Contribution to realization of a safe and secure society(4) Development of seismic technology for strengthening
earthquake resilience of infrastructure facilities
Research period: FY 2016 - 2021
Program leader: Executive Director for Earthquake Engineering

Research Summary

Research background · Needs◆ Imminent occurrence of large-scale earthquakes
such as massive earthquake in the Nankai Troughand Tokyo Inland earthquake are pointed out.
◆ Based on the lessons learned from the 2011 Great
East Japan Earthquake, it is necessary to develop
structural and non-structural countermeasuresaiming to protecting human life, maintainingessential functions, minimizing damages, and quick
recovery.

Emergency responses tolarge-scale damage of riverembankments and ﬂoods

Enormous impacts on trafﬁc due
to collapse of embankments

R&D Program

Emergency responses
to damage on
foundations withlong-term impacts forreconstructing thesebridges

Assumption of shaking in Tokyo
Inland Earthquake(Central Disaster Management Council)

Research contents◆ Development of seismic technology tostrengthen earthquake resilience of infrastructure facilities (technologies for minimizing
damage and quick recovery, performance
evaluation and countermeasures)◆ Targeted structures: roads and river structures(bridges and embankments)◆ Hazards to be taken into account: shaking,tsunami, ﬂood, liquefaction

In the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the wide areasof Pacific Ocean coast from Hokkaido to Kanto suffered theextensive damage by the strong shaking and huge tsunami.
Currently, imminent disasters such as massive earthquake in theNankai Trough and Tokyo Inland Earthquake are pointed out.
For such earthquakes, pressing issues are to prevent andminimize the earthquake damage, and to improve theearthquake resilience (strong and resilient against earthquakes)
of infrastructure facilities including; road facilities which play a
key role for emergency/life-saving activities and transportationof emergency goods; river facilities to prepare for the tsunami or
flood occurred in a complex way after earthquakes.
This research consists of the following three segments for thepurpose of development of the countermeasure technology toprepare for large-scale earthquakes and complex disasters after
the earthquake that exceeds the past experience.
(1)	Development of technology for minimizing damage of

Enormous impacts on
trafﬁc due to liquefaction inwide-areas

Loss of bridges
and damage tosubstructurescaused bytsunamistructures against earthquakes and recovering the damage
quickly(2)	Development of seismic design technology consistently
applicable for ground, underground, and abovegroundstructures.
(3)	Development of liquefaction evaluation method for soil
layers considering the effect on structural responses
We develop and improve the evaluation method of seismic
performance and seismic measures for road bridges, road soil
structures, soft ground, and river structures.
With proposing practical application of developing technology
and the reflection to the technical standards and manuals,
we aim to contribute to the realization of earthquake resilient
society by minimizing damage of infrastructures and recoveringfunctions quickly at the time of disasters for future large-scale
earthquakes.

PUBLIC WORKS RESEARCH INSTITUTE 20169