I C U SNewsletter
Volume 11

Number3

Oct. to Dec. 2011

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

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami disaster:
its impact and lessons for renovation
By Shunichi Koshimura
Associate Professor, Disaster Control Research Center, Tohoku University
Introduction

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude
M9.0 earthquake accompanied bya devastating tsunami attacked thenorthern Pacific coast of Japan,
totally sweeping away many coastal
communities in Iwate, Miyagi, andFukushima Prefectures. The total
area affected by the tsunami wasestimated at 561 square kilometers
along the Pacific coastline, and thetsunami run-up height reached up to
40 meters. As of September 10, sixmonths after the event occurred, theNational Police Agency reported
15,781 dead, 4,086 missing, and115,151 buildings and houses
collapsed or washed-away. The
economic impact was estimated at
16-25 trillion yen, compared to the
FY2010 national budget of Japan at
92 trillion yen.
Six months after the event, thedevastated areas have started
moving forward towards recovery
and reconstruction - that is, therenovation of their communities.
Approximately 82,000 residents
who lost houses have moved from
evacuation centers to temporary
houses and rental housing and 89% of
the 23 million tons of tsunami debris
have been removed. Though therecovery process is still underway,
local governments completed a

Numerical simulation of how post-disaster reconstruction planssuch as coastal levees and elevated roads may be able to minimize tsunami risks

draft reconstruction plan including
infrastructure design, transportation,
land use management, urban design,
relocation, and economic andindustrial outlooks. Every decision
has been made quite fast comparedto this wide extent of devastation.
Also in the six months since theearthquake, our team conducted
an integrated investigation by fieldmeasurement of tsunami heights,
optical satellite image analysis, andaerial photo inspection with approachof spatial information sciencesin order to identify the tsunami’s
impact. The preliminary findings are
combined with numerical modelingtechnologies to find out structuralvulnerability against tsunami andto provide a guidance for land
use management and relocation
planning to reconstruct resilient
coastal communities.

draw the inundation line, we applied
remote sensing technology using
satellite and aerial photographs
acquired after the tsunami.

Mapping tsunami

Mapping structural damage

inundation zone

and vulnerability

Mappingofthetsunamiinundation was conducted throughanalysis of optical satellite images
with calibration from the groundfield survey. The significant featureof the 2011 tsunami was the wide
extent of the inundation zone.
For example, on the Sendai plain,
the tsunami reached more than
5 kilometers inland. Our groupfocused on mapping the inundation
limit of the coast of Tohoku region.
We conducted high-resolution
surveys of the inundation limit
and height to an accuracy of a few
centimeters using GPS measurement
system in Miyagi, Iwate, andAomori Prefectures. The horizontal
measurement interval ranged fromapproximately 500 meters to several
kilometers and we measured nearly
300 sites until the end of April. To

Mapping of the structural damage
was conducted through visualinterpretation of aerial photos toidentify the structural vulnerability
against the 2011 tsunami. For
visual inspection, we used the aerial
photo archives of the Geospatial
Information Authority of Japanacquired in the devastated area.
Ortho photos with a resolution of 80
centimeters/pixel were composited
with mosaic image processing.
Combined with the ZENRIN
building data (building shape files),the inspection was conducted foreach building by comparing preand post-tsunami aerial photos,
focusing on the existence of houses’
roofs to add an classification
attribute of either “washed-away” or“surviving” to the damage status. By
mapping the structural damage andPage 2Mapping of tsunami inundation using ALOS AVNIR-2 image
acquired on March 14 and the normalized difference water index

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

overlooking its spatial distribution,
not only the impact of tsunami but
also the effect of coastal protection
and vegetation can be seen.
Integrating the structural damage
mapping with field survey data,such as flow depths, leads to a newmeans for identifying structuralvulnerability against tsunami in theform of a tsunami fragility curveor tsunami fragility function. The
tsunami fragility curve is defined as
the structural damage probability or
fatality ratio with particular regard to
the hydrodynamic features of tsunami
inundation flow, such as flow depth,
current velocity and hydrodynamic
force. Using this fragility curve, thedamage probabilities of structuraldestruction as a function of flow
depth can be estimated. Structuresin Miyagi Prefecture were especiallyvulnerable when the local flow depth
exceeded 2 meters, and 6 meter flow
depth would totally devastate thehouses. This fact can contribute toland use planning which considers
the effect of coastal protection.

Towards resilient
coastal communities

In April 2011, one month after
the event occurred, the central
government
establishedthereconstruction policy council todevelop a national recovery andreconstruction outlook for tsunamiresilient community. Besides, thecentral government decided thepolicy of coastal protection suchas seawall and breakwater, which
would be designed to ensure theirperformance to potential tsunami
level of 150 year recurrence interval.
In this sense, the government policyof designing coastal protection is for
150-year tsunami level (this is called“Prevention Level”) which ensures toprotect lives and properties. And forthe tsunami level more than 150-yearrecurrence
interval,so-called
extreme event, the government calls“Preparedness/Mitigation Level” toreduce the losses and damage by allof the efforts of coastal protection,
urban planning, evacuation, andpublic education.
Under the limitations and uncertain
conditions of funding, prefecturaland local governments havedeveloped their own recovery andreconstruction plans, which assume
10 years to be completed. These
plans consist of the combinationof structural prevention/mitigation,
urban planning, preparedness, andsuggest their land use management,
relocation, housing reconstruction
and tsunami disaster mitigationplans. The key role of academia,
in engineering point of view, is toverify and evaluate if these plans
really work for future disaster
reduction.
When the proposed reconstruction
plan should be verified, numericalmodeling is a powerful tool. The
figure on the cover page shows anexample evaluation of Sendai City’s
preliminary reconstruction plan that
includes 6.2 m levee and 6 m elevatedroad. As shown in the figure, throughthe comparison of the 2011 tsunami
simulated under the pre-tsunami

Mapping structural damage by inspectionof post-event aerial photos

condition in coastal protection andland use, potential reconstructionplans can be evaluated with regard
to tsunami inundation area andflow depth, exposed population andbuildings, and reducing risks.
Acknowledgment

The post-tsunami field survey
was conducted by a group of 20
scientists and engineers. All the dataof our measurements can be viewed
on the web page:
http://www.tohoku-tsunami.jp
This research was funded by the
Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science & Technology(MEXT), the New Energy andIndustrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO), and theJapan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS).
Editor’s Note: This article isan abbreviated version of Prof.
Koshimura’s paper and keynote
lecture from USMCA2011.

Mapping the tsunami flow depth measured
by Miyagi Prefecture and our team

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 3

Brief overview of expansion process and damage
due to Chao Phraya River Flood in Thailand
By A. Kawasaki
Flood expansion process

From June to September 2011, thefour month precipitation in many
places on the Indochina Peninsula
was about 1.2 to 1.8 times higher
than the average, such as 134% in
Chiang Mai, Thailand, 140% in
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand,and 144% in Vientiane, Laos. In
addition, heavy rain continued over
the Chao Phraya River basin into
early October.
After causing landslides and flash
floods in the northern part of Thailand
in August, the floodwaters slowly
moved south and the inundation areagrew as dikes were destroyed along
the Chao Phraya River in Nakhon
Sawan Province and Chinart Province
during mid- to late September. In
early October, floodwaters submerged
several industrial complexes in
Ayutthaya Province where many
Japanese factories such as the Rojana
Industrial Park and Hi-Tech

Industrial Estate are located. In midOctober, floodwaters approached
Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate in
Pathumtani Province, located directly
north of Bangkok, and submerged
academic and research zones where
the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT), Thammasat University andThai Science Park are located.
At the end of October, two flows
of floodwater reached Bangkok.
The primary flow was caused by
overflow in the upstream Chao
Phraya River, which flowed
southward through town, farms,
and channels and reached thecapital by overtopping the King’s
Dike (an outer embankment forprotecting the capital). The otherflow was caused by the direct
overflow from Chao Phraya River
where it runs along the Bangkok
metropolitan area. Although theThai government and Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration built
long sandbag embankments on theouter dike for protecting the capital,
the floodwaters still overtopped it.
At that time, the headquartersof the Thai government’s Flood
Recovery Operation Center (FROC)
was located at Don Muang Airport,
the former international airport in
Bangkok which is located about 15
kilometers north of the city center,but it had to be relocated to theEnergy Complex Building, about
10 kilometers south of the airport as
the airport was flooded at the end of
October.
Following the flooding of Don
Muang Airport, 6,000 giant 2.5ton sandbags, called “Big Bags,”
were used to quickly build anembankment north of Bangkok, andthe proper drainage of floodwaters
into the Chao Phraya River began as
the water level of the Chao Phraya
River went down. Then, in midNovember, southward expansion of
the floodwaters was finally halted at
Bang Sue canal, about 5 kilometers

Estimated inundation area in the Chao Phraya River basin (left) and Bangkok Metropolitan area (right).
These images were created by tracing satellite images from GISTDA (Geo-Informatics and SpaceTechnology Development Agency, Thailand). The inundated areas are likely to be overestimated as rice
paddy fields and wetland may have been detected as inundated areas.

Page 4

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

Makeshift walkway and water taxi in inundated
area in Rangsit, Pathumtani on Nov. 5, 2011

Number of deaths & affected people(source: Department of Disaster Prevention
and Mitigation, Thailand)

Don Muang Airport (former international airport)
on Nov. 16, 2011

Young children enjoying the floodwatersin Thonburi, Bangkok, on Nov. 5, 2011

north of the city center, and floodingof the city center was prevented.
Drainage of several industrial
complexes was completed in the
middle of November with support
from international rescue teams,
such as Japan’s Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport, using
high performance pumping cars.
DamageAs of December 10th, 2011, thefloods had killed 680 people and 3
people were missing. The cause of
80% of the deaths was by drowning.
Based on the rapid damage
estimation by the World Bank, total
economic damages and losses fromthe floods stood at approximately
45.7 billion US dollars as ofDecember 1, 2011, and it wasestimated that Thailand’s economic
growth rate was reduced from 3.5%
to 2.4% in 2011. Compared to otherpast natural disasters, the economic

damage by the floods in Thailand
in 2011 was the fourth-largest
disaster in the world, following the2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan,
2005’s Hurricane Katrina in theUS, and the 1995 Kobe earthquake
in Japan. This estimation doesn’t
include the long-term impact on
economic activities in Thailand andoverseas impacts such as disruptionof the supply chain.
Recovering from this extensive
damage is a big challenge in
Thailand. The government needs
to establish a long-term economic
recovery strategy considering theimprovement of quality of lifeand better reliability for foreign
investors as well as a master planfor building a flood-safe city against
future floods.
During my field survey of thisflood, I received the impression that
Thai people appeared to be enjoying
the flood, and I heard similar opinionsfrom other foreign investigators as

well. Many street stalls were opened
above the floodwaters, temporary
waterways and transportation systemwere created, and children playedin the water. The Thai people’s
recognition of the flooding seemed
quite different compared to othercountries - based on their knowledge
and experience, Thai people were
doing all kinds of things to live withthe flood conditions.
JICA(JapanInternational
Cooperation Agency) received arequest from the Thai government
to conduct an investigation towards
creating a master plan for flood
management in the Chao Phraya
River basin considering the current
urbanization and industrializationand climate change. I hope thatthe collaboration between the Thaigovernment and JICA will produce asuitable recovery strategy and masterplan considering these special local
characteristics of Thailand.

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 5Fixed-point observation of reconstruction progressin areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake
By S. Kondo

Over half a year has passed since
the Great East Japan Earthquake
occurred. In the affected areas,
the life of disaster victims has
been improving little by little.
As one means of measuring thisimprovement, ICUS (3.11 net Tokyo)
has been regularly conducting
fixed-point observations in various
locations. This observation aims torecord the process of recovery andreconstruction throughout the entire
affected area. At this time, a stateof affairs in the affected areas isreported, along with a comparisonof photos taken at the end of April
2011 and the end of November
2011. The map shown on this pageshows where the photos were taken,
with all of the reported observations
being in either Miyagi or Iwate
Prefectures.
The biggest change over the pastseven months is disapperance ofmassive the tsunami debris. By theend of April, only tsunami debris
on the roads had been removed, butby the end of November most of
the tsunami debris in the residential
areas was also removed. The
Ministry of the Environment issued
a basic strategy in May, whichstated: “before the end of August
2011, tsunami debris in the vicinityof residences shall be removed.”
The current situation is the resultof this basic strategy. The removed
tsunami debris has been placed at
temporary waste dumps for tsunami
debris and segregated into types,
such as wood or concrete.
Many
other
reconstruction
and recovery initiatives are also
progressing. Disaster victims wholost their homes have moved fromPage 6

Map of survey points in the areas affected by
the Great East Japan Earthquake
The end of April, 2011

The end of November, 2011

1. Arahama, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture

2. Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture

3. Okawa elementary school, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

The end of April, 2011

The end of November, 2011

4. Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture

5. Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture

evacuation centers to temporary
houses. Temporary houses include
not only one-story prefabricatedconventional structures but also
three-story stacked containers
because the affected areas are
surrounded by mountains and theocean and there is very limited
space to build houses. In someareas, temporary stores have been
established and are conducting
business.
During the survey conducted at
the end of April, it was difficult
to believe in the possibility ofreconstruction because of theenormous volume of tsunami
debris. At the end of November,
however, I could feel thatreconstruction is possible in the
future with the efforts of disastervictims (excluding the area aroundthe Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant). In order to capture theprogress of this reconstruction, wewant to continue conducting this
fixed-point observation study.

6. Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture

Temporary houses made ofshipping containers stacked
three stories high(Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture)

Temporary waste dump for tsunami debris(Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture)

Temporary store(Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture)

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 7

Investigation on the concrete industry
and sustainability in Mongolia
By M. Henry

It is difficult to establish a global
strategy for concrete sustainability,
as related factors such as level oftechnology, stakeholder culture,
available resources, institutional
systems, and so forth vary widelyaround the world and also depend
strongly on regional or local
conditions. It is therefore necessary
to understand the relationship andinteraction between the aforementioned factors and concretesustainability. In particular, theAsian region represents a good
opportunity to understand thisrelationship and interaction, as thelevel of development and regional
conditions vary widely.
Currently, the International Centerfor Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS)
is establishing various ties withacademics and professionals in
Mongolia for developing safe andsustainable infrastructure. Mongolia
represents a good case study as its
level of development is currently
low but explosive growth is expectedin the future due to industrial
development. This research wastherefore carried out to investigate thecurrent state of the concrete industry
in Mongolia and how the Mongoliasocio-economic conditions affectthe potential for sustainable concrete
practice and materials.
The Mongolian concrete industry
is characterized by strong demandfor concrete, particularly forarchitectural applications, whichpeaks during the summer months
and tapers off during the winter.
During the summer peak, demand isso high that the industry experiences
shortages, particularly of cement,
and this problem is compounded

Page 8by the limited number of supply
routes for importing cement from
China. Natural resources for
producing concrete are widely
available domestically, except for
anti-freezing admixtures, which areimported from China. Managementof concrete curing during the colder
winter months is critical to prevent
concrete cracking.
Important issues for sustainability
include the conservation of natural
resources and management of supply

logistics due to the high demand formaterials during the summer months,
utilization of fly ash which is widely
available from coal power plants but
unusable at this time due to poor
quality, and the implementationof quality control for materials
and structures to reduce variation
across the concrete industry. Other
issues include the development ofconformation codes and reduction of
air pollution and waste generation.

Curing of a concrete slab-on-grade during the winter months
using plastic sheets and felt (left) and a diesel heater (right)

Exposed reinforcement in new construction highlights
the importance of improved quality controls

Large amounts of waste timber can be found on construction sites

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

Report from Van, Turkey: need for better housing
after the 2011 Eastern Turkey Earthquake
By T. Matsushita, Master student, Meguro Laboratory

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake
struck the eastern part of Turkey
16 kilometers north-northeast of
Van at 13:41 local time on Oct.
23, 2011. Initially, only 9 building
collapsed in Van, but the number
increased due to aftershocks
and the final death toll was 604.
Officials reported more than 2,300
buildings as ‘uninhabitable’ after
their inspection in the week after theearthquake, and many residents had
to evacuate and seek shelters. On
Nov. 9, another earthquake (M5.6)
hit at 21:30 local time, causing 40
deaths including a Japanese NPO
staff member who was buried undera collapsed hotel. An additional 25
buildings collapsed after this big
aftershock and, unfortunately, thehotel was one of three that were
occupied after the inspection.
I visited Van and its vicinity as apart of an NPO’s assessment team.
A medical officer at the Van Crisis
Center told me the shocking storyof how many patients received
injuries from jumping off from theupper floors of their buildings due totheir fear of the building collapsing.
Many people do not want to go
back to their own houses even after
the government told them that theirbuildings were safe. It shows how
little trust people have in the quakeresistance of their buildings while atthe same time demonstrating a lackof proper information or knowledge
about evacuation.
In the countryside, the building
damage was severer comparedto the city, but there were fewer
victims because, at the time ofthe earthquake, most people wereoutside working on their farms or
could run outside before the collapse
because many houses were singlestory structures.
One observation made at tent
camps is that there were manyburn patients, especially children,
reported after the earthquake. Thiswas caused by spilled boiling waterfrom Chai pots on gas stoves inside
the crowded tents. Tents are typically
about 13 square meters – not large
enough for a typical family with 5
to 10 children. These families are
not used to living in such a small,confined space, and it is hard to
give up their custom of drinking tea,
which is an important part of theirlives.
The lack of heating inside the tents
was another serious issue. Althougha gas stove or electric heater was

Totally collapsed RC apartment buildingin the Van city center (Oct. 31, 2011)

supplied to almost every tent, those
we interviewed complained about
the cold. The fabric tents are notmade to withstand the severe winterin Eastern Turkey, and it will become
worse once it snows.
An urgent issue after the initial
response is to relocate people to better
housing. The Turkish government
responded quickly by distributing
about 35,000 tents within 20 hours
after the earthquake. However,
although a total of 21,000 temporary
container housings are needed, only
15,000 of them had been delivered
as of Jan. 20, 2012 – three months
after the disaster. The government
plans to start constructing new
permanent housing for those wholost their home when the weather
improves in May.
The Turkish emergency response
system seemed to work well after
the deadly earthquake in 1999.
However, the quality of buildings
could be improved in the future.
(This report is based on site visits
and hearings conducted from Oct. 31
to Nov. 5, 2011, and email inquiries
conducted by the Humanitarian
Medical Assistance assessment
team)

Partially collapsed non-engineered housein Alakoy village, north-east of Van (Nov. 1, 2011)

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 95th IIS alumni party for all University of Tokyo
alumni was held in Bangkok, Thailand
By A. Kawasaki

On Oct.15, 2011, the 5th IIS(Institute of Industrial Science,
University of Tokyo) Thai alumni
party was held in Bangkok. This
year’s party was expanded to include
the entire University of Tokyo (UT)in response to strong demand fromIIS alumni, as it would provide agreat opportunity not only for IIS
alumni who already know each otherbut also for alumni from the entire
university who haven’t met before.
On the day of the party, a totalof 41 alumni from the 1960s to
2000s were able to reunite at the
party even though it was held under
bad weather conditions and withthe great flood affecting northern
Bangkok.
Attendees
included
not only Thai alumni working invarious fields such as government,
universities, and companies, but alsoGroup photo of alumni party participants

11 Japanese alumni working in Thaicompanies and research institutes.
The meeting began with the readingof greeting messages from Prof.
Yashiro, Director General of IIS,
and Prof. Masako Egawa, Executive
Vice President of UT. The party wasfilled with a friendly atmosphere,
including short self introduction by
all alumni which included current

status and memories of the student
time in IIS and UT.
In June 2012, the President’s
Council of UT will be held in
Bangkok and will be attended byPresident Hamada, and the next Thaialumni party is scheduled to coincidewith this occasion. Please check the
ICUS and RNUS websites for more
information regarding this event.

Visit from the Mongolian National Emergency Agency
By Y. Ichihashi

On November 8, 2011, ICUS
received 16 visitors from theMongolian National Emergency
Agency, led by M. Sukhbaatar, andother staff from related authorities.
They were on a visit to Japan
at the invitation of the Japanese
government through the JENESYS

program (Japan-East Asia Network
of Exchange for Students andYouths), an international exchange
program undertaken by the Japan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and organized by JICE (Japan
International Cooperation Center).
At ICUS, the visitors were given

ICUS members and visitors from Mongolia at IIS

Page 10ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

a lecture by Visiting Professor Y.
Ichihashi on the current overallsystems for natural disastermanagement in Japan, including thebasic legal framework for disaster
preparedness programs, emergency
rescue activities, assistance forrecovery and reconstruction, androles played by various institutions.
The visitors also watched videosof the March 11 East Japan Great
Earthquake, which reaffirmed theimportance of preparations for futurenatural disasters based on Japan’s
lessons. Mongolia dispatched rescue
teams immediately after March 11,
for which the National Emergency
Agency was the responsible agency.

USMCA2011 was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand
By A. Kawasaki

The 10th International Symposium
on New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia
(USMCA2011) was held from
October 12 to 14 in Chiang Mai,
Thailand.
USMCA2011
was
jointly organized by ICUS, theAsian Institute of Technology(AIT), Chiang Mai University, andChulalongkorn University. The twoday symposium program included 5
keynote speakers, a poster session
with 23 poster presentations, and12 parallel sessions with 52 oralpresentations. Including attendanceonly participants, 149 people
representing 13 countries joined thisyear’s symposium.
Thesymposiumwas inaugurated by
Mr. Kazuo Shibata of the ConsulateGenerl of Japan in Chiang Mai and
Dr. Kimiro Meguro, Director andProfessor of ICUS. Keynote speakers
included Dr. Shunichi Koshimura(Tohoku University, Japan), Dr. Ir
Muhammad Dirhamsyah (Syiah
Kuala University, Indonesia), Dr.

Sidthinat Prabudhanitisarn (Chiang
Mai University, Thailand), Dr. Peter
Rogers (Harvard University, USA),and Dr. Haruo Sawada (ICUS,
University of Tokyo, Japan).
This year featured a new addition
to the USMCA schedule: a poster
presentation
session.
Posters
covering a variety of topics wereon display, and many participantsjoined the presenters for lively
discussion.
Oral presentations were given in
12 parallel sessions which covered
topics including vulnerability andrisk assessment of seismic andflood hazards; disaster response
and recovery; urban planningand assessment; environmental
management of air, forest, and water
resources; durability, properties,
and performance of construction
materials and structures; andassessment of infrastructure health,performance, risk, and vulnerability.
A special session on the earthquakes
and tsunamis in Sumatra and theIndian Ocean, and in Tohoku, Japan,
was also held.
At the end of the symposium, theExcellent Young Researcher Award– prepared by ICUS to encourage theactivities of young researchers – waspresented to Ms. Tomoko Matsushita(The University of Tokyo, Japan)
and Mr. Mahmood Riyaz (Asian
Institute of Technology, Thailand)
for their poster presentations and
Ms. Sho Oh and Mr. Hirotoshi Kishi(both of The University of Tokyo,
Japan) for their oral presentations.
On the third day of the symposium,
a historical and cultural field triparound Chiang Mai was held. The
field trip visited Phuping Palace, theroyal family’s winter residence, and
Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a sacred
Buddhist temple, among otherlocations.
Next year, USMCA2012 will
be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia,
from October 10 to 12, 2012. Pleasecheck the ICUS website for future
updates and announcements.

Group photo of USMCA2011 participants

Discussions during theposter session

Dr.Choyanon Honsapinyo and winnersof the Excellent Young Researcher Award

Group photo during the field triparound Chiang Mai

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 11

The four winners of the Excellent Young Researcher Award at USMCA2011 present their research.

Building back right: learning from Tohoku
By T. Matsushita, Master student, Meguro Laboratory

During the reconstruction process
after the 2011 Great East Japan
Earthquake, speed and quality are
required to respond to people’s
immediate needs. Regenerating
human activity is a vital part ofreconstruction, and we introduce
the process of making architecture
as a means to promote people’s
participation and revitalize the local
industry.
As a part of the relief effort by theJapan Committee for UNICEF toreconstruct kindergartens, specificmethods were introduced andevaluated, such as building withlocal craftsmen’s initiative, building

with people’s participation, andformation of an expert advisorygroup to supervise quality for mass
production.
We found that the prefabricatedstructures were able to fully respondto the needs by quickly providing
buildings. Some observations of thisstudy are as follows:❖ The pilot project was effective in
identifying strong local networks
and availability of local playerswith strong commitment to theirown region. This was in contrast
to some beliefs that local actors
would be too confused to takeinitiative.

❖ Active participation by beneficiaries

was observed during the meetings
and workshops. This invigorated
the design process due to theinvolvement of many actors.
❖ Basic principles worked effectively
to provide guidelines to designers
while allowing room for creativity.
The awareness of people changed
once they became active participantsin the process of making architecture.
When designing the actual space andfunction of their future buildings,
people started to speak freely to
express concerns for their future
and make a difference by taking
ownership.

Application of elastic wave measurement
to model tests using bender elements
By S. Oh, Master student, Kuwano Laboratory

Elastic wave measurement using
Bender Elements has been developed
as a dynamic measurement method
for element testing in the geotechnicalfield. At this time, we are trying toapply this method to model tests
in order to obtain the pressure
distribution inside a soil chamber,which is intended to simulate theconditions experienced when unevensettlement occurs around a buried
structure. This research aims to obtain

Increment of earth pressure
due to uneven settlement

Page 12the basic performance informationof bender elements when applied tomodel tests. First, in order to moreclearly detect the wave arrival,
signal analysis was conducted. Low
frequency noise was reduced bypolynomial approximation, and highfrequency noise was dealt with using
an FFT filter. Next, the effect of
attaching an aluminum block to thebender element was discussed, as thiswas found to reduce noise and give a

Bender elements

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

clearer wave in element tests. Somechange in the received waveform
was found, but wave velocity wasalmost the same. In addition, thewave propagation property waschecked using multiple receivers
with a single transmitter. Finally,
the shear modulus of the obtained
data for obtained data for validation.
Results showed good agreementwith those of element test.

Wave measurement data

Application of spatial information
for the reaction of the huge earthquake –supporting recovering activities
for the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake
By H. Kishi, Ph.D. student, Sawada Laboratory

This study developed spatial
information products for response
activities after the 2011 Tohoku(Great East Japan) Earthquake. First,
usefulinformationforthegovernment
sector and field investigators in theaffected areas was considered byproject members. We concluded
that the important points were theapplicability and accessibility ofspatial information. Second, remotesensing datasets such as aerial
photos distributed by the JapaneseGeospatial Information Authority
and GIS datasets were processed
for sharing on Google Earth. During
this process, the tsunami inundationline was interpreted and digitizedcomparing aerial photos to satellite

Overlaying tsunami inundation data on Google Earthimages taken before the earthquake
on Google Earth. Finally, the tsunami
line aerial photo map was published
for usage by the governments,
field investigators, researchers andvolunteers in the affected areas.

We plan to keep publishing thismap using new aerial photos takena few months after the earthquake
for supporting recovery activities.
All these products were distributed
through our project website.

Development of early warning system in Maldives
By M. Riyaz, Environment Research Centre, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water, MaldivesIn the Maldives, the Early
Warning System (EWS) has beendeveloped to address the risks ofnatural disasters. Before the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami, people in theMaldives were not aware of disasterrisk and there was no considerationof an EWS. Soon after the disaster,a risk profile for the Maldives wasdeveloped and emergency response
measures for sectors such as tourism,
communication, education, defense
and so forth were considered.
This study deals with thedevelopment of the EWS in Maldives.
The National Early Warning Systemin the Maldives (NEWSM) was
developed in three main phases:(1) Phase I, establishment of amonitoring system for surface

meteorological conditions andseismic event occurrence; (2) Phase
II, strengthening the monitoring
system established in phase I
through automating the metrologicalmonitoring system; and (3) Phase
III, confirmation of the information
flow, establishment of backup
and alternative electric power
and telecommunication systems
and linkage with internationalorganizations. Disaster warning
messages from the NEWSM aretransmitted to national, regional,
atoll and island offices through acommercial communication system– mainly computer networks andhotlines (leased lines). The onlymeans of dissemination of disasteradvisories and warning to the generalpublic is through raio and television
broadcasting. A Radio Trunking
Network with TETRA technology
is used as backup network.
While the Maldives is exposed
to various hazards, such as the risk
from rising sea level due to climatechange, gale force winds, storm
surge, torrential rain, earthquake
and tsunami, the established EWS
seems to be focused only ontsunami risk and, furthermore, is notvery effective for communicationand information dissemination.
The establishment of a propermechanism to reach the generalpublic, remote communities andislands is needed by using moreuser friendly mechanisms.

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 13

21st ICUS Open Lecture was held in Sapporo, JapanBy H. Yokota

ICUS and Hokkaido University
co-hosted the 21st ICUS Open
Lecture at Hokkaido University
in Sapporo, Japan, on October 31,
2011, with 180 participants. The
theme of the lecture was “Towards
the formulation of sustainable urban
infrastructure systems.”
21st century Japan is characterized
by a low birthrate and aging
population, efforts toward therestoration of a sound public financesystem,ahigh-technologicalsociety, a focus on environmentalload reduction, decentralization of
power and balanced contraction. In
the series of lectures, participants
discussed and exchanged opinions
on the development of urban
infrastructure systems that create
safe, affluent living environments,
and will identify future challenges
for the continuation of such systems
as well as proposed measures to copewith such challenges.
Professor Haruo Sawada (Professor,
ICUS The University of Tokyo),spoke first on the role of the remotesensing technology from theProf. H. Sawada

ICUS members visiting the Otaru Port seawall

perspectiveofmonitoringwidehazard
due to environmental changes. Next,
Professor Norihiro Izumi (Hokkaido
University), a leading researcher onriver and environmental engineering,
discussed water crisis - depletionof water resources and proposed
his thoughts and ideas for how thewater resources should be managed.
Thirdly, Professor Kimiro Meguro(Director of ICUS, The Universityof Tokyo), proposed sufficientearthquake disaster management
system based on the lessons fromthe East Japan Earthquake on March
11, 2011. Finally, Professor Seiichi
Kagaya (Hokkaido University),
one of Japan’s leaders in the urban
planning field, proposed methods

Prof. N. Izumi

and applications for sustainableinfrastructure planning.
The day after the 21st Open
Lecture, ICUS members joined a
study trip around the Sapporo area.
First, they visited the Forestry andForest Products Research Institute(FFPRI) and visited some sites in theexperimental forest. After that, they
traveled to the Otaru Port Seawall,
which was completed in 1908 andis one of the oldest port structures inJapan.
This first jointly organized open
lecture with other university had asuccessful conclusions. ICUS may
seek another opportunity for holding
joint open lectures in the future.

Prof. K. Meguro

Prof. S. Kagaya

Awards and honors❖ Ms. T. Matsushita, master student

in Meguro Lab, Mr. H. Kishi,
Ph.D. student in Sawada Lab,and Ms. S. Oh, master student

Page 14in Kuwano Lab, all received the
Excellent Young ResearcherAward at USMCA 2011 in
Chiang Mai, Thailand. Their

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 11, No.3

award-winning researches are
summarized on Pages 12 and 13of this volume.

Project on Amazonian Carbon Dynamics (Part III)By T. Endo

The “CArbon Dynamics ofAmazonian Forests” (CADAF)
project is now in its second year.
During the first year, the remotesensing team of IIS/UT, Japan, and
SIGLAB/INPA, Brazil, created an
initial environmental map of the
Amazonian forest generated fromsatellite data which can be used toestimate the biomass of the whole
Amazon forest. Since the data is still
preliminary, we have to improve its
accuracy by checking the estimatedresult against the actual conditions.
In November, Prof. H. Sawada,
and Dr. T. Endo visited Sao Pauloin order to get permission to conduct
an aerial survey from the Brazilian
government. This is because thecurrent government is very sensitive
to requests to conduct forest inventory
from overseas organizations. We also

Discussion with Brazilian
researchers

A walking palm

gave presentations at the CADAF
project’s international seminar at
INPA/Manaus, which was attended
by over 150 people including the
INPA director, researchers andstudents.
Finally, we conducted a fieldsurvey of the Amazonian forest toevaluate the environmental map
made during the first year. The
survey was carried out using GPS
to identify survey points, and we

took digital pictures and recorded
conditions such as tree height andground vegetation. From this fieldsurvey, we learned that we should
improve the classification between
natural and secondary forests.
During the field survey, we
happened upon a walking palm inthe jungle. This unique tree gets its
name because it “walks” aroundin order to get better exposure to
sunlight.

ICUS Activities October – December❖ ICUS

members
attended
USMCA2011 in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, from Oct. 11 to 14.
❖ Prof. K. Meguro and Dr. M.
Numada attended a JST-JICA
workshop in Jogjakarta andPadang, Indonesia, from Oct. 23
to 29. Prof. Meguro also attended
an international workshop in
Singapore from Dec. 6 to 8, and
Dr. Numada travelled to Van
and Istanbul, Turkey, from Dec.
21 to 27 for an investigation.
❖ Prof. H. Sawada and Dr. T
Endo attended ACRS2011 in
Taiwan from Oct. 2 to 8. They
also traveled to Brazil from
Nov. 12 to Dec. 6 for a meetingwith INPE and INPA, and to

Cambodia from Dec. 10 to Dec.
22 for a meeting and field trip.
Prof. Sawada also attended
an international workshop in
Beijing, China, from Dec. 22 to25.
❖ Dr. T. Kato visited Beijing,
China, from Oct. 26 to 29 for a
conference on disaster prevention,
attended the 29th Taiwan-Japan
engineering seminar in Taipei,
Taiwan, from Nov. 21 to 24, andconducted an investigation in
Chengdu, China, from Dec. 26
to 31.
❖ Dr. K. Nagai traveled to Parisand Lyon, France, from Oct. 16
to 24 to participate in the Todai
Forum.

❖ Dr. S. Tanaka attended the ITSWorld Conference from Oct. 17
to 23 in Orlando, USA.
❖ Dr. A. Kawasaki was at AIT in
Bangkok, Thailand, from Sept.
20 to Oct. 24 and from Dec. 7 to
21 for operating the RNUS officeand conducting lectures. He also
traveled to Bangkok from Nov.
3 to 17 for a survey on the Thai
flooding, and to Cambodia from
Dec. 11 to 20 for a field survey
on forest and land-use change.
❖ Dr. M. Henry traveled to
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from Nov.
19 to Dec. 2 and Singapore from
Dec. 4 to Dec. 9 for investigations
on the sustainability of concrete.

ICUS Newsletter Oct. to Dec. 2011

Page 15

Editor’s note…
Almost one year has passed
since the East Japan Earthquake
and tsunami disaster and most
tsunami-damaged areas have beencleaned up, allowing us to can see
vast flatlands and masses of rubble.
Therefore, we are now facing thenext stage of recovery – that is,reconstruction of towns. However,this is not easy because the ideal
recovery is not the same town as it
was before. We should consider the
future figure of these towns such asindustry, community, safety, aging

and depopulation society, and soforth which are issues faced by theresidents and local governments.
Meanwhile, the central government
provides funds from a limited budget.
In this situation, is construction ofvery high embankments and new
infrastructure the solution? Is massmigration the solution? What isthe best for the well being of theresidents? The ideal goal is still far
although many victims are living in
temporary housing shelters.
Recently, an earthquake researchgroup at the University of Tokyo
published their estimation of

the probability of a M7 Tokyo
metropolitan inland earthquake
considering the frequency ofearthquakes after the 2011 East
Japan Earthquake. They say that theprobability of the earthquake within
4 years is 70%, which is much higher
than the past estimates. This canhelp to enhance people’s awarenessagainst the disaster, and preparation
for the earthquake is getting better.
However, how do we consider
the long-term recovery after thedisaster? Disaster countermeasures
should include this perspective too.
By. K. Nagai

Deadline for abstracts for USMCA2012 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
We would like to announce that the deadline for submission of abstracts for USMCA2012 (to be held from Oct. 10
to 12, 2012, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) is May 31, 2012. Further information, including a link to the symposium
website, will be available soon on the ICUS website.

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

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