Japan Disaster Planning

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LESSONS OF THE GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE

Analysis of and Proposal for a Disaster

Information Network from Experience

of the Great East Japan Earthquake

Yoshitaka Shibata, Iwate Prefectural University

Noriki Uchida, Saitama Institute of Technology

Norio Shiratori, Waseda University

ABSTRACT

Recently serious natural disasters such as

earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, and hurricanes

have occurred at many places around the world.

The East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11,

2011 had more than 19,000 victims and destroyed

a huge number of houses, buildings, loads, and

seaports over the wide area of Northern Japan.

Information networks and systems and electric

power lines were also severely damaged by the

great tsunami. Functions such as the highly

developed information society, and residents’

safety and trust were completely lost. Thus,

through the lessons from this great earthquake,

a more robust and resilient information network

has become one of the significant subjects. In

this article, our information network recovery

activity in the aftermath of the East Japan Great

Earthquake is described. Then the problems of

current information network systems are analyzed to improve our disaster information network and system through our network recovery

activity. Finally we suggest the systems and functions required for future large-scale disasters.

INTRODUCTION

The East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11,

2011 caused severe damage across the wide area

of Northern Japan. A massive 9.0 earthquake

destroyed a huge number of buildings and enormous amounts of equipment, and the devastating tsunami, more than 15 m , swept over cities,

towns, villages, and coastal residential areas in

the northern part of the country, as shown in

Fig. 1. This tragedy shocked the world, and the

numbers of about 15,841 dead and 3490 missing

persons are still increasing today [1].

Many Japanese coastal...