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Restoration programme from
giant earthquakes and tsunamis
Prof. Teruyuki Kato and Prof. Kenji Satake, Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo
Prof. Fumihiko Imamura, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University
A
giant earthquake occurred on 26 December 2004 off
Sumatra Island, Indonesia, rupturing through the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (hence named the
Sumatra-Andaman earthquake) and generating a tsunami
across the Indian Ocean. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
issued the first information bulletin only 15 minutes after the
earthquake. However, this information did not reach the coast,
because there was no tsunami warning system in the Indian
Ocean. As a result, the earthquake and tsunami caused about
230,000 fatalities. The tsunami devastated not only the source
region of Sumatra-Andaman but also the coast of Thailand,
Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and even Africa. In
addition to local residents, many foreign visitors who came from
Europe, Japan and elsewhere lost their lives in beach resorts
such as Andaman on the coast of Thailand.
Given such a huge natural disaster, numerous questions
and problems were raised among concerned scientists.
These range across a wide variety of scientific disci-
plines including natural sciences, engineering and
social science. Many experts and researchers worked to
answer these questions. This research is invaluable not
only for accumulating knowledge about natural hazards
but also for preventing and mitigating disasters in the
future, as well as finding better ways of post-disaster
restoration. In order to utilize such knowledge acquired
through individual research, it has to be integrated in a
systematic manner as ‘disaster science’.
This article summarizes our project on restoration
after giant earthquakes and tsunamis. The project aimed
not only to investigate various problems of earthquakes
and tsunamis but also to integrate the acquired knowl-
edge. A primary key for this purpose is to build a
researchers’ community among different disciplines and
countries, which, we believe, is indispensable for inte-
grating research results and for building a society
resilient against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Project
The project consisted of four major themes:
1. Mechanism of the giant earthquake and its predic-
tion
2. Development of human resources for enforcing
human power against natural disasters
3. Effective use of a tsunami warning system and
mitigation of tsunami hazard
4. Restoration programme and city planning
considerations due to the disasters caused by giant
earthquakes and tsunamis.
Each theme consisted of three-five research subjects.
The programme strongly encouraged synergetic efforts
among an international community of related scientists
through international workshops/symposia as well as
related field researches.
The term of the project was three years: April 2005 to
March 2008. The yearly budget of JPY50 million
(USD455 thousand) was granted from the Japanese
Government. In addition to 16 principal investigators
for each research subject, more than 34 researchers
Natural science
Social science
Mechanism of the 2004 giant earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean
Paleoseismology and forecast
Crustal deformation
Rupture process
Tsunami observation data
Precursory stress change
Engineering science
Engineering science
Effective warning system
and mitigation
Warning system: PTWC, JMA
Criteria and information
Database New tech
Improved numerical simulation
Restoration programme and
urban design
Urban design
Damage on life-line
Earthquake and
tsunami proof construction
Human resource programme for the education and outreach
Community based disaster management
Self, mutual, public helps
Education for students
The structure of the restoration programme, which aimed to
investigate problems of earthquakes and tsunamis, and integrate
acquired knowledge
Source: Teruyuki Kato and Fumihiko Imamura