2023 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 / Naoki Tsuruta
- Class Format
- Lecture (Livestream)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- UDE.S435
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2023
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 8, 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. Movies of the lectures can be viewed for one month after the lecture. 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 | Structural Assesment and Intervention Approaches for Historical Structure | Structural Assesment and Intervention Approaches for Historical Structure |
| Class 2 | Tsunami Disaster and Recent Countermeasures | Tsunami Disaster, Recent Countermeasures |
| Class 3 | Geothermal Heat Exchanger Systems and Energy Piles | Geothermal Heat Exchanger Systems, Energy Piles |
| Class 4 | Centrifuge Modeling on Geotechnical Earthquake Disasters | Centrifuge Modeling, Geotechnical Earthquake Disasters |
| Class 5 | Tailoring the ground motion models for comprehensive applications of seismic hazard analyses | ground motion models, seismic hazard analyses |
| Class 6 | Earthquake and Tsunami Damage Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Technology | Remote Sensing Technology, Earthquake and Tsunami Damage Monitoring |
| Class 7 | Seismic, Landslide, Volcanic Tsunamis, Modeling, Impact and Resilience | Seismic, Landslide, and Volcanic Tsunamis, Modeling |
| Class 8 | AI-informed seismic assessment and resilience evaluation | AI technology, seismic assessment, resilience evaluation |
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 or Polycom meeting. Four universities including TokyoTech will provide two lectures per university. The tentative schedule is on Oct. 6, 12, 20, 27, Nov. 10, 17, 24, and Dec. 1, 2023 (8 weeks). Oct. 27 and Dec. 1 are scheduled. The class will begin different time of regular schedule of TokyoTech. The contents and schedule will be changed because of arrangements among foreign universities, and detailed information will be informed through the T2SCHOLA.