IDNDR SPECIAL PROJECT
C-1:Prediction of Strong Earthquake Ground Motions,
Earthquake Disaster Prediction and Mitigation
Urban Planning Against Strong Earthquake
The Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake hitted not Only the building structures and infra structures but the investigators and administrators all over the world, who came to Kobe to know the facts occurred in Hanshin area. Mr. Li Guopan, Senior Engineer of the Ministry of Construction of People's Republic of China and his colleagues visited our Institute in August, 1995. Profs. Y. Kawata and T. Fujiwara explained the earthquake, the damages done by this earthquake and the method of rehabilitation and reconstruction after the earthquake.
They compared the earthquake disaster in Tangshan area hitted in China, with the disaster in Hanshin area, discussed the method of prevention and mitigation of the earthquake damages and agreed the importance of cooperative research of those problems in China and Japan.
Last year, Prof. Y. Suzuki met Prof. J.P. Ou, Harbin University of Architecture and Engineering and discussed on the active control systems and reliability-based design of building structures, Next January, Prof. B. Wu, Harbin University of Architecture. and Engineering will visit our Institute for joint research on reliability-based design and urban planning against strong earthquakes by the fund of International Scientific Research Program: Joint Research between Japan and China. Fruitful discussions on the control systems as well as the mitigation of earthquake damages will be expected.
Seismic Risk Assessment of Urban Region
To discuss the annual plan for the joint research on "Seismic risk assessment in an urban area on soft soil sediments", three researchers of the Seismological Bureau of Yunnan Province, Prof. Yan Fengtong (Deputy Director of YSB),Associate Prof. Jiang Lequn and Associate Prof. Huang-fu Gang visited DPRl from November 7 to 12. Although their visit had been originally scheduled in July, it had been put off until this November, because of the serious disaster in Yunnan Province caused by the July 12 China-Myanmar Border Earthquake of M7.3.During the earthquake 11 persons were killed and 136 persons were injured by the collapse of 127,840 houses. Compared with the number of collapsed houses, human loss was very small. This is because YSB was successful in the imminent prediction of the earthquake, and the warning statement was effectively functioned. Prof. Yan made a lecture in the Geophysical Institute of Kyoto University, on the geological and tectonic setting of Yunnan Province, the nature of the earthquakes in the area, the method of earthquake prediction, and how to mitigate earthquake disaster, They visited Kobe city to observe the effects of the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster and the state of reconstruction. Various important information was exchanged between YSB and DPRI, concerning above two great earthquake disasters, and effective way of the joint research was discussed on the basis of the common knowledge. As a result, it Was planned that Japanese researchers would visit Kunming and Dali next March.
