single-dr.php

JDR Vol.8 No.4 pp. 594-604
(2013)
doi: 10.20965/jdr.2013.p0594

Paper:

Damage in Ports due to the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami

Takashi Tomita*, Taro Arikawa*, and Tadashi Asai**

*Port and Airport Research Institute, 3-1-1 Nagase, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-0826, Japan

**National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, 3-1-1 Nagase, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-0826, Japan

Received:
March 4, 2013
Accepted:
July 26, 2013
Published:
August 1, 2013
Keywords:
tsunami damage, The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, breakwater, debris, resiliency
Abstract
The tsunami following the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake devastated ports in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan. Even Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku, which had experienced many tsunami disasters and prepared tsunami disaster mitigation measures, incurred great devastation because the tsunami was both higher than any historically recorded tsunamis and than any estimated tsunamis for disaster management. The tsunami-induced inundation destroyed many of wooden houses widely found in the area. Many ships and boats at sea were displaced by the tsunami, with some vessels colliding with others and port facilities such as cargo handling equipment and quay walls being damaged. Much debris was generated and disrupted rescue and restoration activities in the disaster aftermath. Port devastation caused stagnation in logistics and industrial operations, negatively impacting on residents’ lives and industrial activities in the disaster aftermath. There was a positive lesson that breakwaters and seawalls damaged by the tsunami reduced tsunami impacts behind them. Ports should be robust and resilient against possible tsunami hazards, considering measures for worst-case earthquake and tsunami scenarios.
Cite this article as:
T. Tomita, T. Arikawa, and T. Asai, “Damage in Ports due to the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.8 No.4, pp. 594-604, 2013.
Data files:
References
  1. [1] The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group, “Tohoku earthquake tsunami information,”
    http://www.coastal.jp /tsunami2011/ [accessed January 5, 2013]
  2. [2] H. Kawai, M. Satoh, K. Kawaguchi, and K. Seki, “The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake tsunami observed by the GPS Buoys, seabed wave gauges, and coastal tide gauges of NOWPHAS on the Japanese coast,” Proceedings of Twenty-second International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, 2012.
  3. [3] T. Takagawa and T. Tomita, “Effects of rupture processes in an inverse analysis on the tsunami source of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake,” Proceedings of the Twenty-second International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Vol.3, pp. 14-19, 2012.
  4. [4] T. Arikawa, M. Sato, K. Shimosako, T. Tomita, D. Tatsumi, G. S. Yeom, and K. Takahashi, “Investigation of the failure mechanism of Kamaishi breakwaters due to tsunami, Initial report focusing on hydraulic characteristics,” Technical Note of the Port and Airport Research Institute, No.1251, 2012 (in Japanese).
  5. [5] Committee for countermeasures to earthquakes and tsunamis in ports of Tohoku region, Material, No.3,
    http://www.pa.thr.mlit.go.jp/kakyoin/PDF/3shiryou.pdf [accessed January 10, 2013]
  6. [6] K. Kumagai, Y. Watanabe, N. Nagao, and M. Ayugai, “Field survey of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on shore protection facilities in ports,” Technical Note of National Institute for Land Infrastructure Management, No.658, 2011 (in Japanese).
  7. [7] T. Tomita, K. Honda, and T. Kakinuma, “Application of threedimensional tsunami simulator to estimation of tsunami behavior around structures,” Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Coastal Engineering, pp. 1677-1688, 2006.
  8. [8] Y. Fujii, K. Satake, S. Sakai, M. Shinohara, and T. Kanazawa, “Tsunami source of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake,” Earth Planets Space, Vol.63, pp. 815-820, 2011.
  9. [9] Committee for Technical Investigation on Countermeasures for Earthquakes and Tsunamis Based on the Lessons Learned from the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, “Report of the committee for technical investigation on countermeasures for earthquakes and tsunamis based on the lessons learned from the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake,”
    http://www.bousai.go.jp/kaigirep/chousakai/tohokukyokun/pdf/Report.pdf [accessed January 10, 2013]

*This site is desgined based on HTML5 and CSS3 for modern browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera.

Last updated on Apr. 19, 2024