ICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2006

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

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

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

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

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

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

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

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

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

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

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

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

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

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

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

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSERNUS Seminar Snapshot

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

Meeting participantspage 5

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

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

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

Ceremony participants

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 6

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

ICUS PARTICIPA-

Prof. Amano outlined the project

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

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

Prof. M. Oshima

Dr. T. Kikkawa

Dr. Y. Tanaka

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

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

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSE

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

page 7

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

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

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

ICUS Booth

Integrated Information System
for Total Disaster Management

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

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

ICUS New Staff

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

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

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

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 4

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

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

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

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

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

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