In the last two decades, three great earthquakes have occurred in Japan: the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake of 1995, the Mid-Niigata earthquake of 2004, and the East Japan Earthquake of 2011. After the East Japan earthquake, a devastating tsunami caused significant casualties and home destruction. More than 18,500 people were killed and more than 121,000 homes were destroyed. In addition, the tsunami destroyed nuclear power stations, which resulted in a severe crisis not previously experienced in Japan.On the other hand, earthquake disasters on a huge scale have been announced to occur as probability of about 70% in the next three decades. One such earthquake is Tokyo inland earthquake that destroys 610,000 homes and kills 23,000 people, and the other is the Nankai Trough earthquake that destroys 2,380,000 homes and kills 320,000 people. In addition, compound disasters where one disaster merges with another disaster may cause damage on a mega scale in this century.In order to address these mega disasters, it is very important to make efforts to reduce damage in the pre-disaster period. According to local plans for national resilience, each municipality must make efforts to reduce level of damage which is able to response trough a Business Continuity Plan (BCP). In addition, each municipality must implement long-term urban projects with a vision toward reconstruction after a mega disaster trough a pre-disaster recovery and reconstruction plan. It is necessary to make revolutionary efforts rather than standard disaster management efforts to reduce damages in the pre-disaster period.
The characteristics of the Mocoa compound disaster event, Colombia
