scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Theory, Methods, and Approaches for Hazards and Disaster Research: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Risk Analysis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Peek ◽  
Seth Guikema
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-223
Author(s):  
Tomoyuki Takahashi ◽  

The Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) has published many special issues in addition to its regular issues. These special issues have included various papers that have covered disasters comprehensively. Among them, the Special Issue on “Tsunami Forces and Effects on Structures” in Vol.4 No.6, 2009 and the Special Issue on “Uncertainties in Tsunami Effects” in Vol.11 No.4, 2016 include practical papers on tsunami disasters which are sure to contribute greatly to tsunami disaster control. The members of the JDR editorial board have unanimously agreed to present this second JDR Award to the editor of the special issues: Harry Yeh Professors, School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, USA I met Professor Harry Yeh for the first time while doing a field survey on the earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores Island, Indonesia in December 1992. He was already a world-renowned researcher, known for his theoretical tsunami research based on accurate hydraulic experiments. I remember that I was deeply impressed with his energetic attitude towards the survey as he worked to reveal phenomena on the disaster site. Since then, I have accompanied him on various disaster surveys, and I have listened to his unique and significant opinions on tsunami studies at many conferences. The two special issues mentioned above reflect his broad range of knowledge and experience. On behalf of the JDR editorial board, I wish to thank Professor Harry Yeh for his efforts and to congratulate him as the winner of the second JDR Award. Tomoyuki Takahashi Professor, Faculty of Societal Safety Sciences, Kansai University, Japan


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 907-907
Author(s):  
Katsuki Takiguchi ◽  
Haruo Hayashi

A holistic and comprehensive perspective on society is essential to disaster research. However, at one time, the world did not have any scholarly journals that dealt with disasters from a holistic point of view. This situation gave rise to the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), the first issue of which was published in August 2006. In principle, six issues are published annually, with special or extra issues also published in some years. The Great East Japan Earthquake struck in March 2011, five years after the first issue of the JDR. Following this incident, we decided to publish a special issue whenever there was a major disaster. All accepted papers and articles were to be published free of charge, in electronic format. So far, eight special issues have been published. Since this year 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of that disaster, we at the JDR have decided to publish a special issue of notes on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. The selected theme is “Thoughts About the Great Disaster Now That Ten Years Have Passed.” As an academic journal dealing comprehensively with disasters and disaster risk reduction, we asked people working in all disaster-related fields to submit, from their unique perspectives, their views or proposals in any area or subject regarding what changes have taken place, what has remained the same, or what is needed in the future. We have the twelve notes presented here in this Special Issue on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: Part VI. We hope that these notes provide seeds for further progress in the field of disaster research. Lastly, the editors would like to thank all contributors who submitted their manuscripts and the reviewers who provided valuable feedback with their constructive comments.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-371
Author(s):  
Fumiko Kasuga

Recent developments in medicine and anti-microbial treatment based on intensive research on basic microbiology have successfully been controlling many infectious diseases to be nonfatal. As stated by Dr. Nobuhiko Okabe in the first section of this issue, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases still threaten human lives and health both in developing and industrialized countries. A multiprefectural outbreak of enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) O111 and O157 due to raw beef consumption took the lives of victims, including young children, earlier this year in Japan, following which people worldwide were panicked by news from Europe of a huge outbreak of EHEC O104. Infectious diseases result from interaction between pathogens and humans including our behaviors. The Journal of Disaster Research has already drawn readers’ attention to infectious diseases in its special issue on “Our Social Activities Are Always Related to Outbreaks of Infectious Diseases,” with Guest Editor Dr. Masayuki Saijo in JDR Vol.4, No.5, October, 2009. That issue reviewed the background behind infectious disease emergence and reemergence using examples of viral diseases that could cause serious public health concerns, and emphasized the need for preparedness and responses, including against bioterrorism. The present issue again reminds readers of the threat of infectious diseases by demonstrating bacterial and viral infections, focusing more on basic knowledge about these pathogens. Disease history, and epidemiology and the microbiological nature of pathogens and infection pathways are summarized. Treatment, vaccination and other control measures, and law and other social systems for controlling disease are also reviewed. We believe that a better understanding of pathogens will enable society to build better strategies for overcoming problems with emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, such as appropriate preventive measures, treatment and control for preventing outbreaks from expanding. We also hope that such considerations are also useful to disaster control experts in other areas. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the authors and reviewers for their great contributions to this issue, and to the Editorial Board and the Secretariat of the Journal of Disaster Research for their continuous encouragement and assistance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1009-1009
Author(s):  
Yuichi Ono ◽  
Daisuke Sasaki

A year has passed since the first special issue on the development of disaster statistics was published in the Journal of Disaster Research. The Global Centre for Disaster Statistics (GCDS) at Tohoku University is steadily making progress as well. The GCDS now participates in Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC), which was launched by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). In addition, the GCDS has committed to publishing this special issue of the Journal of Disaster Research toward the development of disaster statistics. Needless to say, the publication of the special issue itself has a positive impact on accelerating research activity at the GCDS. The guest editors are pleased to publish valuable academic articles that are closely related to the activities of the GCDS, thus contributing to the development of disaster statistics. In this second issue, there seem to be two main categories of research questions: “development of the existing disciplined-based research” and “analyzing various issues by means of questionnaire surveys.” Under the first category, by means of disaster statistics, two disciplines are covered: river engineering and international studies. The large number of studies based on questionnaire surveys act as an excellent reminder of the effectiveness of such a survey as a methodology for disaster statistics. Last but not least, we hope that this second special issue on the development of disaster statistics will also contribute to the literature on disaster statistics and accelerate its development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1010-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Sasaki ◽  
◽  
Yuichi Ono

A year has passed since the first special issue on the development of disaster statistics was published in the Journal of Disaster Research. The attempt to improve and utilize disaster statistics throughout the world is still in progress, although it is steadily moving forward. Under such circumstances, the Global Centre for Disaster Statistics (GCDS) at Tohoku University has also made advances in this area. The Centre participates in the Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) launched by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). This second special issue on the development of disaster statistics aims to publish the research results from the latest studies related to this topic. For the SFVC, the GCDS has committed to publishing this special issue of the Journal of Disaster Research towards the development of disaster statistics as for academic contributions. In addition, the publication of the special issue itself has a positive impact on the acceleration of research activity at the GCDS. In this issue, there seems to be two main categories of research questions; namely “development of the existing disciplined-based research,” and “analyzing various issues by means of questionnaire surveys.” Under the umbrella of the development of the existing disciplined-based research by means of disaster statistics, two disciplines are covered: river engineering, and international studies. The large number of studies based on questionnaire surveys acts as an excellent reminder of the effectiveness of a questionnaire survey when adopted as a methodology of disaster statistics. The guest editors hope that this second special issue on the development of disaster statistics would also contribute to the literature of disaster statistics and accelerate their development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 817-817
Author(s):  
Masato Iguchi ◽  

A volcanic eruption is a phenomenon in which ballistic bombs, lapilli, volcanic ash, lava, and gas are discharged. Volcanic ash and gas are carried by the wind, and pyroclastic flows and lava flows are carried away by the force of gravity. These cause disasters of various forms in the areas around volcanoes, sometimes far from eruptive center. Accordingly, volcanic countries, particularly Asian countries such as Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, have been the scenes of volcanic disasters. We conducted the research project “Integrated study on mitigation of multimodal disasters caused by the ejection of volcanic products” with the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation and other institutes in Indonesia under the SATREPS project from FY2013 to 2018. The aim of the project was to advance volcanic hazard mitigation, and I served as the guest editor of “Special Issue on Integrated Study on Mitigation of Multimodal Disasters Caused by Ejection of Volcanic Products” (2016) and “Special Issue on Integrated Study on Mitigation of Multimodal Disasters Caused by Ejection of Volcanic Products: Part 2” (2019) of the Journal of Disaster Research. The articles in the Special Issues have been downloaded by many researchers. The Special Issues cover many topics related to volcanic disasters, but the main theme is how to forecast real-time volcanic hazards using data monitoring, since it is this monitoring that triggers the issuing of warnings. I have studied the volcanic activity of Sakurajima, the most active volcano in Japan, for 40 years, primarily to forecast its eruptions. Forecasting the eruptions is not as important as forecasting the hazards and risks posed by volcanic actions. Research done on the mitigation of the volcanic hazards of Sakurajima as well as Indonesian volcanoes has been enhanced by interaction. The cumulative volume of magma stored in the past 100 years indicates that Sakurajima has the potential for a large-scale eruption (VEI > 4). An eruption and its dispersal of volcanic ash in particular would cause a variety of disasters over a wide area, as described in the other issues of Journal of Disaster Research. I hope that the research results will be utilized for hazard mitigation in the event of future large-scale eruptions. The research could be advanced through collaboration with studies aimed at the enhancement of resilience and recovery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-126
Author(s):  
Shingo Nagamatsu ◽  
Masahiro Sawada ◽  
Yuichi Ono ◽  
Naoto Tanaka ◽  
Mayumi Sakamoto ◽  
...  

This special issue of the Journal of Disaster Research focuses on disaster storytelling, an emerging concept in disaster risk reduction. Despite its popularity and importance, its individual practices and activities, as they tend to be spontaneous and local, have received only limited attention from academia and have not been given special attention by the disaster research community. The papers included in this volume contain multi-dimensional discussions on disaster storytelling, including ones that focus on concepts and theory, the functions of disaster museums, tourism, local communities, UNESCO geoparks, disaster ruins and heritage, art and culture, and disaster education. The readers can understand the variety of disaster storytelling activities that exist around the world and their potential contribution to building resilience in society. We believe this issue is the first academic publication to focus specifically on disaster storytelling, and we hope that this volume contributes to creating scientific value, attracts additional attention, and develops further discussions about the role of disaster storytelling within the disaster research community. We also believe that such discussions will help various individuals and entities reidentify the importance and significance of their activities of disaster storytelling as well as contribute to continuing or strengthening such activities around the world. All of the contributors to this issue participated in the International Forum on Telling Live Lessons from Disasters (TeLL-Net Forum), held January 24–26, 2020 in Kobe, Japan. The articles included in this issue include ones that were inspired by discussions during and after the forum. Readers interested in this forum can obtain the official report from the TeLL-Net website: https://tell-net.jp/forum2020/pdf/00_Tell_Net2020_Report_print.pdf. We, the editorial board of this special issue, would like to express our deep appreciation to the Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute for the research grant on disaster storytelling. We also would like to express our gratitude to the Kobe Machizukuri Rokko Island Fund Charitable Trust (Tokyo, Japan) and AIG Institute (Osaka, Japan) for financial contributions that supported the publication of the issue.


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