Tsunami Safety Evaluation of Public Buildings in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Abstract eng:
On March 11th, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake (Tohoku Earthquake) with a magnitude of 9.0 triggered massive tsunamis and caused the catastrophic disaster in the Tohoku region and other areas along the Pacific coast in Japan. Consequently, a numerous number of buildings and structures collapsed, tumbled or slid, which took away over 15,000 lives as well as communities in a moment. Following the event, post-earthquake national efforts have been made for upgrading the technical standards and design guidelines for the safety evaluation of tsunami evacuation buildings (structures for evacuation from tsunami attacks). Also, from the year 2012 to 2014, Shizuoka Prefecture conducted the tsunami safety evaluation of 43 coastal public buildings against tsunamis caused by a major earthquake that is expected to occur along the Nankai Trough in the future. Based on the results of this evaluation, it was found that the safety capacity would deteriorate rapidly if the estimated water height increases even by a little, even for buildings judged to be safe for the estimated water height of tsunami. Considering the importance of the facilities as places to protect many lives after the occurrence of a large-scale earthquake, it is necessary that sufficient allowance is ensured for tsunami evacuation buildings compared to the estimated tsunami force, and it is extremely important to thoroughly notify the residents in the area (evacuees), people in charge in administration, supervisors of the buildings the allowance for the estimated water height by indicating the limit water height that the building is capable of enduring. This report shows the results of tsunami resistance safety evaluation of 43 public buildings in Shizuoka prefecture, a proposal on retrofitting in case the performance against tsunami is insufficient, and a suggestion of calculation of limit water height of the buildings.

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