Disaster Management and City Planning: Lessons of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

411 Pages·2022·7.281 MB·English

by  Yasuhisa Mitsui

New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives 58
Yasuhisa Mitsui
Disaster
Management
and City
Planning
Lessons of the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake
New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian
Perspectives
Volume 58
Editor-in-Chief
YoshiroHigano,UniversityofTsukuba,Tsukuba,Ibaraki,Japan
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Yasuhisa Mitsui
Disaster Management
and City Planning
Lessons of the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake
YasuhisaMitsui
Tokyo,Japan
ISSN2199-5974 ISSN2199-5982 (electronic)
NewFrontiersinRegionalScience:AsianPerspectives
ISBN978-981-19-1807-0 ISBN978-981-19-1808-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1808-7
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Preface
TheGreatHanshin-AwajiEarthquakewhichoccurredonJanuary17,1995,wasan
unprecedented big disaster. It caused tremendous damages. Many precious lives
were lost; many had to live their lives in the shelter as their residences were
destructed; transportation system was paralyzed; economy was stalled. Although
Japan suffers from natural disasters all the time, such shock of Richter magnitude
scale 7.2 (and the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale 7) earth-
quakeremindedafreshusoftheimportanceofthedisastermanagementanddamage
reduction measures. The city was struck with catastrophic damages and many
victims. Yet, information collection did not function well and our memory of the
earthquake is still fresh as the national government was criticized for its initial
responses.
Twelve years have passed since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake had
occurred and the city of Kobe which was struck hardest by the earthquake has
recovered to the degree no trace of the damages is recognizable, the city being
praised outside Japan for its rehabilitation. I worked for the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake Reconstruction Headquarters, which was established in the national
government in order to rehabilitate and reconstruct the affected areas for one and
halfyearsrightaftertheoccurrenceoftheearthquake.Therefore,I,again,wouldlike
topaymyrespectstotheformidableeffortsbytheearthquakevictims,theresidents,
thenation-widesupporters,andthelocalauthorities.ItisoftensaidthattheJapanese
haslowlevelofsecurityprecautionbutprojectstremendousenergytocopewiththe
actualcrisis.ThecaseoftheGreatHanshin-AwajiEarthquakefitsthatview.
As the rescue activities, the temporary rehabilitation, and the reconstruction
projects were implemented right after the earthquake, the disaster management,
including the much-criticized crisis management apparatus, was reviewed in a
wholesale new manner. Rehabilitation records, rehabilitation journals, and reports
of all related areas have been released and many books on related subjects were
publishedtodate.
Theyremindmeofthefactthatrescue,rehabilitationandreconstruction,which
aretobeimplemented asdisaster management countermeasures,andcityplanning
v
vi Preface
aretightlyconnectedwitheachother;cityplanningtocreatedisaster-resistantcities
contributes to well-designed and effective disaster management and thus for
protecting life and property from collapsed buildings and fires caused by an earth-
quake while the reconstruction plan is inevitably established as a city planning to
createdisaster-resistantcities.
ThisiswhyIhavedonethoroughresearchofthewholeprocessfromtherescue
of afflicted people by the damage to the reconstruction of the city of Kobe which
suffered mostly by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, from the viewpoint of
disastermanagementandcityplanning.Theresearchshouldpointoutcriticismand
reflectionsasinvaluableknowledgeobtainedthroughlearningbydoingandshould
contribute for the construction of disaster-resistant cities. To use historical lessons
forgoodcausemightcomfortthevictimsandthosewhoputformidableeffortsfor
rehabilitationandreconstruction.Thus,Istartedcollectingdataandrecordsthatare
relatedtothesubject.
Since disaster management administration, as risk management by the govern-
ment,isbuiltintherealmofpublicadministration,dataandrecordsarewellkeptas
workingdocuments.Booksthatsystematicallytreatthesubjectarehardlyavailable
atbookstores.However,asImeticulouslycollecteddataandrecordswiththehelpof
publicagencies,Ihaverealizedthatdisastermanagementandcityplanningshould
be well coordinated with each other on aroutinebasis and whether a goodcoordi-
nation has been established among them would fatally determinethe magnitude of
damagecausedbyadisasterandthecostsincurredbytheprocessofrecoveryfrom
thedamage,onceadisasteroccurs.
First, as for initial reactions by fire departments and the Self Defense Forces,
obtainable information in stricken areas about damages which need rescue, fire
extinction, etc. were inevitably deficient and inaccurate in order to estimate how
many personnel are necessary to be deployed. We should have needed a database,
which comprises city planning data such as housing stocks by age, that quantita-
tivelyprojectsdamagescausedbyanearthquakewithinputsofobjectiveparameters
suchasdistancetotheepicenterandRichtermagnitudescaleandenablespeoplein
charge of the matter in relevant departments to have a common general view of
disaster by sharing information. Then, for example, fire departments and the Self
Defense Forces should have been able to estimate how many personnel should be
sentforrescueandrehabilitationactivities,andwheretheyshouldbesent.
Second, we have learned that sufficient open space was unable to be found and
kept for refuge, temporary housing, temporarily placing debris, other temporary
facilities, etc., in densely populated big cities, although we had inconsiderably
presumed that open space for such temporary facilities could be arranged after the
occurrenceofdisaster.Wehaveestablishedaprincipleofdisastermanagementthat
landofopenspacefortemporaryfacilitiesshallbekeptasadesignatedareabythe
city planning on a routine basis, considering that, especially, major cities such as
TokyoandOsakawouldbestruckbyamajorearthquakewithhighprobabilityinthe
nearfuture.
Third, the autopsy revealed that 80 % of the victims in Kobe died immediately
when the earthquake hit the city. Collapsed architectures killed them. Among the
Preface vii
collapsedhouses,approximately60%werebuiltbeforethelastSecondWorldWar;
50%werebuiltbetween1945and1965;and6%werebuiltafter1982.Theyearof
1982 is a critical year in the sense that the new building code was enforced which
regulateshousestobemoreresilientagainstanearthquakethanbefore.Generally,it
had been urged that housing built before 1982 should be reinforced against earth-
quake. However, it was a reality that such reinforcement had hardly progressed,
especially in densely populated and wooden housing blocks in major cities, not-
withstandingthelong-timeargumentforthenecessityofredevelopment.Althoughit
waspredictedthatdamageswouldbehugeinsuchblocksoncetheywerehitbyan
earthquake,stakeholdersofresidentsandrealestateownerscouldnotformconsen-
susaboutreconstructionofdisaster-resilienthousingblockssolongtime.Wehave
learned by the earthquake that a fragile housing block should had been designated
thoroughthecityplanning onaroutinebasisasatargetareafortheurban renewal
andapreemptiverightshouldhavebeengiventotheauthoritytopurchaselandand
housinginthedesignatedareainordertoconstructadisasterresilienthousingblock.
Iwouldliketoexpressmydeepsorrowandheartfeltsympathyforthevictimsand
paymysincererespecttoKobeCityofficeofficialsandotherswho,facingthemajor
earthquake,workedreallyhardtogetherforrehabilitationandreconstructionofthe
affectedarea.Idaretosaythatimportantlessonisthattherecoveryandreconstruc-
tion plans after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquakeweretobebasedontheexistinglimitedonesintheabovesense.
Disaster management has no limit as it basically prepares for a risk of a certain
degree. Lessons of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake should be effectively
utilized at a crisis moment with continuous efforts. I myself strongly believe that
knowledge through my learning by doing in a hard way at the Reconstruction
Headquarters should not be wasted. It would be my pleasure if this book would
help a little bit for adequate implementation of disaster management and city
planning.
ThisbookisbasedonthedoctoralthesisundertheguidanceofProfessorShigeru
Ito and Professor Takashi Onishi, faculty of engineering, University of Tokyo.
Professor Hideo Fukui of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
suggested the publishing with updating. I enjoyed cooperation of many, but I
wouldliketothanktheCabinetOffice(DisasterManagement),theHousingBureau
oftheMinistryofLand,Infrastructure,TransportandTourism(MLIT),theCityand
Regional DevelopmentBureau of MLIT, and thecitizens ofKobe for provision of
dataandrecordsaswellasadvices.
Tokyo,Japan YasuhisaMitsui
Preface for English Edition
This is a translated version of the book Bousaigyousei to toshizukuri, which was
published in 2007 as detail archives of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The
Japanese people have learned a lot by the earthquake. Great earthquake disaster
management has been improved by learning from the earthquake and becomes
excellent.Withrevisionsandsupplements,thisispublishedinEnglish.
After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake had occurred in 1995, the off-shore
Miyagi-prefectureEarthquakein2003,theChuetsuEarthquakein2004,thewestern
Fukuok-aprefectureEarthquakein2005,theNotopeninsulaEarthquakein2007,and
theoff-shoreChuetsuEarthquakeinJuly2007hadoccurredintheJapanesearchipel-
ago.Yet,manybelievethatitissomebodyelse’sbusinessandtheyaresafebecause
theirregionmustbefreefrommajorearthquakes.TheJapanesepeopleshouldkeepit
inmindthattheymustalwaysprepareforearthquakesifwewouldprotecthumanlives
and properties. Tenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake saw the
United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe in January 2005.
ThereKofiAttaAnnan,Secretary-GeneraloftheUnitedNations,gaveaspeechsaying
“Necessary thing is daily preparation. It is worth changing our actions.” The words
must be appreciated. In this century, the world shifts toward societies valuing envi-
ronment. Disaster management is related to environmental protection, and we must
workforimprovingsecurityandenvironment.
I am deeply grateful to Yoshiro Higano, professor emeritus, University of
Tsukuba, editor-in-chief, and Professor Hideo Fukui, National Graduate Institute
forPolicyStudies,fortheirkindnessandcooperationgivenduringthewholeprocess
of planning publication, book proposal submission, translation, materials
processing, etc. I would also express my deep gratitude to Ms. Kinuko Funada,
secretarytoProfessorFukui,for her administrative businessand digitalprocessing
assistance, etc. Last but far from least, I greatly appreciate Springer Nature Staff,
especiallyMr.YutakaHirachi,fortheirgoodofficesandkindcooperation.
ix
Introduction: Issues Concerning Disaster
Administration and City Planning
The Aims of the Book
The Model Disaster-Resistant City and the Great
Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
Disastermanagementhasalwaysbeenoneofthemajorobjectivesofthemoderncity
planning. In particular, in Japan where wood was used to be materials of urban
structure, one of the major objectives of city planning was to protect the lives and
propertyofurbanresidentsoncedisasterssuchasfire,earthquakes,and/orflooding
hadoccurred.
Variousideaswereputintopracticeinurbanreconstructionplansafterthe1923
Great Kanto Earthquake and the Second World War. However, after the Great
Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, we have learned that it is difficult to protect the lives
and property of residents based on the traditional city planning theory alone,
especially for those living in a major city that has rapidly developed through high
economicgrowth.
At5:46a.m.onJanuary17,1995,anearthquakewithamagnitudeof7.2onthe
RichterscalehitJapan.AlthoughtheepicenterwasinHokudan-choonAwajiIsland,
theearthquake hitKobe Citylocatedontheother sideoftheAkashiStraitwith an
intensity of 6 on the Japanese seismic scale in neighboring, and it caused an
unprecedented catastrophe in the urban districts of the city (Figs. 1, 2, and 3).
Through the destruction of public infrastructures, including railways, roads, ports,
and harbors, the destruction of buildings, and accompanying fires, the earthquake
causedimmensedamagetothecity:5,000peopledied,15,000wereinjured,about
120,000 buildings were damaged (some were totally destroyed and others were
seriously damaged or razed by fire), and about 240,000 people evacuated during
thepeakperiod.Thesenumbersshowthesheersizeoftheearthquake.
xi