Osamu Murao

Regional Comparison of Temporary Housing Construction Processes After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, and severely damaged to eastern regions of Japan, especially the coastal areas of the Tohoku region. As of September 2013, the number of dead was 18,703, with 2,674 people still considered missing (FDMA 2013). Nearly 400,000 buildings were heavily or moderately destroyed. Post-tsunami urban recovery has progressed according to local governments’ situations in areas affected by the disaster. One of the important activities in the early stages of the urban recovery process is construction of temporary housing for the victims. The author was provided temporary housing construction data after the disaster by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in order to construct recovery curves, which are a quantitative tool for comparing regional recovery processes. This chapter firstly presents how temporary housing has been constructed in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima since March 2011, then discusses the associated problems, and finally presents the results of a comparative study on contemporary housing construction in the affected areas using recovery curves. The analysis clarified that the speed of the construction was the fastest in Iwate, and the slowest in Fukushima.

A Study on the Influential Factors on Building Damage in Sri Lanka During the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damaged a number of buildings in many Asian countries. The research objective of this paper is to determine the significant predictor variables and the direction of their relationships regarding the building damage level. This quantitative study used data collected by Murao and Nakazato [“Recovery curves for housing reconstruction in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami,” J. Earthquake Tsunami 4(2), 51–60; “Vulnerability functions for buildings based on damage survey data in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami,” Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Sustainable Built Environment, Kandy, Sri Lanka, pp. 371–378] in Sri Lanka for analysis via the statistical approach. The tested explanatory parameters included the inundation depth, the structural materials, and the areas. This research is among the first pioneering efforts in applying the statistical analysis to investigate the influential parameters in tsunami damage areas. This work can contribute to the damage analysis research area in terms of providing the proved parameters as well as contributing to the practical understanding of urban planners, engineers, and related persons who are involved in building construction and disaster management.

Post-tsunami Urban Recovery Process and Current Conditions in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia

Each country damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami adopted individual recovery planning strategies according to the need for resettling victims after the disaster. It is important to accumulate records of the different recovery processes with comparative studies, and to clarify the relationship between each post-disaster recovery process and strategy in discussions concerning future post-disaster recovery initiatives. However, it is difficult to compare recovery phenomena because of the different social, religious, political, or economic context in each country.

Recovery After Sanriku Tsunamis in 1896 and 1933, and Transition of Housing Location Before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

We need to formulate future strategies for post-disaster recovery policy and planning based on the lessons of past disasters. The Sanriku Coastal Area, a tsunami-prone region located in the northern part of the main island of Japan, survived catastrophic tsunamis in 1896, 1933, and 1960. Before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the author examined the transition of housing location in the areas in Iwate Prefecture damaged by the 1896 and 1933 Sanriku Tsunamis to understand the situation after the recovery plans conducted before the Second World War.