「Organizations」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Day_63: Snowstorm Disaster : Stories and Projects – The father held his daughter in his arms

There were nine casualties caused by heavy snowstorms in Hokkaido on 2-3 March 2013.
In Yubetsu town, a father (58) was found dead. But his daughter (9) survived. The father held his daughter in his arms to protect her from coldness.
In Nakashibetsu town, four were dead. They died in a car because they stopped the car and could not go out because of the conditions. They tried to call acquaintances for help again and again. However, they could not get help during that time.

The Snow and Ice Research Center, NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention), has launched a project to prevent snowstorm disasters after the disaster in Nakashibetsu. The project focused on the snowstorm prediction system not only for officers but also for local people. It is difficult to predict the storm because it happens with complex conditions, such as snow drift and storms. I needed to check not only the weather but also the land conditions.

An example of the use is that the school children stopped to go back home because the snow storm was predicted on their way home.

Day_58: Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) and Kobe Earthquake

ADRC is established in 1998 after the Kobe Earthquake. Kobe city’s population had caught up the same level before the disaster in 9 years. Kobe reinvents itself as a center of disaster reduction policies and activities in the world. There are so many disaster-related organizations in HAT Kobe. The HAT means “Happy and Active” and also “surprised” in Japanese. This is a good example to refer to for the disaster recovery process. We can learn the lessons from Kobe. ADRC contributes to disaster reduction policies and activities for member countries in Asia. We can check member countries disaster management systems, country reports, and others. We can also confirm the updated disasters on the ADRC’s website.

*ADRC member countries information site.

http://www.adrc.asia/disaster/index.php

** Disaster Information
http://www.adrc.asia/latest/index.php

Day_60 : 1988 Landslide disaster in Thailand

1988 The landslide disaster was the turning point in Thai society. The major landslide hit Nakhon Si Thammarat province in the south of Thailand, and the number of casualties was approximately 230. This is assumed to be caused by deforestation. After recognizing the situation, the King talked to the people in Thailand about protecting the environment on December 4, 1989. This became a trigger to facilitate environmental policy and movement in Thailand. In 1992, environment-related agencies, organizations, funds, and others were established. This is the same year as the UN Earth Summit.

Day_51 : Matsushiro Earthquake and Underground Imperial Headquarter

The Matsushiro Earthquake Research Center is located in Nagano Prefecture. It was established in 1967 by the Matsushiro Earthquake Observatory, Japan Meteorological Agency. The center’s background was based on the world’s rare earthquake swarm in the area. From 1965 to 1969, 6,780 earthquakes were observed, and they became social issues.

There are two famous stories about the establishment. The first story is that the mayor, Mr. Nakamura, declared, “We want to have science and research rather than equipment and money” after the earthquake swarm. This attracted the center. The second is that the location was the place where the planned underground imperial headquarters was just before the end of the Second World War. This explains the location, which is deep underground and has a strong structure. So this means the best location to place a seismometer.

Day_50 : NWC and Univ. of Oklahoma

Do you know the disaster movie, twister*? This is a very nice movie to recognize the tornado disasters and scientific perspectives. The one of the model location is Oklahoma.

I had an opportunity to visit the National Weather Center (NWC) **and University of Oklahoma to study on disaster information process in 2007, sorry long long time ago. The NWC is located in the University campus. The NWC is the core of not only research activities, but also for contributing to the general public. The University has a lot of shelters inside the buildings***.

The University was active to disseminate the information to the general public. Especially, I learned a lot about the university’s social role for local communities.

There were some shelters in front of the houses in the areas****.

*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(1996_film)

400px-National_Weather_Center_6-20-2006_3-48-27_PM

*** University’s auditorium (Can be transformed to a shelter during the time)

SONYDSC-P8_20070217_094755

****

IMGP0111

I will write more……

Day_45 : IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk)

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I was involved to do research on Japanese tsunami in 2011 as a pat of IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) project.The IRDR is an international effort. Especially I was really, really impressed by the sentence raised by ICSU (International Council for Science).

Unfortunately, there is a great shortfall in current research on how science is used to shape social and political decision-making in the context of hazards and disasters. Addressing this problem requires an approach that integrates research and policy-making across all hazards, disciplines and geographic regions. The IRDR Programme endeavours to bring together the natural, socio-economic, health and engineering sciences in a coordinated effort to reduce the risks associated with natural hazards.(http://www.icsu.org/what-we-do/interdisciplinary-bodies/irdr/?icsudocid=about-irdr)

Day_44 : Disaster related organization’s links

The following site was created long time ago.
http://dil.bosai.go.jp/link/world/english/index.html

However, this links site is still useful to recognized disaster-related organizations.
For example, we can confirm the UN organizations and their structures through this site.
The followings are the explanations.

United Nations (UN) consists of 1)Trusteeship Council, 2) Security Council, 3) General Assembly, 4)Economic and Social Council, 5) International Court of Justice, and 6) Secretariat. The UN recovery efforts for Natural Disaster related councils are mainly found in 3)4)6). UNEP,UNDP,UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP,and UN-HABTAT belong to 3)General Assembly. ILO,FAO, UNESCO,WHO,and WB etc. belong to 4)Economic and Social Council. OCHA belongs to 6) Secretariat.

In addition, we can confirm so many universities in the U.S. have disaster related organizations.

Disaster Research Notes

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