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Proceedings of the International Conference on
Advances and New Challenges in Earthquake
Engineering Research, Hong Kong Volume
TOWARDS EARTHQUAKE HAZARD MITIGATION ON
METROPOLIS - A PLATFORM FOR RISK COMMUNICATION
Ping Zhu 1 , Masato Abe 2 and Junji Kiyono 3
Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute
18F, Atago Green Hills Mori Tower, 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-6218, Japan
2 Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Kongo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
3 Graduate School of Civil Engineering, Kyoto University
Yoshida Hon-machi, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
ABSTRACT
Severe earthquakes occurred in regions with high dense population cause not only damage of
structures but also social problems. Resent years, the demands are increasing for risk evaluation and
communication of before, during and after earthquakes for disaster precaution, mitigation, rescue and
recovery works. Upon discussing the challenges from both technology and social issues, this paper
presents a sketch of a platform based on the Internet for a risk evaluation and disaster mitigation
system for metropolis under severe earthquakes.
INTRODUCTION
Metropolises are vulnerable under attacks of severe earthquakes. Catastrophic economic losses around
the world are huge and increasing in last decade. The 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan (Fig. 1) and the
1999 earthquake in Chi Chi, Taiwan, for instance, caused losses about $120 and $10 billion
respectively (Ref. 5). The disaster causes not only damage to buildings, structures but problems in
society. Earthquake engineering professionals have been facing new challenges for helping solving
economic and social problems with their knowledge.
Upcoming earthquakes are still threatening metropolises in Japan (Fig. 2). Resent years, the demands
are increasing for risk evaluation and communication of before, during and after earthquakes for
disaster precaution, mitigation, rescue and recovery works.