Disaster Prevention Research Center,Aichi Institute of Technology
Yachikusa 1247, Yakusa, Toyota city, Aichi prefecture,470­0392, Japan
http://dprec.aitech.ac.jp/center/Outline
The earthquake disaster prevention consortium of Aichi Institute of Technology (AIT), i.e., theproject on the development of technology for improving regional disaster prevention by use ofapplication of earthquake information and construction of prevention base, was adopted byMEXT in 2004. As the research base of this project, the Disaster Prevention Research Center(DPREC) was established on April, 2005. DPREC has been activating as the leading research
center in promoting high level education research in the central region of Japan.
Features and research activities:
DPREC applies the Earthquake Early Warning (EEW)
system from Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in theevacuation drill for students in the campus once a year.
DPREC also issues the predicted instrumental seismic
intensity and arrival time at each target site through thesource parameters provided by JMA shortly after anearthquake occurs. DPREC distributes such information toas many as 100 enterprises to help them take evacuation
measures, such as shutting down the gas, stopping theproduction equipment in the factory and elevators, and soon, before strong ground motions arrive. The right figure
shows a terminal installed in one of the enterprises in the central region of Japan. In addition,
DPREC adopts research activities in many aspects, including strong­motion observation,
microtremor measurement, development of source model, site effect, vibration characteristics ofhigh­rise buildings, international communication, on­site investigation (2008 Wenchuan
earthquake, 2011 Tohoku earthquake), tsunami evacuation drill, detection of damaged buildingsthrough satellite data, development of disaster response robot, etc.
Disaster prevention education:
DPREC opens its facilities to visitors from the enterprises, residents’ community, and schools.
DPREC implements the disaster prevention enlightening and education to approximate 1000
visitors every year. DPREC also provides fostering courses to those who are expected toactivate as a leader when disaster happens. The level of course is designed for senior
undergraduate and master.

Research Achievements and Challenges
Upgrading the Earthquake Early Warning System for Great Earthquakes
Susumu Kurahashi
The present JMA Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system may underestimate ​the seismic
intensity for great earthquakes based on a point source assumption, as shown in Fig.1. We
proposed a methodology for estimating the ​rupture extent from vertical PGA of P wave before
main motions of S waves arrives when great earthquakes occur. The vertical PGAs atnon­observation ​sites outside the rupture extent ​are calculated using the empiricalattenuation­distance relationship of the vertical PGAs and shortest distances from sites to thesource fault without requiring earthquake magnitude. The seismic intensities there are estimatedusing the empirical relationship between vertical PGA of P wave motions and seismic intensity.
We applied this method to estimate the seismic intensity during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
The calculated seismic intensities agreed well with the observed ones at stations around theepicenter and far from epicenter.

Behavior Analysis of Evacuation Drill
Norimitsu Koike
Recent public estimation of tsunami damage has prompted the revision of existing evacuationplans in Japan. Our study aims to develop the model to find the useful information for evacuationplans by the evacuation drill.
(1)For visitors near the beach
It is important to establish countermeasures for visitors who are
not acquainted with the risk of places near the beach. Our study
evaluates the spatio­temporal evacuation behavior of visitors on
how to flee from the beach to an evacuation shelter at anevacuation drill. Their evacuation behavior was tracked using
mobile GPS devices and fixed­point video­recordings specifically.
In addition, visitors’ awareness of the risk was addressed througha questionnaire survey. Through those analyses, we found that
guidance had an important effect on the visitors’ evacuation
behavior.
(2)For fishing boats on the sea
There are two evacuation methods for the fishing boats on the sea. First is “Okidashi” whichmeans evacuation through moving the boat to offshore at the deep water. Second is a quick
landing. We evaluate the spatio­temporal evacuation behavior of fishermen at an evacuation
drill. In addition, their awareness of the risk was addressed through the workshop and aquestionnaire survey. Our goal is to develop the evacuation map including the evacuation
shelter information and the evacuation time to decide whether taking “Okidashi” or a quicklanding.
Detection of Damaged Buildings Using GeoEye­1 Imagery and Airborne Lidar Data
Yoshiyuki Yamamoto
Accurate detection of damaged buildings can help government to initiate search and rescue
specifically in the early post­disaster period. The purpose of this study was to develop a method
to detect disaster­related damaged buildings using high­resolution optical satellite imagery,specifically GeoEye­1, and airborne lidar data. Three methods for creating a dataset used todetect damaged buildings were proposed: the Difference method (D­method), the Ratio method(R­method), and the Normalized Difference method (ND­method). The D­method was based on
the difference in the value of the post­event imagery compared to that of the pre­event imagery.
The R­method was based on the quotient of dividing the value of the pre­event imagery by thatof the post­event imagery. The ND­method used a calculation formula that was similar to thatused by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The experimental results indicatedthat the dataset created using the ND­method has a higher sensitivity than that of othermethods.

(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)Figure (a) and (b) show the false color pan­sharpened pre­ and post­earthquake GeoEye­1 image, with 0.5 m
spatial resolution, respectively. Figure (c) and (d) show the pre­ and post­earthquake digital surface model(DSM) image, with 0.5 m spatial resolution, respectively. Figure (e) shows the detection result by theND­method. The black areas signify the destroyed buildings, and the red areas the survived buildings.

Development of Disaster Response Robot
Masayuki Okugawa
The purpose of this study is the development of the robot technology in order to investigation in
the disaster for the social infrastructure. A remote controlled robot "Scott" has been developed.
Scott is a passive adaptive crawler robot and has the easy operability which does not depend on
the skill. The data acquired from the robot are sequentially transferred to database server withacquisition time and positional information. Analysis of acquired data is possible in cooperation
with an image processing program and numerical analysis program as needed.