Safe Built Environment I

Academic unit or major

Graduate major in Urban Design and Built Environment

Instructor(s)

Toshiaki Satoh / Kojiro Suzuki

Class Format

Lecture

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

7-8 Mon

Class

-

Course Code

UDE.S434

Number of credits

100

Course offered

2021

Offered quarter

1Q

Syllabus updated

Jul 10, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

After Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster, it has been recognized that the geo-spatial information is very important and should be highly utilized to realize safety and wealthy society. The Basic Act on the Advancement of Utilizing Geospatial Information (NSDI Act of Japan) was finally legalized in 2007. Then Geographic information systems and sciences (GIS) take an important role to utilize the geo-spatial information. So far, GIS has been used for administrative operation such as urban planning, fixed assets management, water and sewage management and so forth. Recently it has become more familiar to many people because of increase in use of many types of digital maps on the internet and car navigation systems. To highly utilize the GIS, we need technologies for describing geospatial data model, surveying for making maps, obtaining self-location, analyzing geo-spatial information and so forth. Therefore this course (1-4) will focus on learning whole of these technologies related to GIS from theory to application as state-of-the-art technologies.
And, this course (5-8) also focuses on disasters due to tsunami, storm surge and stormy waves. Countermeasures for these disasters are covered as well. At first, the characteristics of the disasters due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Sumatra Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Typhoon Isewan are introduced. Not only structural but also non-structural countermeasures considering the marine environment are discussed. A creation of the healthy and productive coastal zone including eelgrass bed, tidal flat and recreational area (for sea bathing and surfing) is also the topic of this course.

Course description and aims

At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand surveying technologies.
2) Understand technologies of spatial data.
3) Understand technologies of self-position detection.
4) Explain Geographic Information Systems and sciences(GIS)
5) Explain tsunami, storm surge and wind waves and these disasters.
6) Explain the concept of the healthy and productive coastal zone.

Keywords

photogrammetry, laser surveying, geographic information systems and sciences, spatial analysis, self-positioning technologies, tsunami, storm surge, wind wave, marine environment

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

At the beginning of each class, solutions to exercise problems that were assigned during the previous class are reviewed. Towards the end of class, students are given exercise problems related to the lecture given that day to solve.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

1-4: No required
5-8: No required. Explanation by the slide.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

No required

Evaluation methods and criteria

1-4: Exercise problem at each class (80%), final report (20%)
5-8: Students will be assessed on their understanding of each lectures(100%).

Related courses

• UDE.S432 ： Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment
• UDE.E402 ： GIS and Digital Image Processing for Built Environment
• UDE.S533 ： Earthquake Disaster Management
• UDE.S534 ： Remote Sensing for Disaster Management
• UDE.S435 ： Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Reduction

Prerequisites

No required in advance