# Utilization of ICT as a Digital Infrastructure Concerning Disaster Countermeasures in Japan
## 4 The Significance of ICT as a Digital Infrastructure Concerning Disaster Countermeasures
### The Significance of ICT as a Digital Infrastructure
Specifically, residents can help themselves strengthen their \"ability to become aware\" by submitting information on hazardous or safe locations that may not be listed in detail on hazard maps provided by the government during normal times, and submitting disaster information after securing one's safety during a disaster. Additionally, the government can improve its \"ability to inform\" by accumulating disaster information (\"expert knowledge\") such as the general degree of risk and support facilities during a disaster provided from normal times in advance in addition to gathering and accumulating disaster information provided during disasters. The disaster information provided through the submissions of residents and the  
Figure 2: The various functions of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their involvement in society. government, as described above, are accumulated into the same database and categorized according to the location information and content. Furthermore, such disaster information is all integrated into the Web-GIS, combined and visualized on a digital map. Additionally, since the system was designed to be used both on PCs and mobile information terminals with the assumption that users will use the system outdoors as well, it can be used regardless of whether a user is inside or outside during both normal times and disasters. Figure 3: The interface of social media GIS for disaster information system for users’ PCs. Figure 4 shows the distribution of submitted information to social media GIS on a digital map of Web-GIS. During the 2 months' operation test period from November to December in 2015, there were 260 submissions and 6 submissions from Twitter which were all sent from mobile information terminals. 81% of the total number of submissions had images attached, and 4% of those submissions received comments. As there was communication between users using the comment function, it can be anticipated that the function can also be used during disasters as well as normal times. Information regarding hazards was 20%, information regarding safety was 68% and other information including disaster prevention storages, water stations and wells used during a disaster was 12%. It can be presumed that users were not concentrated in one area, because the submitted information was dispersed throughout Mitaka City as shown in Figure 4. However, there were areas, especially around stations, with a slight concentration of submitted information. This may be because people come and go every day in such areas and the narrow streets become even narrower in some parts due to bicycles and luggage. Figure 5 shows an example of submitted information with an attached image. This submission is for potential hazards, and it explains how a location may be hazardous during a disaster due to boxes and bicycles left on both sides of a narrow street. Figure 4: Distribution of information submitted to the social media GIS for disaster information system. Figure 5: An example of submitted information on the social media GIS for disaster information system.