Building Comprehensive Disaster Victim Support System

Our research team of industrial, governmental, and academic organizations had supported local governments using geographic information systems (GIS) at Odiya city in the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Earthquake. We developed GIS applications for damage certification based on specific needs enabling municipal personnel to operate effectively during the initial post-disaster confusion. The team developed GIS and other databases and applications, and designed the certification desk layout. Based on our work in Odiya, we applied these solutions in the 2004 Niigataken Chuetsu Earthquake, 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, and 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsuoki Earthquake. We damage citification issuance and set up a master database for victims to help victims rebuild their lives. We discuss comprehensive solutions to damage assessment, database registration, damage certification, and victim assistance.

Inexpensive Integrated GIS for Local Government to Implement Emergency Response and Management Effectively

We are exposed to various kinds of Multi-hazards due to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and epidemic’s outbreak. In any of these crises, national and local governments must take in managing emergency responses effectively. Though one of the many measures is to build information systems against disaster, these systems are tools for estimating post disaster damage. This effort is not, however, implemented either well or effectively in most cases. Our research team had supported local governments using GIS in cases such as the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Earthquake, the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, and the 2007 Niigataken Chuetsuoki Earthquake. Through these experiences, we reconfirmed the positive effects of location information and GIS. We also reconfirmed the need for both implementation speed and flexible use in their implementation. This paper describes how we built inexpensive integrated GIS for local governments to implement in emergency response andmanagement from experiences and knowledge on disaster affected area.

Realization of Local Capacity Building for Managing Instructional-System-Design-Based GIS -A Case Study of Wajima City at 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake-

Geographic information system (GIS) use in disaster response in Japan has tended to be poor due to a lack of skills among local responders. The educational model based on instructional system design (ISD) and cognitive apprenticeship theory we proposed enabled local responders to build on GIS management capacity. Our research example is taken from the case of Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, hit by the 2007 Noto Hanto Earthquake, magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale, on March 25, 2007, in which local responders managed GIS quickly after the quake to developmany useful maps representing recovery progress.