Learning from megadisasters: lessons learnt from the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami

Journal title ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Author/s Federica Ranghieri
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2014/3
Language English Pages 13 P. 5-17 File size 1076 KB
DOI 10.3280/EFE2014-003001
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s Tohoku region. The quake shook the ground as far away as western Japan and lasted for several minutes. A half hour later, a tsunami of unprecedented force broke over 650 kilometers of coastline, toppling sea walls and other defenses, flooding more than 500 km2 of land, and washing away entire towns and villages. The devastation left around 20,000 people dead or missing, with most of the deaths caused by drowning. The tsunami leveled 130,000 houses and severely damaged 260,000 more. The areas worst hit were the Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures. This article investigates the ability of the Japan disaster risk management (DRM) system to cope with such megadisaster and to prevent even stronger impacts. Based on a project started in 2011 and ended in 2014, sponsored by the Government of Japan and the World Bank, which collected and analyzed information, data, and evaluations performed by academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, and the private sector, the article explains what worked and what worked less well on March 11, all with the objective of sharing Japan’s knowledge on disaster risk management (DRM) and postdisaster reconstruction with countries vulnerable to disasters.

Keywords: Disaster risk management, risk assessment, megadisasters

Jel codes: Q54, Q58

  1. Benfield A. (2011). Earthquake insurance business in Japan. December.
  2. Cabinet Office, Japan (2004). White paper on disaster management. Tokyo.
  3. Cabinet Office, Japan (2011). Disaster management in Japan. Tokyo.
  4. Fujita M. and Hamaguchi N. (2011). Japan and economic integration in East Asia: Postdisaster scenario. Annals of Regional Science, 42 (2): 485-500. DOI: 10.1007/s00168-011-0484-y
  5. Fukushima City (2012). Survey on people’s view on radiation (in Japanese). Available from: http://www.city.fukushima.fukushima.jp/soshiki/7/kouchou12090501.html.
  6. Fukushima Governor (2013). Comments on recovery plan in areas lifting up of restrict area (in Japanese). Fukushima Prefecture (2013). Panel on survey on people’s health (in Japanese).
  7. Hokkaido Shinbun (2013). Two years from 3.11: Difficult recovery. February 23 (in Japanese). Available from: http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/cont/tooifukkou/188947.html.
  8. Ishiwatari M. (2012). Review of countermeasures in the east Japan earthquake and tsunami. In: Shaw R. and Takeuchi Y. (Eds.), East Japan earthquake and tsunami: Evacuation, communication, education and volunteerism. Singapore: Research Publishing.
  9. Kahokushinpo (2013). Two years from GEJE. March 5 (in Japanese).
  10. McCurry J. (2012). Japan’s Tohoku earthquake: 1 year on. Lancet, 379: 880-881. DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60378-x
  11. McCurry J. (2013). Fukushima residents still struggling 2 years after disaster. Lancet, 381: 791-792. DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(13)60611-x
  12. MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism) (2011). Comprehensive tsunami countermeasures in ports (interim report) (Kowan ni okeru sougouteki na tsunami taisaku no arikata) (in Japanese). Available from: http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000149434.pdf.
  13. Nomura S., Gilmour S., Tsubokura M., Yoneoka D., Sugimoto A. et al. (2013). Mortality risk amongst nursing home residents evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear accident: A retrospective cohort study. PLoS ONE, 8 (3): e60192. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060192
  14. Ranghieri F. and Ishiwatari M. (Eds.) (2014). Learning from megadisasters. Lessons from the great east Japan earthquake. Washington, DC: World Bank.
  15. Technical Committee on Tsunami Countermeasures (2011). Basic Approach for Rehabilitating Dikes Damaged by GEJE (Kaigan teiboutouno fukkyunikansuru kihontekina kangaekata) (in Japanese). Available from: http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000182993.pdf.
  16. Tokyoshinbun (2013). All people died because of the accident: Prolonged evacuation in Fukushima. March 13 (in Japanese).
  17. Tsutui Y., Tominaga M., Takahara M. and Takatani R. (2012). Stress on parents and children (in Japanese). Available from: http://www.fukushima-u.ac.jp/press/H24/pdf/34_03.pdf.
  18. World Bank (2011). The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan: Implications for East Asia. East Asia and Pacific Economic Update 2011. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPHALFYEARLYUPDATE/Resources/550192-1300567391916/EAP_Update_March2011_japan.pdf.

  • Integrating renewable energy sources into electricity markets: Power system operation, resource adequacy and market design Umberto Monarca, Ernesto Cassetta, Alessandro Sarra, Cesare Pozzi, in ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 2/2016 pp.149
    DOI: 10.3280/EFE2015-002010
  • The cost of failing to prevent gas supply interruption: A CGE assessment for Peru Carlos Adriàn Romero, Omar Osvaldo Chisari, Leonardo Javier Mastronardi, Arturo Leonardo Vásquez Cordano, in ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 2/2016 pp.131
    DOI: 10.3280/EFE2015-002009
  • Modeling search and rescue, medical disaster team response and transportation of patients in Ishinomaki city after tsunami disaster Erick Mas, Shinichi Egawa M.D., Hiroyuki Sasaki M.D., Shunichi Koshimura, A. Rahman, Y. Idris, H.A. Haridhi, Muksin, E. Meilianda, T. Musa, I. Rusydy, A. Suppasri, E. Mas, A. Opdyke, in E3S Web of Conferences /2022 pp.05001
    DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/202234005001

Federica Ranghieri, Learning from megadisasters: lessons learnt from the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami in "ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT" 3/2014, pp 5-17, DOI: 10.3280/EFE2014-003001