A New Methodology for Measuring Tsunami Resilience Using Theory of Springs

Resilience is a deeply rooted word in theory of elasticity, which is firstly introduced to English by Thomas Young in 1807 in his treatise “A course of lectures on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts”. However, recently it is frequently used in ecology, economics, social sciences, and as everyone knows in the disaster literature. The purpose of this article is to investigate the mechanical background of word resilience, discuss lessons we could learn from the theory of elasticity for evaluating tsunami resilience, and finally, to propose a new mathematical model based on theory of springs. The mathematical model is in compliance with a pragmatic conceptual framework for evaluating resilience. The effective resilience of a given area can be calculated by aggregation of three components namely, onsite capacity, instantaneous survivability, and recovery potential of the area. The authors suggest that the magnitude of each component depends on socioeconomic, infrastructural and geographical factors of the area considered. Here, we show that aggregation of the individual components can be done in compliance with the theory of springs by analogizing effective tsunami resilience to effective spring constant. The mathematical model will be useful for evaluating the resilience of townships to hydrological disasters and also planning resilient townships, specifically to tsunami

The Role of Buildings in Disaster Risk Reduction: Focusing on the Great East Japan Earthquake

AbstractAs a result of unprecedented tsunami happened 11 March 2011, in the coastal Tohoku area of Japan, around 126,000 buildings were destroyed. Some of the buildings withstood the strong tsunami, though the number of such buildings is small. Obviously the strength of the waves was the strongest determinant of the destruction or endurance, some other factors such as inundation height, depth of the building parallel to the tsunami direction and opening ratio have also been understood as the factors supporting the survival. This paper investigates Sendai sewage purification center which survived the GEJE and tsunami in the context of its endurance

Current Issues and Questionnaire Survey of Cold Weather Concreting in Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is the coldest capital city in the world with limited available time for executing concrete works due to the cold climate. The cold season raises not only technical issues, but also socio-economic issues, for example, loss of production stability, and unemployment during the winter. Along with the development of modern concrete technology, the properties and advantages of concrete have been studied in many ways depending on cold climatic conditions. However, while inappropriate construction works during the winter season can be frequently observed in Mongolia, the background has not been fully investigated. In this study, the current situation of concrete works during winter in Mongolia and the standard specifications were investigated. In addition, a questionnaire survey of construction personnel was conducted. A questionnaire survey on cold weather concreting in Mongolia revealed that the current norms do not cover the requirements for planning, preparation, curing, and preventing methods from early age freezing; and quality control during the cold season. In total, 71% of respondents answered that they execute concrete works during the winter season, even ambient air temperature is between −10 and −20 °C. However, 53% of them thought that current Mongolian norms are not sufficient for the cold weather concreting

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Printed in an environmentally friendly manner. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s). Publication does not imply endorsement by the United Nations University of any of the views expressed. ISSN: 2075-0498 e-ISSN: 2304-046