Supporting Life Recovery Process with theManagement System Based on the Victims
Master Database - A study of Crisis Management Following
Tokyo Metropolitan Near Field Earthquake DisasterKeiko TAMURA
Risk Management Office, Niigata University, Japan

Munenari INOGUCHI
Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery, Niigata University, Japan

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

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

Haruo HAYASHI
Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, JapanSUMMARY:
The research team developed a GeoWrap Method that joins tables from different databases using spatial
location relationships instead of primary keys. This technique made building master database possible in orderto support disaster victims, which was consisted of the data retrieved from the several sets of administrative
database of the daily work and combined them into Victims Master Database. Tokyo Metropolitan government
accepted the importance of previous arrangement for going through those procedures.
Keywords: GeoWrap; integrated database; Victims Master Database

1. INTRODUCTION
The Tohoku Earthquake was a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake off the east
coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, March 11th, 2011. This strong earthquake caused
huge and destructive tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 feet) in Miyako in
the Iwate Prefecture and travelled up to 10 km (6 miles) inland in the city of Sendai. Approximately
15,200 people lost their lives and over 8,600 people were reported missing. The number of houses thatwere partially or totally destroyed in the disaster was about 160,000. The tsunami caused a number ofnuclear accidents, primarily the on going level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima I
Nuclear Power Plant complex. The resulting evacuation zones affected hundreds of thousands ofresidents that resided in the afflicted areas including 10 prefectures and 241 cities, wards, "cho"districts, and villages. Because of experience from past disasters, Japan has a variety of well-organizedsupport services to help the victims to rebuild their lives. However, standardization of the workflow inorder to effectively offer these support services and build support tools are not sufficient. The amountof work required is extremely large since the areas of disaster are widespread and a large number ofpeople need to receive support services. Therefore, it necessitates the establishment of a workflow andsupport tools. Herein, we describe the generation of a Victims Master Database in order to effectively
provide support for victims.

2. OVERVIEW OF LIFE REBUILDING SUPPORT SERVICES
In Japan, many of the life rebuilding support services are designed based on a degree of damage tothe victim’s principal residence or the victimized household where their life was centered. Theseservices were provided by the municipality of their city, "cho" district, or village where the victim or
the household were registered. The following summarizes the flow of life rebuilding support services
to a victim. (1) Building inspection. The degree of damage to a building in an afflicted area is assessed
based on a set of standards prescribed by the national government. (2) Preparation of a certified victim
survey database. The survey results are converted into a database for each building location. (3)Issuing a disaster victim certificate. The result of a building damage certification survey is conveyed toa victim in the form of a disaster victim certificate. (4) Providing life rebuilding support services. Twotypes of services are provided: financial support service that is based on the victim’s application andan exemption service through administrative procedures within a municipality (See Figure 1). The
Victims Master Database discussed in this paper is a tool used to provide items (2) and (3), and also
serves as the foundation on which to base the service provision in item (4).

Child Care

National
HealthService

Property Tax

DisasterRelief Fund

Demolition of
Damaged
Housings

Urgent Repair

Temporary
housings

Relief Money

PublicNursing
Insurance

Reduced Rates andExemption to Payment

Relief Programs

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

Figure 1. Work Flow of Administrative Support

3. OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM
3.1. Development of a Database to issue Disaster Victim Certificates using the GeoWrap Method
Requirements for issuing a Disaster Victim Certificate on the basis of a victim’s application are: To
identify an individual or a household on the Basic Resident Register (Juumin kihon daichou), to
identify which house is their primary residence where their life is centered, and to find out the resultsof a building damage certification survey. To gather these required pieces of information, it isnecessary to extract and collate the applicable data from the (1) Basic Resident Register, (2) Property
Taxation Database, and (3) Building Damage Certification Survey. Items (1) and (2) are databases fora normal time, and item (3) is a database built after a disaster occurs. There are a plethora of issues
listed below that affect the ability to connect items (1), (2), and (3) together.
3.1.1. (1) and (2) do not share a common primary key
The primary key of the Basic Resident Register is an individual number or a household number todesignate a resident. On the other hand, the primary key of the Property Taxation Database is a housenumber used to set tax on a building. The Property Taxation Database may also contain an individual
number in some municipalities if the tax payer is a resident of that jurisdiction. However, this is notstandard procedure. Therefore, these two databases cannot immediately be combined.
3.1.2. The only primary key of (3) is location
The Building Damage Certification Survey is organized according to locations used to conduct asurvey at disaster afflicted areas. Therefore, information on the residents and houses is not known, andas such, (1), (2), and (3) cannot immediately be combined.
3.2. Proposition of Novel Technology to Combine Databases with Different Primary Keys
Our research and development team developed a GeoWrap Method that connects data from different
databases using spatial location relationships instead of primary keys. The GeoWrap Method employs
the Geographic Information System (GIS) to position information from each database in a space, andthe spatial distance between pieces of information is designated affinity. This affinity assigns weight
between the pieces of information and provides rank order among the pieces of information. Therefore,
the information from each database is converted into spatial information. The spatial information wasthen taken into the GIS to calculate affinity based on spatial distances among the pieces of information.
This was an automated process for generating flexibly connected pieces of information (See Figure 2).
When a resident applies for a Disaster Victim Certificate, a simple search of the "resulting data thatare flexibly connected together in a space" makes a resident identify their primary residence based on
the information provided. By presenting a Building Damage Certification Survey result, we can let theresident complete the entry of the Victims Database. A major feature of this system is that it
effectively combines automation as an optimum solution and a real solution provided by humans.
Property Taxation Database
Basic figure(map of houses)

Record to issue a Disaster
Victim Certificate

Result of damage
certification

Basic Resident Register

Figure 2. “Flexible" join made by the GeoWrap Method

3.3. Development of a System to Apply and Issue the Disaster Victim Certificate
3.3.1. Workflow Using the New Systema) An applicant submits an application containing basic information.
b) Municipality staff inputs the information from the applicant into the Disaster Victim Certificate
application and issuing system, to search the database for ‘most likely’ data such as people, house,and damage.
c) The system uses the GeoWrap Method to give a rank order to other data in the Database based on
the information identified in step “b” above.
d) The employee requests correct information from the applicant based on rank-ordered pieces of
information, and updates this in the system.
e) Print and issue the results from step “d” as a certificate.
f) The system records connections among the confirmed pieces of information in the database.
Among the six steps above, steps “b” and “d” require human intervention. Improved efficiency andintegrity are highly desired.
3.3.2. Requirement 1: Installing a graphical interface using a map

Visualization of rank ordered information in each database on a map would facilitate an applicant
identifying their primary residence based on his or her actual place of residence.
3.3.3. Requirement 2: Coordination between list information and map
List information would be color-coded for each database and displayed on a map. Rank orderinformation would be made into a list for each database and displayed at the bottom of a map. An
applicant would compare the map and the list to make the following selections (Figure 3): (a) does thedisplayed address information for the applicant match the actual information?; (b) does property
taxation information displayed as the primary residence match the actual information?; (c) in theapplicant’s opinion, does the displayed results of the building damage certification survey accuratelyreflect the damage due to the earthquake?; and (d) in the applicant’s opinion, does the displayed
results of the building damage certification survey reflect the damage due to a fire?

Verification on map
to match residence,people, and damage

Basic
Resident
Register

Property
Taxation
Database

Tremordamagesurvey results

Fire damage
survey results

Figure 3. System to Apply and Issue Disaster Victim Certificate(Interactive information search system between an applicant and a municipality clerk)

3.3.4. Development Environment
This system was implemented in an environment to coordinate DBMS (Database Management
System) and GIS. For the DBMS, an SQL server was used as a server-client database system. The
SQL server can be substituted with MS-Access (MDB) if only a client alone is used. A GIS server or
GIS server runtime can be selected for the GIS function.

4. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS
As a heightened risk is expected for an occurrence of a near-field earthquake in the Tokyo
metropolitan area in the near future, we conducted a drill on issuing Disaster Victim Certificates using
the proposed system in the Toshima Ward, Tokyo, and the City of Chofu (Figure 4). Prior to March
11th, 2011, it was predicted that there was a 70% chance that the Tokyo Metropolitan area and her
vicinity would be jolted by a devastating earthquake within the next 30 years. Professor Naoshi Hirataof the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo announced on January 23rd, 2012,“Tokyo Metropolitan Near Field Earthquake Disaster in Magnitude 7 class has a chance to occur 70%

for the next 4 years” as the result of the research taking into account the Tohoku Earthquake
Occurrence.

Figure 4. Drill to issue Disaster Victim Certificates4.1. Workflow to Issue Disaster Victim Certificates in the Shortest Time
The procedures were as follows (Table 1): (1) receive a new application, (2) search for the resident,(3) display a dialog for the applicant's residence, (4) confirm the resident's data, (5) display a dialog toconfirm the residence information, (6) confirm residence information, (7) display a dialog to confirm
totally destroyed residence, (8) confirm survey data for totally destroyed residence, (9) display a
dialog to issue a Disaster Victim Certificate, (10) display a preview of a Disaster Victim Certificate,and (11) print a Disaster Victim Certificate.
Table 1. Basic procedures from receiving an application to issuing a certificate (11 steps)
Certificate for total damage
to a residence due to an earthquake

Certificate for damage
to residence due to a fire

Receive application

1.

New application

1.

Search2.

Search for a resident

2.

Search for a survey form number

3.

Display a confirmation dialog for resident

3.

Display a confirmation dialog for resident

4.

Confirmation of resident data

4.

Confirmation of resident data

Display a confirmation dialog for residence

5.

Display a confirmation dialog for residence

Confirmation ofresident
Confirmation ofresidence

Confirmation ofdamageand household
5.

New applicationand household

information

information

6.

Confirmation of residence data

6.

Confirmation of residence data

7.

Display a confirmation dialog for totally7.

Display a confirmation dialog for a firedamaged residence survey form
8.

Confirmation of totally damaged residence

damage residence survey form
8.

Confirmation of fire damage survey data

9.

Display a dialog for issuing a Disaster10.

Display a preview of a Disaster Victim

11.

End of printing and issuing a Disasterdata
9.
Confirmation ofcertificate
contents
Print acertificate

Display a dialog for issuing a Disaster
Victim Certificate

10.

Display a preview of a Disaster Victim
Certificate

11.

End of printing and issuing a Disaster
Victim Certificate

Victim Certificate
Certificate
Victim Certificate※An average of 11.8 steps were required to issue one Disaster Victim Certiﬁcate during the drill, including operations
such as canceling and deselecting.

4.2. Accuracy and Swiftness Were Proven in Issuing Disaster Victim Certificates
Disaster Victim Certificates were issued at a rate of about three minutes per certificate. Moreover,analyses of operators' log revealed that using the proposed system to accept applications and to issue
Disaster Victim Certificates enabled a certificate to be issued to any applicant, including those that did
not have a Building Damage Certification Survey Form, and those that were not registered in the Basic
Resident Register (Figure 5).
Certification Sheetof the Degree of
Building Damages••

In order to apply
some relief
programs, Allvictims have tobe granted
certification of
the degree of
their building
damages.
In thecertification, we
have to identify
three items;“Who”, “Where”,
and “Howdamaged”.

Members of victims household

Location of Damaged Building

Degree of Building Damage

Figure 5. Certification Sheet of the Degree of Building Damages

4.3. Realized a System to Support Flexibility in Methods used to Issue Certificates
Disaster Victim Certificates can be issued from multiple terminals, and it is also possible to sharethe same information through a website. As multiple channels to accept applications and issue
certificates are opened it becomes possible to share the latest information. Even if counters used toissue certificates are located in physically separate locations, it is possible to issue certificates while
sharing the same information.

5. FUTURE CHALLENGES
Due to its natural conditions, including its location on the globe, geography, geology, and climate,
Japan is likely to be hit by disasters, such as typhoons, torrential rain, heavy snow, floods, landslides,
earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. The likelihood of occurrences of disasters in Japan
compared to the whole world is: earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, 20.5%; number of active
volcanoes, 7.0%; deaths, 0.3%; and amount of damage, 11.9%. These are very high figures compared toits land area that is only 0.25% of the whole world. Therefore, in order to support victims it is necessary
to provide an environment where the Victims Master Database can be operated immediately after adisaster strikes.
We believe that it is essential to employ cloud computing for the wide spread use of the Victims
Master Database. Cloud computing allows for minimal provisions on the part of the users, that are cities,
districts, and villages. In fact, all they need to provide is basic connectivity — clients including personal
computers and mobile information terminals, browser to operate on them, and Internet connections.

Once these have been provided, it becomes possible to start providing services based on necessary datafrom the Basic Resident Register and Property Taxation Database.
Foreseen challenges to be resolved here include the following: (a) who shoulders preparation costs
to launch a system, (b) who takes a responsibility to administer and operate the system and toadminister the accumulated data, (c) how do we deal with cost in normal times for services that are to
be used only in emergency. Additionally, another issue could be establishing a service environment forcloud computing during a disaster response.
Our research and development team installed a server in Iwate Prefecture after it was struck by the
Tohoku Earthquake, and it is currently operating a Victims Master Database for the afflicted cities,
districts, and villages. Our activities are two-fold: (1) Providing a system for life rebuilding support
services using a basic database built from the Victims Master Database and (2) Verifying the disaster
response operation support services to be used with cloud computing.
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