2021 Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate major in Urban Design and Built Environment
Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Reduction
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Urban Design and Built Environment
- Instructor(s)
- Hitoshi Morikawa / Hiroaki Yamanaka
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- UDE.S435
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Damages from earthquakes and tsunamis have large impacts on society. The instructor explains damages caused by earthquakes and tsunamis, what mechanisms cause physical phenomena such as earthquakes and tsunamis, and what sort of behaviors structures affected by these hazards will exhibit. This is a long-distance course in which the lectures are shared globally through the internet. Through lectures from people involved with overseas earthquake disasters, students are expected to have specific images of the various forms of disasters.
Course description and aims
Students are expected to achieve the following in this course. 1) Understand the physics of earthquakes 2) Understand the physics of tsunamis 3) Understand the behavior of structures during earthquakes and think about what measures can be taken 4) Understand the behavior of the ground during earthquakes 5) Understand the relationship between ground structure and seismic motion, and be able to select an estimation method for ground structures appropriately adapted to the objectives.
Keywords
earthquake disaster, tsunami disaster, ground structure, land slide, liquefaction, dynamic response of structures
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
The remote lecture system is used to connect with overseas universities and share lectures. Lecture materials are distributed in advance. Lectures are video recorded and can be viewed at any time. If students don't understand anything, they can watch the video at a later day to review. Not only the teaching staffs of Tokyo Tech but also of overseas universities will give lectures.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Remoto Sensing Technology for Disaster Management | principle of remote sensing techniques, methods for disaster survey |
| Class 2 | Risk-based boundary curve development for soil liquefaction assessment | risk analysis, liquefaction |
| Class 3 | The 2020 Turkey earthquakes: Comparative Observations on Ground Motions, Damage and Resilience | The 2020 Turkey earthquakes, spacial distribution of ground motions and damage |
| Class 4 | Structure-Soil-Pile Interaction Concepts in Seismic Design Codes. | Structure-Soil-Pile Interaction, seismic design of structures |
| Class 5 | Tsunami Disaster and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake | physics of tsunami, examples of tsunami disaster |
| Class 6 | Mediterranean Tsunamis Since Antiquity and Resilient Cities | historical tsunami in Mediterranean Sea, resilient city |
| Class 7 | Cyclic Behaviour of Clays and Post-cyclic Recompression and Strength | clay, cyclic behavior, dynamic properties |
| Class 8 | Integrating LoRa and magnetic induction triggering to develop an internet of things system for monitoring underground pipeline joint leakage caused by large ground movements | IoT, curried pipe, joint, leakage, monitoring |
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)
No textbook is assigned.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Documents will be distributed, if necessary.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Homework will be assigned for each class. The achievement will be assessed through the homework.
Related courses
- UDE.S433 ： Introduction on Theory of Earthquake Ground Motion
- UDE.S432 ： Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment
- UDE.S434 ： Safe Built Environment I
- UDE.E402 ： GIS and Digital Image Processing for Built Environment
- UDE.S531 ： Microtremor Survey Techniques using Theory of Stochastic Process
Prerequisites
no requirements
Other
This course is international class among Turkey, Taiwan, and Japan using the Zoom meeting. Four universities including TokyoTech will provide two lectures per university. The class is scheduled on Oct. 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov. 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2021 (8 weeks). Oct. 1st is NO class, and Oct. 29 and Nov. 26 are scheduled. The class begins from 16:10 (NOT 16:15). The contents and schedule will be changed because of arrangements among foreign universities.