Technologies for Disaster Management: Case Studies in the Past Tsunami in Japan

In the history of human beings, natural hazards have caused significant impacts on our lives. Continuous occurrences of historical tsunamis washed away a lot of human lives and social infrastructure. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami killed more than ten thousand of people and destroyed the basic infrastructure of the tsunami exposed areas. After the tragic damage of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, in Japan, a lot of efforts have been made by the public sector, private sector, and Non-Profit Organizations to reduce the human loss of the future catastrophic tsunami disasters. To reduce the human loss in the future tsunami disasters, prevention of hypothermia is an important issue. In fact, the tsunami exposed people were suffered from the risks of hypothermia due to the prolonged immersion in low temperature seawater and low temperature air conditions. To reduce hypothermia cases in the future tsunami disasters, the immediate search and rescue services for the tsunami exposed people are crucial. In this respect, application of the location data from the mobile phones of the tsunami exposed people are the possible solutions. In addition, to collect the location data from the mobile phones during tsunami, widespread uses of the personal floatation devices are expected for the people living in the tsunami hazards areas as self-help efforts. Therefore, this chapter discusses the application of mobile phone location data (people flow data) in emergencies as public assistance and the effectiveness of personal floatation devices as self-help efforts by the people in the tsunami hazard areas. Finally, this chapter pointed out the importance of self-help by local residents and cooperation of disaster relief service providers in order to utilize new technologies in the future tsunami response.