Professor Takuji Kobori & His Intuitive Understanding of Seismic Risk Management

Abstract eng:
Prof.Takuji Kobori's interests for earthquake risk management covered the whole spectrum from structural design, to construction, to operation and to lifetime safety. He was one of those rare engineers who showed great understanding and an ability to implement hard and soft parts of how risk is managed. He provided great leadership in Japan as well as globally by showing that risk can be managed by good design, innovative ideas like active and passive controls, economic and health monitoring strategies and by providing incentives to all by showing the financial advantages of low risk structures over their lifetime. He and Kajima Corporation sponsored a research project in CUREE/Kajima phase IV titled, "Impact of Seismic Risk on Lifetime Property Values". He had this intuitive knowledge that safe structures over their lifetime are also financially more attractive for the owner and for the user. Seismic risk management for individual structures as well as for the whole communities was one of his interests. He sponsored a project titled, "Development of Disaster Prevention Community Models". These and other ideas of Prof. Kobori clearly showed how soft and hard strategies can be combined to achieve a safe and sustainable living environment. This paper will discuss risk management strategies pursued by Prof. Kobori from technical, economic, policy, and social perspectives.

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