= LEONG LI JING =
Natural Disaster
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth.
WEEK 2
Droughts Flood Landslide
Earthquake Tornadoes
Tsunami Typhoon
Disaster Resilience City Case Study - Japan
Japan has a notorious earthquake history. About 1,500 earthquakes strike the island nation every year. Minor tremors occur on a nearly daily basis. Deadly quakes are a tragic part of the nation's past.
Over the years, the Japanese government has enforced measures to make buildings more resistant to earthquakes in known disaster zones. Households in Japan have been ordered to keep a survival kit consisting of water and food to last a few days, a flashlight, a radio and a first aid kit; and are advised not to position heavy objects where they could easily fall during an earthquake and hamper their response or cause harm.
The crisis management of Japan greatly promoted since the government set up a GIS system and a general computer network. This system contains different subsystems to operate all disaster related functions from prevention before the disaster to damage evaluation after it. This warning system had a considerable role in Tohoku 2011 earthquake to reduce losses and save lives.
Earthquakes don't kill people. People's houses in the midst of earthquakes kill people. The vast majority of fatalities from earthquakes large or small come from buildings, or parts of buildings, falling on people.
The Earthquake-Proof Homes
Levitating House
That's the general idea developed by the Japanese company Air Danshin. The product of inventor Shoichi Sakamoto, the house sits, during more stable times, on a deflated air bag. When sensors feel a tremor, they switch on a compressor within a second. The compressor pumps air into an airbag, inflating it within a few more seconds, and ultimately lifting the entire house a good three centimeters off its supposedly earthquake-proof concrete foundation. There the structure will hover, its inhabitants able to casually go about their business, for the duration of the quake. Then the airbag deflates and the house gently settles back down.
The company built such a house on a "shake table" and equipped it with a few inhabitants, some furniture, and a couple of glasses of wine. When the mock tremors hit, in front of a rapt, hardhat-outfitted audience, the denizens hardly noticed, and not a drop of wine was spilled. The system will be added to new, otherwise typically built homes of an appropriate weight, and can be retrofitted to existing structures as well.