Journal of Natural Disaster Science, Volume 26, Number 2, 2004, pp87-93

Integrated disaster risk management strategy to prevent
exposure to hazardous substances due to inundation
triggered releases: a concept for Japan
Jens HARTMANN1, Norio OKADA2 and Jason K. LEVY3
Institute for Applied Geosciences, Darmstadt University of Technology,
Schnittspahnstrasse 9, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
2
Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan3
Department of Information and Computer Science, University of Hawaii-Leeward, Pearl City, HI 96782, USA
1(Received for 10 Jun., 2004 and in revised from 7 Jan., 2005)

ABSTRACTAn integrated approach to prevent inundation-triggered releases of hazardous chemicals from facilities is introduced. The concept integrates data from the recently available Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) in
Japan, inundation scenarios and agricultural land use into an information scheme within a real-time disaster
response strategy. It is shown how recent available mobile communication systems using a newly developed system for dissemination of maps and disaster relevant information can be used within this strategy to prevent or mitigate consequences of released hazardous substances. The approach distinguishes three steps: risk assessment,
disaster response and disaster mitigation. The introduced concept is exemplarily discussed using an inundation
scenario occurred during the 2000 Tookai flood in Nagoya, where 16 facilities dealing with hazardous substanceswere inundated. Consequences for planning and policies, based on the introduced concept are discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Nobi plain in Aichi Prefecture is exposed to multiple hazards, like inundation, typhoons and earthquakes. One serious
threat is given by typhoon-triggered inundation as happened in theyear 2000 during the Tookai-flood. This threat increased in the last
decades because of land subsidence triggered by exhaustive groundwater withdrawal in the mid of the 20th century (Yamamoto, 1984).
Several facilities handling hazardous substances were inundated during this event. It is unknown if hazardous substances werereleased. Similar cases suggest that this is highly probable. E.g.,
during the 2002-Elbe-flood in Germany large amounts of contaminants like heavy metals were flushed into the Elbe river. This
resulted in chemical loadings, up to three magnitudes higher than thenormal river load. The total delivered load of lead was 2500 times
higher than the annual average load. The origin of those chemicals
were determined to be inundated chemical facilities located in the
Czech-Republic (Schiemeier, 2002). This example shows that not
only the loss of property and life is of concern to disaster managers, also consequences by inundation-triggered events, like releases of hazardous substances have to be considered (Christou, 2000;
Cruz et al., 2001; Schiemeier, 2002; Cruz et al., 2004).
Today new data are available in Japan, allowing the identification and risk assessment of sites handling hazardous substances(Hartmann et al., 2004; Ministry of Environment, 2004). In theyear 2003 the “Law Concerning Reporting, etc. of Releases to theEnvironment of Specific Chemical Substances and Promoting

Improvements in Their Management” (Cabinet Order No. 138,
March 29, 2000) was put into effect. Based on this law a Pollutant
Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) was established. The database lists all facilities in Japan dealing with certain hazardous
chemical substances. These data can be used to conduct a risk
assessment based on future inundation scenarios for each considered site.
The mentioned experiences from former inundations give riseto the question of how releases of contaminants from industrial orcommercial facilities can be prevented, or better, if those facilities
can be protected from inundation using an integrated approach ofdisaster response strategies and preliminary risk assessment as e.g.
proposed in Okada et al. (2004). This study aims to introduce a
concept for a possible future integrated disaster risk management
for this objective, based on the available databases and information
technologies. A recently developed system for dissemination ofinundation relevant information using mobile communication technologies (Ushiyama & Takara, 2002) allows integrating knowledge from the proposed risk assessment into disaster responsemanagement strategies to protect threatened facilities handlinghazardous substances or prevent releases from these sites. The significance of the approach is discussed in an example inundation toenlighten advantages and problems of the presented approach. The
concept presented herein may influence preparedness, disaster
response strategies and post-disaster hazard mitigation, focusing
on human health and ecosystem integrity endangered by hazardous
substances release triggered by inundation.

KEY WORDS: PRTR, disaster risk management, inundation, contaminants, Japan

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2. BACKGROUND TO THE TOOKAI FLOOD
On September 11th and 12th, 2000 the typhoon No. 14 impacted Aichi Prefecture in Japan. As consequence, Nagoya and thesurrounding areas received 600 mm of extreme rainfall within twodays. As a result, 10 river embankments were breached and many
communities in the area were inundated (Zhang et al., 2003). One
broken river embankment at the river Shinkawa resulted in theinundation of Nishibiwajima town and parts of Nishi-ku, Nagoya
city. This area is located between the rivers Shinkawa andShonaigawa (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1Inundation scenario after Zhang et al. (2003). The area
between the rivers Shinkawa and Shonaigawa were inundated
during the Tokai flood. The figure shows 16 inundated facilities handling hazardous substances after the Japanese PRTR.

Fig. 2

The area is characterized by a heterogeneous land use (Fig. 2),
where agricultural areas are located beside commercial and industrial areas. The heterogeneous land use pattern is partially causedby the fast economic growth in the last decades, where land use
planning was often neglected; partially because areas within the
town are traditionally used for farming of rice, vegetables and tea(Fig. 2).
The river embankment at Shinkawa (Fig. 1) broke on a lengthof 100 m and more than 2900 buildings were inundated in
Nishibiwajima town, the south-western part of the inundation area
(Zhang et al., 2003).
There are 16 facilities located in this area, which deal withhazardous chemicals listed in the Japanese PRTR-law. A memorial place at the location where the river embankment broke, mentions that the inundation resulted in the deposition of industrial
matters all over Nishibiwajima. It cannot be neglected that inundation triggered accidental releases of chemicals from industrial
facilities, unpublished or unknown, occurred. Such kind of releases are described in detail, e.g. in Christou (2000) or Cruz et al.
(2001). The consequences of a release would be infiltration ofcontaminants on agricultural areas or the contact of humans withcontaminants, resulting in the exposure of human health to hazardous substances, carried by the inundating water. A study by
Ishihara et al. (2001) about rice consumption in Japan showed thatthe morbidity can increase if contaminants are carried by contaminated water into the food chain. To prevent probable releases withharmful consequences to pulic health and the environment in the
future, preparedness and response management is needed.

Agricultural used areas are often close to PRTR-facilities. The agricultural used areas were
mapped during field research. The facilities A and B are shown in detail in Fig. 3.

INTEGRATED DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY TO PREVENT EXPOSURE TO HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES DUE TO …

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3. APPROACH

4. RISK ASSESSMENT

The proposed concept, based on available new data and technologies, is divided into three steps: a) risk assessment, b) disaster
response management and c) disaster mitigation. The risk assessment is carried out for planning measures (land use and buildings)
and preparedness within the disaster response management infacilities dealing with hazardous substances. Fig. 3 presents the
typical settings of considered facilities in the neighbourhood of
agricultural used areas. Facilities dealing with hazardous substances are normally composted by several buildings.

The recently available PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer
Register) in Japan (published in April 2003) provides the possibility to identify facilities, which are handling specified hazardous
chemical substances. The addresses of such facilities can be
geocoded for a spatial evaluation of the sites, e.g. with the geocoding tool provided by the Center of Spatial Information Science,
Tokyo University. This enables the user exactly to locate the facilities handling hazardous substances.
The Administration of Aichi Prefecture has developed a software tool capable of giving information on frequencies and inundation height and also flow velocity for each region in Aichi

Fig. 3

The grund of two PRTR facilities marked in Fig. 3 are shown. In the first case (A) achemical factory consists of several buildings, whereas the second case (B) shows afacility storing chemicals besides rice fields.

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J. HARTMANN, N. OKADA, AND J. K. LEVY

Prefecture. The information gained from the georeferenced facilities and inundation scenarios can be combined to assess the risk ofinundation for each facility handling hazardous substances.
Information gained from this integration, are e.g. maximum or
average inundation height and frequency of inundation for eachfacility handling hazardous substances. For further discussion of
the concept, the inundation scenario of the Tookai-flood in the year
2000 between the rivers Shinkawa and Shonaigawa, Aichi
Prefecture, is adapted after Zhang et al. (2003).
Based on this information a detailed analysis of each site (e.g.
building structure) considering the risk of inundation and the evaluation of consequences to their surrounding is possible. Fig. 3
gives some typical examples for the shape of building complexes.
The gained information from the risk assessment can be integrated
into a cross media disaster information system, such as the one
recently developed by Urukawa et al. (2004) and Kugai et al. (2004).
Cross media disaster information systems are a research support information infrastructures (RSII). They catalog, locate, andretrieve support information sources regardless of their format:
spreadsheet data, reports, geospatial databases, multi-resource typeincluding video, images, audio files, web pages and data about
people, organizations, and events (Kugai et al., 2004). One objective of a cross media disaster information system is to provide
online-access to essential data for decision makers. In addition,
stored data can be integrated into a disaster response strategy.
5. DISASTER RESPONSE MANAGEMENT
An appropriate disaster response management needs the integration of the results from the risk assessment (Okada et al., 2004),
using information about a) which facilities are endangered by inundation, exposing certain parts of the considered area (Fig. 1), b) the
probability of inundation and the inundation height, c) the minimum/maximum time until probable inundation impacts (Fig. 4)
and d) the types of hazardous substances handled.
To prepare facilities and employees dealing with hazardous
substances a concept for disaster response is needed. The herein
introduced disaster response management concept is based on theuse of new internet-based technologies for dissemination of spatial
information to mobile devices and response by individuals incharge. The use of internet based technologies seems appropriate
in the future, as fast response due to probable impacts is needed,because the time for response is often less than an hour as the usedscenario implies. In case of inundation events the infrastructure
for mobile communication should not be harmed, as the essential
infrastructure is located on the top of buildings or surrounding
areas, not impacted by inundation. This should provide the needed
resources for mobile communication in the disaster case.
I) Alarm system
Once a critical situation is detected a prepared alarm systemshould be used. Such an alarm system should disseminate emergency information using phone and e-mails to responsible local
and regional disaster response coordinators. They should start atask chain for preventing endangered sites for the impact or start
protection measures if possible. The inundation scenarios suggestthat response time is limited (Fig. 1 and 4).
II) Information technology
Ushiyama and Takara (2001) presented an internet based tech-

nological system, which allows distributing spatial information ofheavy rainfall to interested individuals on their mobile devices.
For this purpose software was developed for the widely used imode technology in Japan. The software is capable to display
desired spatial information on a mobile device. They used datafrom the Japanese Meteorological Association (JMA), distributedby the Japanese Weather Association (JWA).
This system can be enhanced with information from the inundation scenarios provided by the software tool of Aichi Prefecture
and the proposed risk assessment. The principle setup of such adisaster response information system using internet-based technology is shown in Fig. 5. Based on monitoring (rainfall, waterheight, integrity of river embankments as shown in Fig. 6) the risk
for inundation is evaluated. In case inundation is probable orinevitable, risk assessment previously conducted for the area isused to start the alarm chain. Sites at risk are informed of the current situation by the disaster headquarters. The information gainedby the risk assessment, the calculated inundation predictions andthe monitoring information, is used to coordinate tasks.
All information about available resources should be included
in a cross media disaster information system. This enables theefficient coordination of disaster response forces, while using
updated information. Technologies for dissemination of disaster
response relevant information should be based on disaster-crossmedia-databases.
For supporting the disaster response or preparation onsite,
wireless mobile devices should provide task forces and staff at

Fig. 4The marked PRTR-facilities had more than one-hour time forpreparation and were inundated with less than one meterheight. Compare with Fig. 1.

INTEGRATED DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY TO PREVENT EXPOSURE TO HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES DUE TO …

Fig. 6
Fig. 5 Information structure for the Disaster Response Management.

facilities with the following information:a) probable time till inundationb) map of inundation, sites at risk, task forces locationc) site specific information (e.g. Fig. 3)d) information about external resources, mainly disaster
response teams coordinated by the disaster response headquarters.
Equipment and information dissemination:
The needed equipments are especially mobile communication
tools, capable of displaying maps. This requires a powerful server
structure. A server should provide information fast from password
secured mobile web sites. For this coordination of data providers,local sites involved (including employees in charge), and also disaster response forces is necessary. A possible data dissemination
structure for the presented problem is presented in Fig. 5. How
such a information dissemination has to be designed and implemented is explained in Ushiyama and Takara (2001).
III) Response
Two kinds of disaster response are possible to prevent aninundation triggered release of hazardous substances from a facility: a) establish active protection systems to prevent inundation of
the considered site or b) prepare the facility for an unavoidable
impact (passive action). This may be the shut-down of production,
secure stored hazardous substances or other actions preventing
possible releases of hazardous substances. With modern mobile
dam systems it is possible to protect facilities if the expected inundation height is less than a meter. Modern systems can be built up
in decaminutes.
In any case, to prepare a site for the impact, measures should
be taken in advance, which ensure that releases of hazardous substances are less probable. Possible measures are e.g. safe storageof substances in containers capable of sustaining the water pressureor the shut-down of production before impact, to avoid chain reactions leading to a release (Cruz et al., 2001).
IV) Organisational needs
A disaster response strategy needs some organisational preparation. It is important that staff in facilities endangered by theinundation is educated concerning prevention or protection measures. This needs first the awareness of the risk by employees atthe site. If regional task forces, capable dealing with mobile realtime protection measures are available, they need to be trained andincluding a system coordinating employees of considered facilities

91

A typical online monitoring
device at a Shonairiver in Nagoya.

at threat. It may happen that some sites cannot be protected
because the preparation time for inundation is to short or the
expected height is to high for the used mobile protection measures.
V) Education
The employees of each site have to be educated about the necessary tasks to be taken before inundation impact. This is the case
if production has to be shut down fast or stored substances need to
be prepared for the impact. Site-independent task forces, like civil
protection teams, need knowledge how to handle mobile protection
equipment and how to use mobile coordination devices. The population in the threatened area should know about the threat of hazardous substances in case of inundation, the health risks concerning consumption or handling of agricultural goods from these sites
and about prevention of protection measures that can be taken.
Information dissemination to the population should be coordinatedby local administrations. Another advantage of such education
efforts is that the local administration and potentially affected population is up to date on the local situation.
6. DISASTER MITIGATIONIn Japan, traditionally heterogeneous land use patterns are thenormal case. Agricultural, housing and commercial areas in flood
plains are located side by side, as indicated in Fig. 2. Because ofthis, released contaminants may enter the food chain, if contaminated water after an accidental release infiltrates the ground (Fig. 2).
The many small parcels for farming, especially rice, vegetables and tea are often used by the neighbours. In case that inundation triggered releases of chemicals occur, users of inundated land
have to be warned. Further analysis of the soil and plants might benecessary after an inundation event, to examine the risk that hazardous substances are entering the food chain and harm population,
as shown e.g. in Ishihara et al. (2001).
7. INTEGRATION OF RISK ASSESSMENT AND
DISASTER RESPONSE MANAGEMENTAs described before, the risk assessment can be integrated intoa disaster response management strategy to prevent inundation
triggered releases. The successful integration and the implementation of the disaster response strategy need the following efforts.

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Policy needs:
One possibility is to consider that the endangered facilities
self-organise their protection measures due to risk of inundation.
But as mentioned, the population is also involved due to the possible consequences. This results in the need of an appropriate information strategy, including about potential risks from the sites considered, and information flow to affected stakeholders after aninundation event.
A clear policy strategy should be worked out by the local orprefectural administration. This depends on the wished participation grade of involved stakeholders.
Local preparation
One crucial point is the education of employees at each considered site. A coordination of educational measures including theemployees of several sites might improve the preparedness andbuild the possibility for an information network, capable for
improving response by information exchange. This has an additional effect on the response effectiveness of employees at eachsite. Local and regional information networks are suitable to discuss the training of measures for prevention of releases or prevention measures. Public administration may have a coordination
function to push developments.
Advantage and disadvantages of the concept
The proposed concept needs some logistic and infrastructural
background, which has to be financed. The financing of such measures might be a cost factor, which may be seen as inadequate byindustry. In addition, the distribution of information also needs aphysical investment.
Advantages by the introduced concept are that the exposure ofpeople and eco-systems can be reduced. Further more, informational networks are easy to set up to distribute and exchange information .
8. DISCUSSION OF THE CONCEPT BASED ON
THE 2000 INUNDATION IN NISHIBIWAJIMA
Fig. 1 shows the inundation scenario with its maximum extent
during the Tokai flood in the year 2000. Sixteen facilities handlinghazardous substances and listed in the Japanese PRTR were inundated during this event. Four of these facilities were inundatedwith less than 1 m. The heterogeneous land use in this area (Fig.
2) increases the probability that released hazardous substances
probably enter the food chain.
Fig. 1 implies that for several facilities during the inundation
event the possibility was given to shut down production or to prepare for the coming impact, if the introduced concept with mobile
information dissemination of crucial information is given. For atleast four of the facilities a preparation time of more than an hour
was given (marked in Fig. 4). Facilities can be composed by several buildings. Fig. 3 shows two examples of typical building
complexes. Their locations are marked in Fig. 2. The structure of
the complexes, in this case one larger facility, makes clear that adetailed knowledge of each facility is necessary to protect them.
Employees knowing their sites in detail can do the necessary tasks.
This is a hint that facility employees should be consulted for an
integrated strategy. To the knowledge of the authors no studies
were conducted to analyse this matter.
An integrated risk assessment within a disaster response strat-

egy can reduce risks to human health. The exposure of the area of
Nagoya within the Nobi plain, where most of the area is on riverlevel or below makes future inundation of facilities dealing withhazardous substances probable.
Since the needed technology for the introduced concept exists(Ushiyama and Takara, 2002), it needs only an extension to integrate the additional information introduced within this study.
Educational and organisational needs can be conducted within thementioned framework.
Because Nagoya city and their surrounding communities are
exposed to multiple hazards, efforts for reducing risks and involving stakeholders (exposed population, disaster reduction forces,
employees in facilities) are continued (Shidawara, 1999, Ushiyama
and Takara, 2002). Shidawara (1999) concluded that the dissemination of risk related information to the population alone is notenough. Stakeholders should be involved actively in integrated
disaster risk management. Coordinated programs are needed toaim at informing and increasing the sensibility of the population to
the risk of floods, and their consequences should be considered bycoordinating administrations.
9. CONCLUSION
It was shown how information from a risk assessment of areas
with heterogeneous land use including facilities dealing with hazardous substances given by the recently published PRTR in Japan
can improve the disaster response strategy of the region. In addition this knowledge can be used to enhance disaster response
strategies to protect human health from exposure to hazardous substances releases. Recently available mobile communication technology for dissemination of information supports these efforts.
The mobile information system developed by Ushiyama and
Takara (2002) can serve as the basis for such a strategy which
involves the distribution of spatial information needed for the coordination of task forces or to evaluate appropriate actions on sites
dealing with hazardous substances during an inundation event.
Nevertheless, coordination of local or regional administrations to
conduct preliminary risk assessment for probable inundation scenarios and to integrate the results into a disaster response strategy
is needed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported in part by the Japanese Society
for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and also by the 21 COE Programof DPRI Kyoto University. The authors want to thank both organisations. Also the valuable help of the administrations of Aichi
Prefecture and Nagoya city has to be mentioned.
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