Lessons Learned in Disaster Debris Management of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

2017 ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Terri R. Norton
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Great East Japan Earthquake ◽  
Disaster Debris

Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (sp) ◽  
pp. 421-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suminao Murakami
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Great East Japan Earthquake ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Earthquake Disaster ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Social Disaster ◽  
American Society

Concerned experts and others from a wide range of fields are required to take part in studies on “social” disaster phenomena such as earthquakes and typhoons causing drastic human and property damage and leaving subsequent social and economic destruction. In 2006, the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) decided to be published as an academic journal in English for global society to help expand research beyond a domestic scope. The March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster – in the 6th year of the journal’s publication, has made an impact both domestically and globally due to the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami and resulting radiation leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. JDR will annually publish special issues on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster beginning in this issue of 2012, for five years, for the purpose of informing, recording and utilizing lessons learned from the disaster. Page charges are in principle free and widespread contributions are welcomed. I have studied disasters from the viewpoint of a planner. Nobody who is active and living in society is irrelevant to wide-scale events related to such disasters, and I still feel that it is important for people from a variety of fields to visit devastated sites, hear from the people experiencing such disasters and make their own standpoints. In American society, for example, disaster measures against earthquakes and other disasters have been studied involving a wide range of experts and others. After the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, research groups consisting of wide range of experts came to be formed in Japan and environments developed to produce a multidisciplinary journal such as the JDR. The ultimate goal of planned research is human research. A society is needed in which “human power” can be manifested in all aspects such as reviving reconstruction and rehabilitation. This is because contributions by researchers from widespread fields are anticipated in the future.

Efforts Toward Recovery and Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1247-1256
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Maruya ◽  
Yasunari Watanabe ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Management ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Great East Japan Earthquake ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Town Development ◽  
Miyagi Prefecture ◽  
The World ◽  
Evacuation Drills ◽  
Iwate Prefecture ◽  
Software Measures

Six and a half years after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), recovery and reconstruction have been steadily progressing in terms of infrastructure and town development. However, it is a fact that there are still many problems to be tackled in some areas. In addition, communicating the lessons learned from the GEJE is important and should be promoted to improve disaster management in Japan and overseas. The Tohoku Regional Development Bureau (TRDB) held a symposium, “Efforts for Recovery and Reconstruction from the GEJE,” at the World Bosai Forum (WBF) on November 27, 2017. Mayors from the disaster areas, Rikuzentakata city in Iwate prefecture, Ishinomaki city in Miyagi prefecture, and Shinchi town in Fukushima prefecture, and a director of the TRDB presented their projects aiming to “build back better,” and they discussed how they had made efforts toward recovery and reconstruction, mainly in terms of infrastructure and town development. It was confirmed in the discussion that for the reconstruction, steadily advancing safe and secure town development, including multiple defense, was necessary. In addition, software measures, such as disaster education and evacuation drills, are important, as are hardware improvements through reconstruction. Both hardware and software countermeasures should be like a two wheels. It was also asserted that passing down the memories and the lessons of the disaster, not allowing their memories to fade away with time, was important. The speakers showed a variety of approaches to transmitting their memories to future generations in their areas or projects. Then, they emphasized that if people prepared for disaster based on these lessons in advance, there would surely be less damage. Finally, speakers shared the recognition that to realize the above, many actors in the Tohoku district should mutually cooperate to transmit the situation of reconstruction and the lessons of the GEJE.

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