visited Komaba Research Campus.
A theme of ICUS was “Towards theEstablishment of a Sustainable Urban System.”
All laboratory members participated and displayed their panels
showing their research activities.
Topics included: “Simulation ofseismic vulnerability of cities,

houses and rooms”, “Life-cycle
management of port infrastructure”,”Sustainable urban infrastructure”,“Long term behavior of ground andburied structures”, “Concept of disaster intelligence infrastructure”,“Building with natural construction
materials”, “Urban trafﬁc management”, and “Satellite observation
system for urban ambient environment and disaster.” The open house
was also an opportunity to introduce
the 2007 Annual Report as well as
RNUS and BNUS activities. Reports
and newsletters were handed tovisitors. Almost 250 people visited
ICUS exhibition.
(By Y. Kato)

Prof. Sawada explains the principles
of remote sensing and its applications to potential future scientists

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Page 6

BNUS Activities
was collected and compiled. On thebasis of this data and practical experience, an analysis was performed.
The ﬁgures below show road damage
in different upazila in Barguna.

Post Disaster Survey
SIDR Cyclone, Bangladesh

A BNUS team visited SIDR affected area (Barguna and Pathuakhali districts) from May 5 to 12,2008 to make a post disaster survey.
Mason Training Manual
The team met local authorities: Disfor Bangladesh
trict Commissioners (DC), Upazila
BNUS has developed a manual for
Nirbahi Ofﬁcers, District Relief andRehabilitation Ofﬁcers, Executive mason training in Bangla. BanglaEngineers, Assistant and Upazila desh has no institution for educating
Engineers of the Water Develop- masons. Thus, this is the ﬁrst step
ment Board and Local Government to develop trained masons in BanZindabaharand NGOs
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
gladesh. The feature of this manualEngineering Department,
Road
Road
Road(Point-1)(Point-1)
Road (Point-2)(Point-2)(Bangladesh Red CrescentSociety,is that trainer and trainee can store
Width-15’
Width-25’
Width-25’
Cyclone Preparedness Program, and this material and detailed training
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
description.
others.)RoadThe
authorities
sharedtheir
expeThe manual consists of nineIslampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-11)(Point-1)
rience in tackling the situation dur- chapters, which are: earthquake
Width-25’
ing and after SIDR. The team also Zindabahar
and its background, site selection,
Zindabahar(Point-3)(Point-3)
foundation
construction (masonryinterviewed local people who were Road
Width-12’
Width-12’
affected by the disaster. Damage data andframe structures), masonry wallbuilding, masonry roof and slab
Zindabaharbuilding,
quality control, mainteRoad (Point-4)(Point-4)
Roadnance and reconstruction,Zindabahar
and retroWidth-8’
Width-8’
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road
Road (Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-15’

Zindabahar
Zindabahar Road

dd

Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-11)(Point-1)
Width-25’

Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-20’
Width-20’

Islampur Road
IslampurRoad

Comparison of damage at different upazila in Borguna district

P.K.Roy
P.K.RoyRoad
Road(Point-4)(Point-4)
Width-8’
Width-8’

P.K.RoyP.K.Roy
RoadRoad
Lane
Road
P.K.Roy(Point-3)(Point-3)
Width-10’
Width-10’

P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-1)(Point-1)
Width-30’
Width-30’

Roads
Buildings
Open SpaceRoad
P.K.RoyRoad
PlotP.K.Roy
boundary(Point-2)(Point-2)
SCORE<2.0
Width-12’
Width-12’

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road
Road(Point-1)(Point-1)
Width-25’
Width-25’

ﬁtting. The key role for constructing
an earthquake resistant building is
generally played by the mason. So,
well trained masons are essential.
Community Based Earthquake
Evacuation Plan for Old Dhaka(Ward No. 68)
The lower portion of Ward No. 68
has been analyzed. Three evacuation
paths and seven evacuation centers
are identiﬁed. The vulnerability ofevacuation centers was determinedusing the FEMA-RVS and Turkishmethods. The average road width ofIslampur road, P. K. Roy lane, andZindabahar 2nd lane are 6, 3, and 4.5
meters, respectively. Widening of
Playgroundroads at different points andZindabahar
methods
toprevent
building collapse are also
Kamranga
Kamranga
Mosquesuggested to ensure effective evacuation. The ﬁgures below show theﬁndings of this study.
(By M. Ansary)

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
MosqueMosqueRoad
Road(Point-1)(Point-1)

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road
Road (Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-15’

Zindabahar
Zindabahar Road
Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-11)(Point-1)
Width-25’ Zindabahar
Zindabahar Road

Width-25’
Width-25’

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road
Road (Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-15’

Zindabahar Playgroun

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road
Road(Point-1)(Point-1)
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Width-25’
Width-25’

Kamranga Mosque
Kamranga(Point-3)
Road (Point-3)
Width-12’
Width-12’

Zindabahar Playground

Kamranga Mosque
Kamranga

Zindabahar
Zindabahar(Point-3)
Road (Point-3)
Width-12’
Width-12’

Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-11)(Point-1)
Width-25’

Islampur
MosqueIslampur Mosque

Zindabahar Playground

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Zindabahar
Road(Point-4)
Road(Point-4)
Zindabahar(Point-3)
Road (Point-3)
Width-8’
Width-8’Road(Point-4)
Road(Point-4)

Islampur Road
IslampurRoad

Width-12’
Width-12’
Width-8’
Width-8’

Kamranga Mosque
Kamranga

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
MosqueMosqueZindabahar
Road(Point-4)(Point-4)
Islampur
Road
Islampur
Road
Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
Road
Width-8’(Point-2) Width-8’(Point-2)(Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-20’
Width-20’
Width-20’
Width-20’

P.K.Roy
P.K.Roy
Road
Road
Islampur
Road
IslampurRoad(Point-4)(Point-4)
Width-8’
Width-8’

Islampur
Road
Islampur Road
(Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-20’
Width-20’

P.K.Roy
P.K.RoyRoad
Road
P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-4)(Point-4)(Point-3)(Point-3)
Width-8’
Width-8’
Width-10’
Width-10’

Zindabahar
Zindabahar
MosqueMosqueJhabbuJhabbu Khanam
KhanamMosqueMosqueIslampur
MosqueIslampur Mosque

P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-1)(Point-1)
Width-30’
Width-30’

JhabbuJhabbu Khanam
KhanamMosqueMosqueIslampur Mosque
Islampur
MosqueJhabbuJhabbu Khanam
KhanamMosqueMosqueIslampur
Islampur Mosque
MosqueP.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-3)(Point-3)
P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
Width-10’
Width-10’(Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-12’
Width-12’
P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-2)(Point-2)
Width-12’
Width-12’

JhabbuJhabbu Khanam
KhanamMosqueMosqueZindabahar
Zindabahar
MosqueMosqueP.K.Roy Lane
Road

P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-1)(Point-1)
Width-30’
Width-30’
P.K.RoyRoad
P.K.Roy Road
(Point-1)(Point-1)
Width-30’
Width-30’

Shahajada
Mia
MosqueShahajada
Mia
MosqueShahajada Mia
Shahajada
Mia Mosque
MosqueRoads
Buildings
Open Space

P.K.RoyRoad
Plotboundary
Lane
P.K.RoyRoad
Lane
SCORE<2.0

Roads
Buildings
Open Space

Roads

Roads
Buildings
Open Space
Buildings
Plot Space
boundary
Open
SCORE<2.0
Plot boundary
SCORE<2.0

Evacuation paths showing roadwidths at
different
point
Evacuation
paths
showingroad
Evacuation
paths
showingroadBabu bazaar
GhatMosque
Mosquebazaar Ghat
widthsatdifferent
point
Meeting with DC, Patuakhali
widthsatdifferent
point
Evacuation paths showing road

Roads
Plot boundary
Buildings
Open
Space
Roads
Buildings
Plotboundary
Open Space

Shahajada Mia
Shahajada
Mia Mosque
MosqueBabu bazaar
GhatMosque
Mosquebazaar Ghat

Shahajada Mia
Shahajada
Mia Mosque
MosquePlot boundary

Evacuation
Evacuation centers
centers
Evacuation centers

Babu bazaar
GhatMosque
Mosquebazaar Ghat

Roads
Buildings
Open Space
Plot boundary

cuation paths showing road
Evacuation centerswidths at different point
widths at different
point
RC-58
held two meetings inEvacuation
this trimestercenters
The Research Committee 58 (RC58) is working under the topic “Business Continuity Management (BCM)
Systems Suitable for Japanese Society.” Its activities started last year
and 13 companies joined this year.
The ﬁrst and second meeting of thisﬁscal year were held on May 23 andJune 17, 2008, respectively.
Last year, the committee members
reviewed the existing BCM related
literature and made a comparative

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Snapshot of three RC-58 working
groups during their discussions
and opinion exchange

Babu bazaar
GhatMosque
Mosquebazaar Ghat

study. This year, they were divided
into three working groups in order
to discuss the following topics: 1)
the suitable BCM for private companies, 2) the suitable BCM for local
governments and 3) suitable methods for evaluating BCM. These threeworking groups will continue their
discussions until the next regularmeeting, which will be held in September.
(By M. Y. Ohara)

Page 7

Liaison meeting at Japanese
Embassy
Dr. Tanaka attended the 1st liaison
meeting held in Japanese Embassyin Bangkok on June 20, which aims
at promoting information exchange
and collaborative activities among
Japanese organizations working inthe ﬁeld of science and technology.
The participants were from the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science,
Japan External Trade Organization,
National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology, Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Osaka University, United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia andthe Paciﬁc, and AIT.
In this meeting, activities of each

RNUS Activities

organization were introduced andissues in conducting research andeducation outside of Japan werediscussed.
RNUS signed professional
consulting services contract
RNUS/AIT team signed a contract
for professional consulting services
on June 2, 2008 for the project entitled “Seismic Hazard and Vulnerability Mapping of Dhaka, Chittagong
and Sylhet City Corporation Areas.”
This project is a part of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP) of the Government of
Bangladesh, supported by the United
Nations Development Programme(UNDP), Department for International Development Bangladesh, andthe European Commission to increase
the level of earthquake disaster preparedness in the important cities
in Bangladesh. The project will be
executed by a joint venture including
consultants, universities, and NGOs.
RNUS/AIT will be responsible
for seismic vulnerability and risk
assessment. The scope includes: supervising ﬁeld survey of more than
20,000 buildings, identifying dynamic characteristics of more than 100
representative buildings, assessing
the seismic vulnerability of typicalbuildings and lifelines by numericalanalyses and estimating potential
losses from possible earthquake
scenarios using the GIS-based software package HAZUS.
(By K. Worakanchanaand S. Tanaka)

Changes in ICUS staff
ICUS welcomes Prof. Sawada
and Dr. Koshihara who joined ourcenter on April 1, 2008 as Professorand Associate Professor, respectively. They belong to the Infrastructure
Information Dynamics Division.
Prof. Sawada ﬁeld of expertiseis remote sensing and forest information including geographic
information system. Dr. Koshihara
specializes in earthquake resistanceof wooden structures and retroﬁtting methods. They have introduced
their researches in this volume of
ICUS Newsletter.

ICUS would like to congratulate
Dr. Miho Ohara who was promoted
to ICUS Associate Professor on
April 1, 2008 and also started towork as Associate Professor for
the Center for Integrated Disaster
Information Research (CIDIR), Interfaculty Initiative in Information
Studies, The University of Tokyo
from June 1, 2008.
CIDIR was jointly established byInterfaculty Initiative in Information
Studies, The Earthquake ResearchInstitute, The Institute of Industrial
Science (IIS) in April 2008 in order
to integrate disaster information

research results in the University ofTokyo. She is expected to act as abridge between CIDIR and ICUS, IIS.
Dr. Ohara graduated from the
Department of Civil Engineering,
The University of Tokyo and joined
ICUS as Research Associate in April
2003. She obtained her Doctor ofEngineering Degree in September
2005 from the University of Tokyo.
Her research interests are urban
disaster mitigation strategies andeducation. Recently, she is developing E-learning system for increasing disaster response capacity of thestaff members in medical facilities
and universities.
(By K. Meguro)

Prof. Haruo Sawada

Dr. Mikio Koshihara

Dr. Miho Ohara

Prof. Sawada and Dr. Koshihara
joined ICUS

・Dr. Kato attended the 1 International Symposium on Life-Cycle
Civil Engineering, which was heldin Varenna, Italy from June 9 to 16.
・Dr. Tanaka stayed at AIT for his
research work and teaching duties at
RNUS from April 1 to May 1, May 12
st

Dr. Ohara is promoted

ICUS Activities

to 24, June 16 to 26, and July 2 to 20.
・Dr. Tanaka visited Hong Kong fromMay 18 to 19 to hold a research meeting on dynamic trafﬁc operation.
・ICUS organized the 14th Open
Lecture entitled “How does global
warming change urban environ-ment?” on May 9.
・ICUS joined the IIS Open House
from May 29 to 31.
・RC-58 held general meetings on
May 23 and June 17, 2008.
・RC-62 held general meeting on
June 24, 2008.

ICUS Newsletter Vol.8, No.1

Page 8
Editor’s Note
In this trimester, there were twohuge natural disasters, one is the
Cyclone Nargis hitting Myanmar
and the other is the Sichuan Earthquake which occurred in China.
Both disasters caused enormous
victims and still a lot of people
are suffering from refugee life. We
would like to express our sincere
sympathies to people affected bythese disasters. Although the events
themselves had huge impacts, problems after the events, such as, trou-

bles and delays in accepting foreignassistance offers, etc. were also
revealed. These post-event activities are very important in disastermanagement, and we have to makeefforts in this area, too.
Cyclones and earthquakes are
typical natural disasters whichcause huge damage in our daily
life. However, as our society develops and connects intricately, factors
which affect urban safety are also
increasing much more than before.
After the retirement of Prof. Yasuoka, who made great contributions

If you would like to contribute an article to ICUS newsletter or haveany comment or suggestion, please contact the editorial committee at
icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

to ICUS from its beginning, we welcome new members, Prof. Sawada
and Dr. Koshihara from this April.
Their researches are introduced inthis volume. ICUS is expanding its
research ﬁeld more widely and thisvariety of activities is the advantage
of our center. Taking these opportunities, we would like to keep ourorganization active and try to tackle
new challenges for a better society
and urban environment.
(By S. Tanaka)

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