Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) published its first issue in August, 2006. Since then, we have published six issues a year on a bimonthly basis. JDR is an academic journal aimed at bringing a broad, comprehensive discussion to the subject of disasters, and thus contributing to the field of disaster prevention and reduction.
Its comprehensive coverage harbors the risk of becoming unfocussed or fostering unsubstantiated conclusions. At JDR, we have dealt with this risk by making most issues special feature issues, and inviting specialists in the relevant fields as guest editors.
The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March, 2011, five years after our first issue was published. It was a Mw9.0 earthquake that occurred off the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region. The earthquake triggered a tsunami which produced huge casualties, amounting to over 18,000 dead or missing persons. The disaster was accompanied by a nuclear plant accident, an unprecedented event in mankind’s history. The catastrophic accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Company, resulted in core meltdown and the release of radioactive material.
At JDR, we considered it our responsibility to publish, apart from our regular issues, special issues on the Great East Japan Earthquake consisting of five yearly issues beginning with the first issue in 2012. This issue, Part 5, is the final issue. We would like to thank all of the authors who submitted articles for the five special issues, the reviewers, and many others who contributed. The special issues project on the Great East Japan Earthquake will be passed down to a special issue on the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes occurred on April, 2016 in Kumamoto, Japan.

Co-Editors:
Suminao Murakami (Editor-in-Chief; Representative, Laboratory of Urban Safety Planning, Japan)
Haruo Hayashi (Editor-in-Chief; President, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Japan)
Hideaki Karaki (President, Foundation of Food Safety and Security, Japan)

The 2011 Heisei tsunami far exceeded the level previously anticipated, resulting in devastating impacts in Japan. This event made it clear that preparation for tsunami hazards, based on past historical data alone, is inadequate. It is because tsunami hazards are characterized by a lack of historical data – due to the fact tsunamis are rare, high impact phenomena. Hence, it is important to populate a dataset with more data by including events that might have occurred outside the recorded historical timeframe, such as those inferred from geologic evidence. The dataset can also be expanded with “imaginary” experiments performed numerically using proper models. Unlike historical data that directly represent actual tsunami events as fact, geologic evidence (for example, sediment deposits) remains a conjecture for tsunami occurrences, and tsunami runup conditions evaluated using geologic data are uncertain. Theoretical approaches require making hypotheses, assumptions, and approximations. Numerical simulations require not only the accurate initial and boundary conditions but also adequate modeling techniques and computational capacity. Therefore, it is crucial to quantify the uncertainties involved in geologic, theoretical, and modeling approaches. Approximately 30 years ago, research on paleo-tsunamis based on geologic evidence was initiated and has been significantly advanced in the intervening years. During the same period, substantial advances in computational modeling used to predict tsunami propagation and runup processes were made. Understanding tsunami behavior, characteristics, and physics have resulted primarily from the well-organized international effort of field surveys initiated by the 1992 Nicaragua Tsunami event. Such rapidly advancing knowledge and technologies were unfortunately not sufficiently implemented in practice in a timely manner. Had this been the case, the disaster of the 2011 event would have been reduced, possibly avoiding the infamous nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. Having learned lessons from the 2011 Heisei Tsunami, Japan is now attempting to develop a robust tsunami-mitigation strategy that consists of two-tier criteria: Level 1 Tsunami for structure-based tsunami protection and Level 2 Tsunami for evacuation-based disaster reduction. Tsunami intensities of Levels 1 and 2 are determined by experts’ analysis and judgments. In the United States, a probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis is now widely adopted: for example, the latest ASCE-7 inundation maps are based on the hazard level of a 2,500-year return period. But again, due to the lack of data, the probabilistic analysis must rely mainly on imaginary experiments and experts’ judgments. The topic of this special issue focuses on the theme of uncertainty involved in tsunami hazard prediction. We review and examine uncertainties associated with tsunami simulations, near-shore effects, flow velocities, tsunami effects on buildings, coastal infrastructure, and sediment transport and deposits. Substantial uncertainty regarding tsunami hazards is likely the result of tsunami generation processes. This component, however, is not discussed here because it is closely related to the topic of probabilistic ‘seismic’ hazard analysis. This special issue is a compilation of seven papers addressing the current status of predictabilities, and will hopefully stimulate continual research that will lead to further improvements. Presenting numerically simulated examples, the paper by Lynett shows that the accurate prediction of tsunami-induced currents are much more difficult to achieve than the prediction of inundation depths. A small difference in an input parameter in the numerical model results in a very large difference in currents, especially the currents associated with the eddy formations. Keon, Yeh, Pancake and Steinberg demonstrate that significant temporal and spatial variations in tsunami effects are exhibited in the GIS-based IT tool called the Data Explorer. The Data Explorer provides the means to explore and extract pre-computed numerical time-series data at any grid point specified by the user. The concept is simple, but it has the unique ability to retrieve the data extremely quickly from massive datasets. This capability allows us to directly analyze the time-series data and to perform comprehensive sensitivity analysis. In order to generate realistic tsunami waveforms in the laboratory, Hiraishi describes a novel laboratory apparatus equipped with a hybrid wavemaker system capable of producing a combination of currents, a large heave of water, and waves. With the use of this apparatus, the tsunami waveform observed off Japan’s Kamaishi coast is modeled in the laboratory tank. To attempt to numerically simulate the local effects, Arikawa and Tominta present their hybrid numerical model, combining a depth-averaged 2D model and a fully 3D hydrodynamic model with the use of a multi-grid numerical scheme. This approach is crucial because tsunamis are multi-scale phenomena. A typical tsunami wavelength in deep water is on the order of several tens to hundreds of kilometers. When a tsunami approaches the shore, it may break, so refinement of the grid size is necessary, and three-dimensional flows become important when evaluating the local effects. Jaffe, Goto, Sugawara, Gelfenbaum, and LaSelle provide a comprehensive review of the models used to estimate tsunami sediment/boulder transport and deposits, thereby inferring the tsunami runup conditions (inundation depths and flow speeds) based on the tsunami deposits. They suggest that techniques for uncertainty quantification are crucial to advance the science of tsunami sediment transport modeling. Yeh and Sato analyze the failure mechanisms of buildings and coastal protective structures observed following the 2011 tsunami. Revealing the mechanisms, some engineering considerations to achieve resiliency are proposed to cope with the so-called “beyond-the-design-basis” tsunami hazards, in which its uncertainty is uncertain. Manawasekara, Mizutani, and Aoki investigate the effects of buildings’ openings and orientations on tsunami loading by performing laboratory experiments. This paper is complementary with the one by Yeh and Sato in demonstrating that the detailed changes in structure design could make a significant difference in tsunami loading on the buildings. We express our sincere appreciation to the authors for their contributions, and to the reviewers for their time-consuming efforts. We hope you find the papers in this special issue interesting and useful.

  Participants in the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan, March 14–18, 2015, discussed the successor framework of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) adopted at the 2005 Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction. These two frameworks were based on the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World adopted at the First World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction.
  According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 187 United Nations member states attended the WCDRR, together with over 6,500 participants and over 100 minister-level officials, including the heads of state of seven countries, prime ministers of five countries (including Japan), vice-presidential officials from six countries, and deputy prime ministers from seven countries. Related events included 150,000 attendees from Japan and abroad.
  The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) and the Sendai Declaration were adopted by consensus as the outcome documents.   One feature of the WCDRR was the large number of citizens taking part. These included governments, international organizations, NGOs, private-sectors groups and universities. They took part in 398 symposiums and seminars, plus over 200 exhibitions and other events.
  WCDRR discussions continued even after the conference, activating the Miyagi Roundtable for Disaster Risk Reduction, whose collaborators were from industry, government, academia, regular citizens, and the media. The Sendai Future Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction was held in March 2016, one year later. Information sharing and discussions on disaster risk reduction and reconstruction are now in progress.   The most remarkable aspect of the SFDRR as a WCDRR outcome document is the identification of seven global targets on disaster risk reduction. These targets were not included in either the Yokohama Strategy or the HFA. Two reasons why the target setting is significant are as follows:

1. Targets were determined considering the arguments on sustainable development goals. Although disasters have been major obstacles hampering economic growth, millennium development goals did not mention disaster risk reduction goals. Disaster risk reduction projects were thus not prioritized in many developing countries, where disaster risk is high. Disasters have continuously caused huge human and economic loss and required huge amounts of humanitarian assistance – an ongoing negative spiral.

2. Setting global targets are clearly different from the HFA. Voices from Japanese academia have suggested, for the first time, setting numerical targets in the HFA’s preparatory process. It was too early, however, to put it on the negotiation table because it lacked majority support. Western countries did not positively support the idea because it lacked a clear procedure for achieving such targets. It was reasonably pointed out that these targets could not be monitored without a yardstick, but member states reached the consensus to set seven targets at the SFDRR, although specific numbers were not clearly described. SFDRR targets were described as “substantial.” This “substantiality” has been negotiated continuously following the WCDRR.

  The member states meaningfully agreed to encourage investment in global disaster risk reduction and to demonstrate performance numerically, which is why target setting is considered the SFDRR’s core component.   Note that articles in this special issue are categorized and briefly introduced corresponding to SFDRR priorities for action (Table 1).
  Many of these articles deal with “educational” aspects. Priority 1 includes educational issues, and SFDRR target C mentions education. Educational matters are thus clearly one of the most important topics in the disaster risk reduction context. The SFDRR explicitly describes the ‘build back better’ concept, and two articles examine the concept (Iwasawa and Onoda, and Iuchi and Maly).
  This special issue also contains studies on the business continuity plan (BCP) relating to investment in disaster risk reduction (Maruya, Haraguchi et al.). An article contributed by Ito et al. states the need to develop disaster databases in order to evaluate achievements of targets.
  This issue contains articles on all of the SFDRR’s priorities for action, and issue contents are well-balanced in reviewing the SFDRR and better understanding WCDRR’s significance.
  The editors thank the reviewers for their hard work and incisive suggestions.

Table 1. SFDRR Priorities for Action and articles.

In the years that have passed since the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, many new findings, insights and suggestions have been made in disaster observation, sensing, simulation, and damage determination on the damage scene. Based on the lessons, challenges for disaster mitigation against future catastrophic natural disasters such as the anticipated Tokyo metropolitan and Nankai Trough earthquakes are made on how we will share visions of potential impact and how we will maximize society’s disaster resilience. Much of the “disaster big data” obtained is related to the dynamic flow of large populations, vehicles and goods inside and outside affected areas. This has dramatically facilitated our understanding of how society has responded to unprecedented catastrophes. The key question is how we will use big data in establishing social systems that respond promptly, sensibly and effectively to natural disasters how this understanding will affect adversity and resilience. Researchers from a wide variety of fields are now working together under the collaborative JST CREST project entitled “Establishing the most advanced disaster reduction management system by fusion of real-time disaster simulation and big data assimilation.” One objective of this project is to identify potential disaster scenarios related to earthquake and tsunami progress in a chained or compound manner and to create new techniques for responsive disaster mitigation measures enabling society to recover. This special issue on disaster and big data consists of 11 papers detailing the recent progress of this project. As an editor of this issue, I would like to express our deep gratitude for the insightful comments and suggestions made by the reviewers and the members of the editorial committee.

Underground spaces have been variously used. Excluding underground floors of individual buildings, underground space in Japan is mainly used for streets, railways, and parking. Stores are often grouped along underground passages to underground railways and parking near main urban terminals. An accidental underground gas explosion at Shizuoka Station in 1980 led to disaster prevention measures in such spaces, forcing stricter safety standards. Following this was the 1999 Hakata underground mall inundation by the Mikawa River, which has further broadened the attention to the underground space and its inundation risk. Inundation damages in underground malls and spaces had occurred repeatedly since then, however, we believe that the 2012 inundation damage to underground spaces in New York city caused by Hurricane Sandy triggered further reviews of disaster prevention measures against underground spaces in Japan. Recently, small inundation damages often occurred in underground malls in Japan. With our praying these would not be prior events for possible large disasters, we publish this special issue considering that publishing disaster prevention measures and researches for underground spaces is increasingly important worldwide. This special issue features inundation damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, Japan’s law systems on antiflood measures in underground spaces, antiflood measures of the subway in Tokyo Metropolitan Area, current situations of antiflood measures in underground spaces. We would like to express our sincere thanks to those who contributed reports and research papers to this issue.

Volcanic eruptions induce often widely dispersed, multimodal flows such as volcanic ash, pyroclastics, layers, and lava. Lahars triggered by heavy rain may extend far beyond ash deposits. Indonesia, which has 127 volcanoes along its archipelago, is at high risk for such disasters. The 2010 Merapi volcano eruption, for example, generated pyroclastic flows up to 17 km from the summit along the Gendol River, killing over 300 residents. The February 13, 2014, eruption of the Kelud volcano produced a gigantic ash plume over 17 km high, dispersing tehpra widely over Java Island. Ash falls and dispersion closed 7 airports and caused many flights to be cancelled.
Volcanoes in Japan have recently become active, with the 2014 phreatic eruption at the Ontake volcano leaving 63 hikers dead or missing. The eruption of the Kuchinoerabujima volcano on May 29, 2015, forced all island residents to be evacuated.
All of these events undeerscore how underedeveloped Japan’s early warning alert levels remain. The Sakurajima volcano, currently Japan’s most active, maintained high activity in the first half of 2015. Ash from Janaury 2015, for example, was moved down the volcano’s slopes by extremely heavy rain in June and July, accumulating as thick sediment near villages.
Regarding such situations of volcano countries, we will develop an integrated system to mitigate many kinds of disasters which are generated by volcanic eruptions and extended by rain fall and wind, based on scientific knowledge. We are developing an integrated warning system to be used by local and national governments to mitigate volcanic and sediment disasters. We are also creating measure against volcanic ash for airlines.
This special issue summarizes basic scientific knowledge and technology on the present warning system to be used in the integrated system for decision-making.

The grisk societyh has become a key 21^st century theme due to the economic expansionand population explosion spurred by science and technology development during the 20^th century. We must create societies resilient against risk to preserve well-being and continue sustainable development. Although the ideal would be to create a society free from disaster and crisis, resources are limited. To achieve a moreresilient society using these resources, we must become wise enough to identify the risks threatening society and clarify how we are to prepare against them. The traditional engineering approach is limited by its aim to reduce damage reductionas functional system of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability by focusing on mitigative action. We must instead add two factors – human activity and time dependency after a disaster – to make society more risk-resilient. The Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) seeks to create new social, public, and economic value by solving obvious problems in society. In promoting science and technology R&D for society, RISTEX supports the building of networks enabling researchers and stakeholders to cooperate in solving societal problems. Our initiatives use R&D employing knowledge in the field of the humanities and social sciences, combined with natural sciences and technologies. Based on these existing accumulated knowledge and skills, scientifically verifying issues and lessons learned from these disasters, RISTEX launched a new R&D focus area, entitled gCreating a Community-Based Robust and Resilient Society,h in 2012. This R&D focus is to develop disaster risk reduction systems making society robust and resilient in the face of large-scale disasters. Two crucial key words in this focus area are ”community” and “links.” Specifically, we must reexamine community frameworks to facilitate how diverse elements of society ? industry, academia, government, and citizens ? can be linked and activated in overcoming complex widespread disasters. Our R&D focus is grounded in the reality of urban and regional areas, and fosters mutual multilayered cooperation. In this issue, which mark the half-way point in the six-year RISTEX R&D focus program, we present 13 papers of reports on R&D studies selected by RISTEX in fiscal years 1 and 2, reviews appraising the academic significance of these reports, and studies that introduce new findings obtained through experimental studies. Seven papers resulted from four projects in the first year, three dealing with postdisaster reconstruction. The first, the Land Conservation and Resilience after Flooding Disaster project, deals with assisting in farmland restoration following heavy rainfall. Based on a detailed activity survey and geographical analysis, the report discusses significant roles played by community and incorporated non-profit organizations collaborating with groups outside affected areas. Of the two reports on the Redevelopment of Tsunami Impacted Coastal Regions, one analyzes the reconstruction planning process of a district completing its group relocation relatively early among communities in coastal regions devastated by the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. The other describes the computer reconstruction of village swept away by the tsunami, workshops conducted to improve reconstruction accuracy and the process by which community identity is strengthened by sharing common memories. Reports on the Disaster Mitigation Project of Traditional Buildings discuss current and future prospects for comprehensive disaster mitigation efforts in preservation districts based on a questionnaire focusing on the social capital in preservation districts for groups of traditional buildings. They also present results of action research aimed at community building based on connecting the historic townscape with people and organizations. The last first-year project deals with Computer-Assisted Structuring of Disaster Information. Related papers propose the design of a database schema for effectively processing disaster management information and use of natural-language processing to assist in this process. They also discuss issues related to the construction of an online information processing system for facilitating information coordination at disaster response headquarters that must process vast amounts of information in disaster response efforts. Six papers resulted from four projects among those selected in the second year. A paper on Resilient Metropolitan Areas Creation proposes multiscale community-based disaster mitigation planning preparing for a Nankai megathrust earthquake based on the need for a diverse region-wide discussion. They also report on workshops conducted based on this approach. One of two reports on Edutainment Disaster Relief Training proposes a sustainable training model based on scientific analysis of disaster medicine training ? the first such attempt in medical relief. It describes implementation of an actual drill. The other report points out the need to classify disaster medicine learners into several hierarchical levels and discusses elements necessary for developing training programs as medutainment based on a comprehensive review of domestic sources on educational approaches and disaster medicine. The report on Structuring an Autonomous Regional Disaster Prevention Community describes how safety measures adopted since the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake by fire companies suffering many casualties from the disaster are effective in regions at risk of disasters other than tsunamis such as landslides. The report the Life Recovery of Public Rented Temporary Housing Dwellers presents ethnography and interview survey results with residents of public rented temporary housing regarding elements of life recovery such the housing situation, income and livelihood. Many field specialists agree it is essential to integrate science and technology in promoting R&D helping reduce disaster risks while achieving a resilient society. We must now put this concept into practice to ensure that research results are implemented. In effective risk and crisis communication, we focus on key prerequisites of people and society. We also address social issues using accumulated knowledge and technologies in individual fields as a starting point and linking these to the launch of new social implementations for achieving a resilient society. We express our sincere thanks and appreciation to all of the authors and reviewers involved in this special issue for their invaluable contributions and support.

The basic policy of the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), as a multidisciplinary academicjournal, is to cover all types of disasters ? except for war ? through a broad comprehensive perspective. Since its inaugural issue in August 2006, the JDR has been published bimonthly,with six issues a year. 2015 marks the tenth year since the JDRfs first issue. Among the many events happening during this decade is the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster which was induced by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake.This event had two major features ? that the tsunami accompanying the earthquake caused the main damage and that it triggered a nuclear hazard accident at a nuclear power plant. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster was a unprecedented earthquake disaster called catastrophic hazard following two others ? the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake Disasterthat leveled Tokyo and the 1995 Hanshin Awaji Earthquake Disaster that destroyed parts of Osaka and Kobe. In view of this catastrophic hazardfs scale, the JDR decided to publish special annual issues on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster for five years since 2012 in addition to its regularissues. No publication fee was charged to contributors and support was asked from corporations. Papers on the special issues are published mainly online as an e-journal though printed editions are published for archival purposes. The current issue is the fourth of these special issues, and contributors have covered the 2011 disaster from many a wide range of perspectives. 21 papers were submitted and 8 papers are accepted for publication after peer review. The editors are confident that, like the previous three issues, this issue fully measure up to the quality that was expected for the special issue. I wish to express my gratitude to the contributors and reviewers and to thank corporations for their invaluable support.

Itfs a great pleasure and honor to publish the special issue on gFire and Disaster Prevention Technologiesh in the Journal of Disaster Research. All of its 7 papers have been peerreviewed. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the contributors and reviewers involved in producing these articles, especially to Dr. Masafumi Hosokawa, Chief, Planning for Community-Based Cooperation National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster, Fire and Disaster Management Agency Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for his great support. The Research and Development center of Fire and Environmental Safety (RDFES) was established in April 2008 as a research institute within the Faculty of Environmental Engineering, the University of Kitakyushu. The RDFES is the first academic institute in Japan to contribute to environmental engineering and firefighting technology for social safety, and focuses on the environmental researches to overcome the worldwide serious firefighting problem, for example huge forest fires, and consequently contributes to create the epoch-making products for the environmental conservation and the safety of citizens. RDFES has become well known among firefighting professionals for its development of an gEnvironmentally friendly soap-based firefighting agent,h as well as new equipment that maximizes the effectiveness of the agent. This is just one example of successful collaboration between RDFES, the Kitakyushu City Fire and Disaster Management Department, a local soap company, and major firefighting enterprises in Japan. Today, RDFES is entering a new research area involving local communities and governments, which aims tomitigate and minimize the risk of fire and natural disasters. Researchers are engaged not only in the development of hardware but also in the creation of an organized social movement that could ensure more effective use of the hardware. We hope that the collaboration among industry, academia, and government will be more useful and powerful towards solving serious problems on gfire and environmental safetyh through the mediation of this special issue. And reaching out to local communities reflects the centerfs position to always welcome new partners to join our important and exciting research activities.

An increase in natural hazards due to global warming has broadened the gap between natural hazards and disaster prevention. This gap has raised the possibility that unexpected major disasters occur. As chances of a natural hazard grow, appropriate and efficient adaptation is considered as a last resort for lessening disaster. In water-related disasters such as floods and debris flows, individual disaster sites have specific thresholds (limits). When a natural hazard exceeds this threshold, a serious disaster strikes us. On the contrary when it is under the limit, disaster damage is kept to be small. Flood disasters and landslides have the side of gall or nothing.h This is a characteristic of water-related disasters. Climate change is causing natural hazards to exceed this threshold easily. This makes resilient proactive adaptation very important in disaster prevention. Specific adaptation measures developed hereafter must cope with serious water and sediment disasters throughout mountainous regions, rivers, urban areas, and coastal areas that are assumed to be influenced by global warming. The Journal of Disaster Research has planned a special issue on the adaptation measures for disasters due to climate change. Having taken part in field surveys, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments and finding adaptation measures worth studying more deeply, I decided to contribute to this special issue as a Guest Editor. All of its 11 papers have been peer-reviewed. The broad topics covered range from floods, landslides, and storm surges to adaptation to the human being society. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the contributors and reviewers involved in producing these articles, especially to Dr. Hideo Oshikawa, Assistant Professor of the Department of Urban and Environment Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan, for his great support. I look forward with great anticipation to feedback from readers regarding these articles.

TIEMS – The International Emergency Society founded in 1993 – is a global forum for education, training, certification and policy in emergency and disaster management. TIEMS is dedicated to developing a safer world by bringing the benefits of modern emergency management tools, techniques and good industry practice. The Japan Chapter of TIEMS was established in 2011 when Japan members agreed on the great worth of the Society’s mission.

The Japan Chapter organized the Oct. 20-23, 2014, TIEMS Annual Conference in Niigata. Niigata was chosen because the year 2014 had a special meaning in the history of disasters in Japan. That is, the memorials of four major disasters had memorial anniversaries in that year – the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Niigata Earthquake, the 40th anniversary of the 1974 Niigata Yakeyama Volcano eruption, and the 10th anniversaries of the 2004 Niigata-Fukushima flood and Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake. The event brought over 1,000 domestic and international participants together to discuss risk management and resilience against disasters. The event also provided many opportunities for participants to share their scientific knowledge learn about the lessons from past experience of practitioners in the disaster management field and view the industry exhibition emerging to a wide variety of experience in disaster response.

With so many experts and practitioners willing to make presentations at the Conference, the JDR has brought together selected 17 papers and other output from them. My colleagues and I am honored to make these TIEMS 2014 achievements known to the broadest possible audience, and we are assured that this will create many fruitful outcomes for our reading audience.

This special issue of JDR features 18 papers and reports on an international 2010 to 2015 cooperative project entitled gEnhancement of Earthquake and Volcano Monitoring and Effective Utilization of Disaster Mitigation Information in the Philippines.h This project is being conducted under the SATREPS program (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development), cosponsored by the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). The Philippines is one of the worldfs most earthquake and volcano disaster-prone countries because it is located along the active boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate. Collisions by the two plates generate plate subductions and crustal stress that generates earthquakes and volcanic activities on the archipelago. The Philippines has experienced numerous disastrous earthquakes, the most recent being the 1990 M7.8 Luzon earthquake, which killed over 1,000 local residents. A damaging earthquake also occurred during this 5-year project, in October 2013, on Bohol Island, causing about 200 deaths when houses and other buildings collapsed. Volcanoes are another major killer in the Philippines. The largest in the last century was when the Taal volcano erupted in 1911, killing 1,300 by a base surge. The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption is known as the largest volcanic event in the 20^th century. The Mayon volcano is also known to be a beautiful but dangerous volcano that frequently erupts, causing lahars ? steaming moving fluid masses of volcanic debris and water ? that damaged villages at the foot of the mountain. The PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology), a governmental agency mandated to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes, provides earthquake and volcano information and alerts to the public. It also conducts research on the mechanisms behind such natural phenomena and on evaluating such hazards and risks. The PHIVOLCSfs other mission is educating people and society on being prepared for disasters. Earthquake and volcano bulletins and alerts, research output, and educational materials and training provided by PHIVOLCS have enriched knowledge and enhanced measures against disaster. The primary target of this SATREPS project is to enhance existing monitoring networks, whose equipment has been provided by Japanese ODA (Official Development Aid). Through the SATREPS project, we have introduced the latest technology to provide the public with more accurate information more quickly. This project also promotes research for deepening the understanding of earthquakes and volcano activities in better assessing hazard and risk. Project components, tasks, and main Japanese organizations are as follows: 1) Earthquake and tsunami monitoring, NIED 1-1) Advanced real-time earthquake source information, Nagoya University 1-2) Real-time seismic intensity network, NIED 1-3) Tsunami monitoring and forecasting, NIED, JMA 2) Evaluation of earthquake generation potential, Kyoto University 2-1) Campaign and continuous GPS observation, Kyoto University, GSI 2-2) Geological and geomorphological studies of earthquake faults, Kyoto University 3) Integrated real-time monitoring of the Taal and Mayon volcanoes, Nagoya University 3-1) Seismic and infrasonic observation, Nagoya University 3-2) Continuous GPS monitoring, Kyoto University 3-3) Electromagnetic monitoring, Tokai University 4) Provision of disaster mitigation information and promotion of utilization, NIED 4-1) Simple seismic diagnosis, NIED 4-2) Tsunami victims interview manga (comic book form) and DVD, NIED 4-3) Disaster information portal site, NIED *NIED: National Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention; JMA: Japan Meteorological Agency; GSI: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan This issuefs first article by Melosantos et al., reports on results of installing a broadband seismometer network to provide seismic data used in the next two articles. Papers by Bonita and Punongbayan detail the results of SWIFT, a new earthquake source analysis system that automatically determines the location, size, and source mechanisms of moderate to large earthquakes. The report by Inoue et al. describes the development of the first instrumental intensity network system in the Philippines, followed by a report on its deployment and observation by Lasala et al. The article by Igarashi et al. describes the development of a tsunami simulation database for a local tsunami warning system in the Philippines. The next five papers represent the 2) Earthquake Generation Potential project component. Ohkura et al. detail the results of campaign GPS observations on Mindanao Island, which first delineated the detailed plate movement and internal deformation of Mindanao. Tobita et al. report the results of the first continuous GPS observations across the Philippine Fault. The next three papers describe the results of geological and geomorphological studies of the Philippine Fault on Mindanao Island by Perez et al., the 1973 Ragay Gulf Earthquake by Tsutsumi, and submarine mapping of the Philippine Fault by Yasuda et al.. These results provide insights on the recurrence and sizes of large damaging earthquakes in different areas. An electromagnetic study of the Taal volcano reported by Alanis et al. and the GPS monitoring of the Mayon volcano detailed by Takagi et al. are a part of intensive studies of these two volcanoes. Scientific research results were published in advance in other international journals by the research group concerning 3) Integrated Real-Time Volcano Monitoring of the Taal and Mayon Volcanoes. Real-time information on these volcanoes are telemetered to Manila and checked regularly as a part of standard operational procedures. Real-time earthquake and tsunami information by 1) Earthquake and Tsunami Monitoring has already been implemented in the monitoring system. The last five papers and reports cover results for 4) Provision of Disaster Mitigation Information and Promotion of Utilization. Imai et al. report on a full-scale shaking table test of typical residential Philippines houses made of hollow concrete blocks. They demonstrate the importance of following building codes. A paper by Imai et al. introduces simple seismic diagnosis for masonry houses as a practical tool for raising peoplefs awareness of housing vulnerability to earthquakes. Salcedo et al. report a dissemination strategy for the practical tools. The last two papers, by Villegas, report on video interviews made with Philippino tsunami survivors in the Tohoku area following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The results are compiled and selected stories published in comic-book form as easy-to-understand educational materials on tsunami disaster awareness. Information on earthquakes and volcanoes provided by the enhanced monitoring system, research output, and educational materials obtained through the SATREPS project are provided to stakeholders to enhance measures against disasters at various levels and in different timeframes. Readers of this special issue can reference information through a newly established SATREPS project portal site, the PHIVOLCS Disaster Information Portal, at http://satreps.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/. It can also be accessed from the PHIVOLCS web page at http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/. Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to all authors and reviewers involved in this special issue.