Natural Disaster　(自然災害特論）

Spring

90 minutes per week x 15 weeks

Kazuo Seo

Department of Built Engineering

This course discusses natural disasters due to earthquakes, volcanic activities, typhoon, and heavy rain. Most of natural disasters, we believe, take place when a balance was lost between natural conditions and social circumstances. But in general, people give a prior to economy, convenience and amenity rather than safety in their routine lives. This is only because such disaster will not visit us so often. We are sure that the most useful strategy for a district against natural disasters will be to have a good understanding about the vulnerability of the district. Before we tell the living people about the vulnerable condition, we need to prepare enough information, why the district is dangerous, how much vulnerability they have, and how they can solve the difficulty. The following items should be focused in the lecture.

1. Historical review on natural disasters.
2. Comparison of natural conditions and social circumstances among districts.
3. Complex disasters between earthquake and heavy rain, and volcanic eruption and heavy rain.
4. Evaluation of vulnerable conditions.
5. Microzonation for natural disasters.