Organized Sessions

Session No. Outline of Session
OS1Session Name: Strong ground motions and source process of megathrust earthquakes
Organizer: Hisashi Nakahara (Tohoku University), Atsushi Nozu (Port and Airport Research Institute)
Outline: The 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw9.0) was the largest ever recorded in and around Japan. In addition to the Tohoku earthquake, several M9 class earthquakes such as the 2004 Sumatra earthquake (Mw9.2) and the 2010 Maure earthquake (Mw8.8) occurred in the last decade and various kinds of data were obtained. Based on these data, rupture process of M9 class earthquakes have been revealed in a broadband frequency range. At the same time, our knowledge on the relation between the subsurface structure and strong ground motions is also accumulating. Therefore, it is important to share the results among different researchers on the topic of strong ground motions from megathrust earthquakes and related rupture process and subsurface structures, and to discuss their common features and differences. This organized session also aims at discussing how we can use these results for the mitigation of damages from future megathrust earthquakes.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS2Session Name: Active fault information for strong ground motion estimation
Organizer: Toshikazu Yoshioka (Active fault and Earthquake Research Center, AIST), Takao Kagawa (Tottori University)
Outline: In the strong motion evaluation for a crustal earthquake, information on the active fault serves as the starting point for the construction of rupture scenarios. In this process, the information on the location and slip distribution along the surface fault trace is not sufficient, and the information on the fault plane within the crust and its slip distribution are also required. Although there is a significant gap between these two sources of information, we do not have sufficient opportunity for the discussion between the researchers on the active faults and the researchers on strong ground motions. In addition, in some of the recent damaging earthquakes, it was difficult to hypothesize the fault plane in the crust, based on the a priori information obtained on the surface of the crust, which is also an important topic to be discussed. Thus, this organized session provides the opportunity for the researchers on the active faults, the researchers on strong ground motion and researchers from engineering communities to get together, to identify the problems and to discuss on potential solutions.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS3Session Name: New subsurface velocity structure investigation technique using the characteristics of the diffuse wave field
Organizer: Hiroshi Kawase (DPRI, Kyoto University), Shinichi Matsushima (DPRI, Kyoto University)
Outline: Conventional surveys of subsurface structures employed methods such as the SPAC method with the assumption of diffuse wave field, or the HVR method in which the ellipticity of Rayleigh (or Rayleigh and Love) waves is considered. In recent years, however, new methods based on seismic interferometry are emerging. Some of these methods retrieve Green’s functions between two points from the crosscorrelation of microtremors at those points. Other methods use the relation between the HVR and the ratio of the imaginary part of the Green’s functions with the source and the receiver at the same point. Such methods based on the concept of diffuse wave field provide a new frontier in the study of subsurface structures. In this organized session, the possibility of the new methods will be discussed, based on the results of their application or comparison with conventional methods.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS4Session Name: Lessons learned from liquefaction-induced damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster
Organizer: Junichi Koseki (IIS, University of Tokyo), Reiko Kuwano (IIS, University of Tokyo)
Outline: In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, liquefaction caused severe damage in a wide range of infrastructures including buildings, lifelines, river bank, road, agriculture field and facilities, port facilities and etc. In this session, lessons learned from such liquefaction induced damage are discussed from the following point of view:
- Is there any new pattern of damage?
- Was only reclaimed land subjected to sever damage?
- What are effects of seismic waveform and aftershock?
- How can the ground investigation be effectively conducted in order to evaluate liquefaction potential?
- What kind of technique should be developed for the prevention and mitigation of liquefaction damage?
- How can we efficiently obtain the information on the liquefaction damage?
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS5Session Name: Lessons learned from lifeline damage in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
Organizer: Nobuoto Nojima (Gifu University), Yasuko Kuwata (Kobe University)
Outline: The Great East Japan earthquake caused a variety of damage to lifelines including water, sewer, gas, electric power and communication facilities. In this organized session, the cause of damage is investigated with considerations of the effects of strong ground motion and liquefaction, with the aid of lifeline damage database constructed on GIS (Geographic Information System), with the intention of contributing to risk management by the end users of the lifeline systems such as communities or companies. This organized session even aims at obtaining the whole picture of interactions between different lifeline systems. The final goal of this session is to investigate appropriate strategy for the prevention of natural disasters in the cities and to seek for appropriate use of lifeline database for academic as well as practical purposes.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS6Session Name: Prevention and reduction of disaster of liquid storage tanks due to massive earthquake
Organizer: Shoichi Yoshida (Yokohama National University), Shinsaku Zama (Yokohama National University)
Outline: Liquid storage tanks in Japan have experienced serious damage due to past earthquakes. During the 1964 Niigata, the 1983 Nihonkai-Chubu and the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquakes, liquid sloshing due to long period strong ground motions caused structural damage to floating roofs, which led to massive fire. During the 1978 Miyagi-ken-oki and the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquakes, deformation and failure of the main body of liquid storage tanks led to leak of the liquid. During the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, many storage tanks were carried away by tsunami and many of them were overturned and damaged. In Japan, there are approximately 70,000 liquid storage tanks for oil and liquefied gas, including oil storage tanks with capacities over 100,000 m3 and LNG tanks with capacities over 200,000 m3. There is an urgent need for disaster prevention and mitigation of the liquid storage tanks especially for the anticipated mega-earthquakes along the Nankai trough. In this organized session, we welcome papers related to seismic design of liquid storage tanks, response of foundation soil, soil-tank interaction, liquid sloshing characteristics of long period ground motions.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS7Session Name: The state of the art and problems in the estimation of tsunami load on man-made structures and natural objects
Organizer: Hideo Matsutomi (Akita University), Taro Arikawa (Port and Airport Research Institute)
Outline: This organized session is intended to introduce the most advanced researches related to the external force due to tsunamis acting on man-made structures such as disaster prevention facilities, road and railway embankments, bridges, buildings as well as natural objects such as slopes or coastal forests. This organized session also introduce topics for future studies related to tsunami external forces. This organized session will be devoted to discussion on the direction of future research as well as the practical use of research results in the evaluation of tsunami external force.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS8 Session Name: Countermeasure to the damages of non-structural elements of buildings due to earthquakes
Organizer: Tsuyoshi Seike (The University of Tokyo), Toru Eguchi (Yokohama National University)
Outline: Many non-structural elements had been damaged as well as building structures due to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Those damages, such as ceilings, exterior outer walls, claddings and openings, concrete blocks as partitions, had been found in wider area. This caused serious damages on both human and buildings in use. Some researches had been tried to analyze the outline of damages and those tendencies and some regulations and guidelines have been updating in these three years. Thus, in this session, future actions are going to be discussed by understanding of detailed damages to non-structural elements and clarifying of those causes considering seismic intensity, damages of building structure and its building date.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS9 Session Name: Tsunami resistant technology for nuclear safety
Organizer: Hiroyuki Kameda (formerly Kyoto University), Fumihiko Imamura (Tohoku University), Hiroshi Miyano (Hosei University), Tsuyoshi Takada (University of Tokyo)
Outline: The purpose of the organized session is to have an open discussion on engineering issues of tsunami safety of nuclear power plants based on the outputs from the “Committee on Tsunami Resistant Technology for Nuclear Safety” (September 2012-March 2015) of the Japan Association of Earthquake Engineering. The Committee was organized to establish an earthquake/tsunami engineering framework to overcome the experience of the severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station during the Great East Japan Earthquake. The topics of discussion will consist of issues on nuclear safety under earthquake/tsunami risk, including fundamentals based on defense-in-depth, accident scenarios, performance criteria, risk-informed decision scheme, load effects and actions of tsunamis, engineering framework of tsunami protection, fragility analysis, disaster reduction in external zones, computer codes for tsunami analysis, framework of tsunami resistant technology, etc. This session is organized under close collaboration among experts in earthquake engineering, tsunami engineering and nuclear safety engineering.
OS10 Session Name: How to protect a megalopolis from large-scale earthquakes
Organizer: Yoshiaki Hisada (Kogakuin University), Miho Ohara (Public Works Research Institute)
Outline: Although the seismic intensity in Tokyo was no greater than 5 during the 2011 East Japan earthquake, the downtown Tokyo was occupied by the commuters who had difficulty in returning home and the main streets suffered traffic jam. Consequently, the functions of the city were significantly disturbed. From such a point of view, it is preferable to stay in the office, rather than trying to go home or to evacuate. On the other hand, the most serious problem in the earthquake disaster prevention has been the occurrence of fire. To prevent fire-related disaster, it is obviously preferable to evacuate as soon as possible. The evacuation areas designated by the local governments, however, are often located in the downtown, in the riverbed or in the coastal areas. The evacuation areas in the downtown might become too crowded. The evacuation areas in the riverbed or in the coastal areas might be suffering from liquefaction, tsunamis, or even from storm surges or floods. Therefore, there is an urgent need for interdisciplinary efforts for the preparedness against various types of potential earthquake disaster. In this organized session, we welcome papers of the research results or case histories related to damage scenarios due to earthquakes and/or floods in the megalopolis, damage simulations, evacuation simulation, disaster prevention plans, disaster management, education, training, monitoring, reconstruction and recovery, both in and outside of Japan.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS11 Session Name: Evacuation behavior from tunami during the Great East Japan earthquake
Organizer: Yozo Goto (ERI, University of Tokyo), Taro Ichiko (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
Outline: During the Great East Japan earthquake, more than 20,000 people were dead, mostly because they could not appropriately evacuate from the tsunami. The purpose of this organized session is to have an interdisciplinary discussion on what was really going on, to share lessons learned from this tragic disaster, and to identify future research topics. The details of this session will be as follows. First, the facts about the tsunami evacuation will be revealed based on the inquiries for more than 1,600 survivors, conducted by “the Joint Investigation Team for Tsunami Evacuation during the Great East Japan Earthquake”, which constitutes of about 20 earthquake engineers and specialists. The results of the inquiries will be compared with the results from other organizations and case histories abroad. Then, the applicability of tsunami simulation will be discussed. In terms of tsunami evacuation, the effects of early warning, tsunami perceptions, tsunami experience, family members, means of transportation, and evacuation distance will be discussed. The activities of nursing homes, schools and office will also be reported. In addition, the distribution and actions of elderly victims will also be reported based on the interviews for survivors.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS12 Session Name: Remote sensing application for earthquake and tsunami disaster management
Organizer: Masashi Matsuoka (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Shunichi Koshimura (IRIDeS, Tohoku University)
Outline: The remote sensing technology comes to be used drastically in various fields. Improvement of the spatial resolution and observation frequency, the organized observation system with several earth observation satellites, and the advantage of the information and communication technology help the application to the field of disaster management including collection of damage information and recovery activities. Particularly, the 2010 Haiti, the 2010 Chile, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes and tsunamis occurred continually, and the standardization of the damage extraction technique by remote sensing technique, the integration of GIS and the simulation, and the effective monitoring for the recovery process became clear. This session discusses and shares the problems for earthquake and tsunami disaster mitigation through the presentations of the latest studies by domestic and foreign researchers of this area and examines the solutions.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.
OS13 Session Name: International session
Organizer: Junji Kiyono (Kyoto University), Masayuki Kohiyama (Keio University)
Outline: The international session features oral presentations and the paper written in English on earthquake engineering. Four subsessions are provided; (1) Natural Phenomena (earthquake, underground profile, ground motion, tsunami, historical earthquake, etc.), (2) Structures (earthquake response, structural experiment, seismic design, base isolation, structural control, retrofitting/reinforcement/inspection, interaction, etc.), (3) Social Issues (lifeline, disaster information, risk management, disaster mitigation plan, reconstruction plan, etc.) and (4) Earthquake Damage Investigation/Reconnaissance.
This organized session is a good opportunity to have a presentation and to submit a paper especially for overseas researchers and students who study in Japan and young researchers of companies and universities in Japan.
This session welcomes papers from general participants.