Fumihiko Imamura

• Dr.Eng.
• Professor at Tohoku University

On 1 January 2024, devastating tsunamis caused by the Noto Peninsula earthquake hit coastal areas within several minutes, but only two tsunami casualties were officially reported. Despite its importance, the cause of this unexpectedly low human loss was unclear because of the limited access to the peninsula and the presence of many visitors during...

Seaports are vulnerable to extreme sea level events. Beyond physical damage, any port inoperability affects trade flows in and out of the affected port and disrupts shipping routes connected to it, which then propagates throughout the port network. Here, we propose an approach to assessing tsunami risk to ports and the global port network. We lever...

Earthquakes that cause extensive damage occur frequently in Japan, the most recent being the Noto Peninsula earthquake on January 1, 2024. To facilitate such a recovery, we introduce a community-based participatory research program implemented through cooperation between universities and local communities after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake....

An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.5 (Mw) struck the northern Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, at 16:10 local time on January 1, 2024. This earthquake triggered a tsunami that propagated along the coastline of Ishikawa, Toyama, and Niigata Prefectures facing the Sea of Japan and significantly damaged coastal communities and infra...

Numerical simulation of tsunami-induced sediment transport has been used for practical application that deals with understanding of whole phenomenon of sediment transport by the 3.11 tsunami, and projected earthquake along the Nankai Trough. However, challenges are remaining in developing a framework for logical assessment of the reliability of the...

A moment magnitude ( M w ) 7.5 earthquake occurred on January 1, 2024, at the northern tip of the Noto Peninsula, Central Japan, triggering a large tsunami. Seismological and geodetic observations revealed the rupture of mapped submarine active faults. While proximal segment ruptures have been well resolved by previous research, far offshore segmen...

Building a resilient society is key to preparing for disasters beyond the planned scale. To achieve this, it is necessary to create a clear common understanding of what “resilient” disaster management means and to consider concrete methods to accelerate its social implementation. However, few opportunities have occurred to have these discussions wi...

This study explored Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) networks in northeastern Toyama Prefecture, Japan, as a new data source for tsunami detection following the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake. We analyzed CCTV footage and extracted time-series water level fluctuations at Yokoyama, Shimoiino, and Ekko. Spectral analysis of these waveforms revealed s...

A moment magnitude (M w ) 7.5 earthquake occurred on January 1, 2024, at the northern tip of the Noto Peninsula, Central Japan, triggering a large tsunami. Seismological and geodetic observations revealed the rupture of mapped submarine active faults. While proximal segment ruptures were well resolved by existing researches, distal segments posed c...

On January 1, 2024, Japan was hit by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. While the victims are receiving assistance, Japan must also begin to recover from the disaster. To facilitate recovery from the Noto Peninsula earthquake, we introduce a community-based participatory research program, implemented in cooperation between universities and local commun...

The scientific evidence based on experiences with past disasters points to the possibility of the occurrence of future mental health issues among those who were affected by the recent Turkey-Syria earthquake. However, post-disaster care information on factors that could give rise to mental health issues among those affected have yet to be provided....

Although it is generally prohibited to use a car to evacuate from a tsunami, there were cases in which people were saved by evacuating by car during the Great East Japan Earthquake. Therefore, it is important to consider the safety of car evacuation. In this study, we investigated a method for predicting the damage situation when there is a car eva...

In some areas affected by the 2011 Tohoku Eartkquake, tsunami advisories and tsunami warning have been announced, such as the 2016 Fukushima-oki earthquake, the March 2021 Miyagi-oki earthquake, and the March 2022 Fukushima-oki earthquake. The authors have conducted a continuous questionnaire survey of coastal residents in Watari Town, Miyagi Prefe...

Damage to aquaculture facilities was observed in Yamada Bay by the Tonga volcanic tsunami in January 2022. Since there have been few cases of damage to aquaculture facilities caused by non-seismic tsunamis, it is important to clarify the factors that cause damage to aquaculture facilities in order to develop prevention of Tsunami . Therefore, numer...

This study proposes the use of Balloon-Type Evacuation Signs (BTES) to guide evacuees to Safety Evacuation Areas (SEA) in the event of a tsunami. An experiment was conducted in Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai City, to evaluate their visibility. The obtained results are as follows: 1) BTES has the potential to guide people to evacuate up to 1.5 km from SEA...

In order to reduce the damage caused by traffic congestion, we develop a tool that promotes evacuating on foot by considering in advance what each individual will do to overcome the disaster. In developing the simulator, we considered the characteristics of car evacuees clarified by the past research and the situation in Ishinomaki during the 2021...

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused damage to small oil tanks installed in oil depots and fishing ports that drifted and moved. These oil tanks were not designed against tsunamis, and immediate development of tsunami countermeasures is needed. The authors proposed a tsunami countermeasure method for small oil tanks using CFRP. In previous...

The large-scale tsunami fires observed in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake are expected to occur in future tsunami disasters, and the risk of death from fire is also a concern. Although studies have been conducted on the mechanism of tsunami fires and risk assessment, the relationship between tsunami fires and human casualties has not been clarified, and...

A prediction model for the eelgrass recovery after a tsunami was constructed using machine learning, as the model has not yet been established. Its usefulness in considering countermeasures was also investigated. The objective variable of the model is the rate of change in the eelgrass area relative to the area before a tsunami in each year from 1...

At the time of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, rescue activities were delayed due to obstruction by debris. In Japan, rapid search and rescue after a disaster is very important to mitigate human suffering and to reduce the number of unidentified victims. In this study, we focus on the number of days elapsed until the victims found in the ru...

The massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) volcano in Tonga on 15 January 2022 at 04:15 UTC had a global impact and triggered an atmospheric wave and a tsunami. We first analyzed observation data from meteorological stations and tide gauges at 12 locations. Low-frequency trends in the observation data were removed by using a high-...

In order to clarify the damage process of aquaculture facilities caused by the 2022 Tonga volcanic eruption and tsunami, we conducted a field survey to understand the actual damage in the Sanriku coastal area and simulated the drift of aquaculture facilities in Yamada Bay. The tsunami that hit Yamada Bay repeatedly pushed and pulled within the bay,...

Coastal boulders are often indicators of past extreme wave events. In fact, the coastal boulder distribution induced by infragravity‐dominated storm waves (energetic IG waves) may be similar to that induced by tsunamis; however, this assumption is yet to be investigated. We show that the factors responsible for generating energetic IG waves under s...

This study focuses on understanding the historical tsunami events in Eastern Indonesia, specifically the Banda Sea region, by extracting information from the limited and challenging-to-interpret historical records. The oldest detailed account of a tsunami in Indonesia dates back to 1674, documented in the book Waerachtigh Verhael Van de Schlickelij...

Introduction: Self-affirmation is known to buffer the development of anxiety symptoms into depressive symptoms, and a study during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a role for this self-affirmation. In Japan, the COVID-19 pandemic has occurred repeatedly, and at this point (November 16, 2022), prior to an eighth wave. The possibility...

Evacuation is a critical life-saving action, especially in devastating natural hazards such as near-field tsunamis. However, the development of effective evacuation measures remains challenging to the extent that a successful example has been referred to as a ‘miracle’. Here we show that urban structures have the potential to reinforce attitudes to...

After a natural disaster, it is important to maintain the health of the victims, but after the Turkey-Syria earthquake, this information has not yet been provided. Tohoku University has compiled information on maintaining health care after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 into a booklet, which is available to the public. The purpose of...

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami struck the northeastern coastal area of Japan on 11 March 2011, resulting in the relocation of 329,000 households and the repair of 572,000 houses. Previous studies predominantly addressed the impact of demographic factors on housing recovery. However, the types of housing recoveries and the impact of ind...

Tsunami resonance excitation induces tsunami amplification, persistent oscillation, and strong current velocities, which may enlarge coastal hazards in tsunamigenic areas. Historically, the 2006 Pingtung earthquake doublet triggered tsunamis that affected the south Taiwan coast. Studying the resonance features based on past tsunamis is important fo...

Consecutive ML 7.0 submarine earthquakes occurred offshore of the Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan, on 26 December 2006. A small tsunami was generated and recorded at tide gauge stations. This important event attracted public interest, as it was generated by an earthquake doublet and produced a tsunami risk for Taiwan. This study analyzed tide gauge tsun...

This study surveyed adult web monitor enrollees about the lives of and stress experienced by Japanese children and adolescents during the prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The survey was conducted on February 10, 2022 (after the sixth wave) and August 19, 2022 (during the seventh wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan), with 2...

In Mangokuura, Miyagi Prefecture, the distribution of eelgrass before and after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami had been investigated. The tsunami fragility functions for the eelgrass were developed by regression analysis on statistical models using the area reduction ratio of eelgrass and the tsunami forces. The calculated maximum flow velocity and topogr...

We investigated the effectiveness of traffic control optimization during tsunami evacuation by using a digital twin constructed by real-time traffic observation and simulation. A traffic survey by deep learning was conducted for the coastal area of Nagoya City, and a regional traffic simulation model was constructed from the acquired traffic data....

During the Great East Japan Earthquake, debris obstructed rescue activities, causing delays in rescue operations. In Japan, a huge earthquake and tsunami are expected to occur, and the early detection of victims is essential to mitigate human casualties. This study focuses on the tsunami debris from the Great East Japan Earthquake. It aims to clari...

A tsunami that struck Sulawesi Island in Indonesia in September 2018 caused enormous damage to the city of Palu. On the other hands, some historical tsunamis, which assumed to be caused by a submarine landslide were observed at tide gauges along Japanese coastal area as well (ex. Suruga Bay Earthquake in 2009). Therefore, the risk of tsunamis from...

This study assesses the movement behavior of people during the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on 11th March, 2011, in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures. The study is based on a governmental survey conducted after the earthquake and reveals the movement of the population according to the water depth. Here, we investigated whether t...

In order to clarify the difference in tsunami evacuation behavior in the same area, we analyzed the data from the questionnaire survey on evacuation behavior of Fukushima-oki earthquake that occurred in the early morning of November 22, 2016 and the Miyagi-oki earthquake that occurred in the evening of March 20, 2021. The results are as follows. 1)...

On January 15, 2022, a large-scale eruption occurred at the submarine volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai near the Tonga Islands, and sea-level changes were observed around the world. The sea level fluctuation is assumed to be caused by atmospheric-oceanic resonance due to the Lamb waves and atmospheric gravity waves associated with the eruption. How...

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 caused enormous damage in Japan, and various studies have been conducted on the actual damage and its reduction. One cause of death that has not received much attention in tsunami disasters is death from traumatic injuries (death due to injury) caused by bodily injury. In this study, the following r...

The global effect of COVID-19 is no longer simply a public health issue; it is causing an economic crisis that has a significant impact on the job market and people's lives. The disease has led to 43% of businesses temporarily closing, and almost all these closures are due to COVID-19. Organizations that have temporarily suspended their activities...

This study aims to examine people's perception of well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and quantitatively clarify key factors towards realizing evidence-based policymaking. In March 2022, 400 participants responded to a survey conducted through Rakuten Insight. The authors applied an ordinal logistic regression (OLR), followed by princi...

Historical data can determine how adolescents recover from difficult situations such as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study analysed 3 years of data obtained from high-school students who had been affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and consequently evidenced the importance of increasing resilience among affect...

On 15 January 2022 at 04:15 UTC, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) volcano in Tonga produced a massive eruption that triggered a transoceanic tsunami generated by the coupled ocean and atmospheric shock wave produced during the explosion. The tsunami first reached the coast of Tonga and eventually reached many coasts around the world. This volca...

Understanding the impacts of tsunamis, especially in terms of damage and losses, is important for disaster mitigation and management. This study aims to estimate the building damage and economic loss (direct and indirect) changes for two periods before and after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (IOT) on Patong Beach in Phuket Province, Thailand. We be...

In this study, the impact of hypothermia during tsunami disasters based on casualty data from Miyagi Prefecture during the Great East Japan Earthquake was analyzed. The spatial distribution of the locations in which the corpses of hypothermia victims were found and the effects of age group, location, environmental temperature, and tsunami exposure...

Numerical computations for boulder transport have become a state-of-the-art tool for hindcasting the hydraulic processes associated with past storm wave and tsunami events. Since most previously developed two-dimensional formulations cater to boulders with symmetric outlines, they can consequently reproduce the transport distance and the velocity o...

The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami is one of the costliest natural hazards to date. Losses were not only from physical damage alone. Indirect losses due to business interruptions and their consequential impacts on the rest of the economy and supply chain account for most losses. In this study, 12 companies across five indus...

Tsunamis can cause significant coastal erosion and harbor sedimentation that exacerbate the concomitant flood hazards and hamper recovery efforts. Coupling of the non-hydrostatic model NEOWAVE and the sediment transport model STM provides a tool to understand and predict these morphological changes. The non-hydrostatic model can describe flow field...

The tsunami caused by the Tonga submarine volcanic eruption that occurred at 13:15 Japan Time (JST) on January 15, 2022, exposed a blind spot in Japan’s tsunami monitoring and warning system, which was established in 1952 for local tsunamis and expanded to distant tsunamis after the 1960 Chile tsunami. This paper summarizes how the warning system r...

Consecutive Mw 7.0 and Mw 6.9 submarine earthquakes occurred offshore Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan on 26 December 2006. A small tsunami was generated, and recorded at tide gauge stations for the first time. This important event attracted public interest as it was generated by doublet sources and demonstrated tsunami risk in Taiwan. This study analyze...

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 situation, academic and disaster-related organizations have focused on the severity of COVID-19 and how to prevent the infection. The side effects of COVID-19 also created serious impacts on human lives from multiple perspectives. This study primarily aims to conduct a systematic review on the COVID-19 impacts fr...

Studies have indicated that submarine landslides played an important role in the 2018 Sulawesi tsunami event, damaging the coast of Palu Bay in addition to the earthquake source. Most of these studies relied on observed coastal subaerial landslides to reproduce tsunamis but could still not fully explain the observational data. Recently, several num...

No other infectious disease that has had a long-lasting impact on humanity in recent times has caused as much hardship as the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. While several cross-sectional surveys have reported the effects of the pandemic on daily life, there have been very few longitudinal reports from Japan. Therefore, we conducted web-based questi...

Existing empirical surveys have indicated that communications in social networks often play an important role in determining evacuation behaviours and can even greatly affect the evacuation trend in local communities. However, the dynamic mechanisms of how individual evacuation attitudes affect community-wide evacuation trends are still largely une...

This study conducted a questionnaire survey after the My-TimeLine seminar was conducted by a non-professional instructor to evaluate changes in knowledge and awareness of heavy rainfall and flood disasters and evacuation intentions compared to those of the professional instructor. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1) The My-TimeL...

This study conducted a questionnaire survey of local disaster prevention leaders after attending a MyTimeLine seminar to analyze the effectiveness of the My-TimeLine seminar in contributing to the development of My-TimeLine Leaders. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1) 50% (56 respondents) responded positively to the behavioral i...

Although many studies have investigated relationships between tsunami characteristics and the impact on physical property and infrastructure, such information cannot explain how the damage to each object or type of infrastructure can trigger failures of other facilities. To understand these connections and the cascading impacts, this article review...

In recent years, the risk of natural disasters is expected to increase due to climate change. However, the impact of sea level rise on tsunami damage and related economic loss is not clear. Therefore, this study made an attempt in evaluating future tsunami damage in Tohoku region as an example. Future earthquake along Japan Trench is selected as ts...

Self-aid and mutual assistance among victims are critical for resolving difficulties in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, but individual facilitative factors for such resolution processes are poorly understood. To identify such individual factors in the background (i.e., disaster damage and demographic) and personality domains considering diff...

Both Sendai City in Japan and Seattle-King County (hereafter referred to as “Seattle”) in Washington State in the United States are in seismically active areas with high earthquake risks. An Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system has been publicly available in Japan since 2007. The ShakeAlert system on the U.S. West Coast is still being developed an...

Introduction: Adolescents affected by disasters need mental health support because they tend to be at risk of developing psychiatric disorders and stress as grown-ups. However, it is difficult to develop and validate a support system for adolescents affected by disasters because it is unknown when and where disasters occur, and there is inadequate...

Thailand was among the countries that suffered losses and damage as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. Ten years have passed since the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. The various lessons learned and research on the 2011 disaster in Japan have reached Thailand. This can be seen in the numerous interactive activities as...

Indonesia has experienced several tsunamis triggered by seismic and non-seismic (i.e., landslides) sources. These events damaged or destroyed coastal buildings and infrastructure and caused considerable loss of life. Based on the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) guidelines, this study assesses the empirical tsunami fragility to the buildings inventory...

Tsunami and storm deposits can be utilized for estimating inundation zones and recurrence intervals of extreme waves in modern, historic, and prehistoric times. However, the distribution of these deposits is extremely complex and affected by various factors such as the size of the waves, topography, bathymetry, and the supply of sediment and its pr...

Studies have indicated that submarine landslides played an important role in the 2018 Sulawesi tsunami event, damaging the coast of Palu Bay in addition to the earthquake source. Most of these studies relied on visible landslides to reproduce tsunamis but could still not fully explain the observational data. Recently, several numerical models inclu...

On September 28 2018, an Mw 7.5 strike-slip earthquake occurred to the north of Palu Bay on the Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. This triggered a destructive tsunami within the bay, which reached Palu city. Simulation have been conducted to investigate the landslide source. However, the tsunami should be investigated considering a physical model in the...

Researchers believe that the impact of repeated trauma on mental health is incrementally more significant than the simple additive effect of one event. This study questioned whether this repetition only further worsens people's mental health. We found that they may report more positive changes than those who haven’t. Thus, we hypothesized that repe...

Rapid and accurate hazard forecasting is important for prompt evacuations and reducing casualties during natural disasters. In the decade since the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, various tsunami forecasting methods using real-time data have been proposed. However, rapid and accurate tsunami inundation forecasting in coastal areas remains challenging. Here, w...

A questionnaire survey was distributed via the Internet to 600 respondents. Preliminary results revealed that most Japanese people regularly washed their hands and had low resistance to wearing masks even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Internet news was the most common source of information. Half of the respondents said they would “stay at home evac...

Compared to evacuation behaviours, behaviours preceding evacuation including milling during tsunamis remain unclear. This study developed an analysis approach that evaluates the similarities in behaviour sequences throughout the evacuation process and investigated both the preceding behaviours and evacuation behaviours in Ishinomaki during the 2011...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing disruptions in the global social system. Japanese children and adolescents have had their schools closed, government-mandated activity restrictions imposed, and interactions outside the home reduced. These restrictions can have a considerable psychological impact on children and adolescents. This revie...

When considering a tsunami disaster, many researchers have considered the tsunami’s flow depth and velocity as the primary contributors to the building damage. Additionally, the majority of these studies have used the maximum value as the measure of each of these two factors. However, building damage may not occur when the maximum flow depth and th...

A probabilistic hazard analysis of a tsunami generated by a subaqueous volcanic explosion was performed for Taal Lake in the Philippines. The Taal volcano at Taal Lake is an active volcano on Luzon Island in the Philippines, and its eruption would potentially generate tsunamis in the lake. This study aimed to analyze a probabilistic tsunami hazard...

The influence of the storytelling of disaster response experiences at a disaster-stricken local government on listeners (receivers) has not always been well evaluated and analyzed. In this paper, a project to listen to the storytelling of disaster response experiences at the Miyagi Prefectural Office, which suffered from the Great East Japan Earthq...

On December 22, 2018, a destructive tsunami related to the phenomena caused by the volcanic eruption of Gunung Anak Krakatau (GAK) was generated following a partial collapse of the volcano that caused serious damage and killed more than 400 people. This recent event challenged the traditional understanding of tsunami hazard, warning and response me...

In this study, in order to apply the victim information of the Great East Japan Earthquake provided by the Miyagi Prefectural Police Headquarters to the human casualty function, the relationship between the inundation depth and the ratio of drowning victims based on the victim’s address and the corpse location was examined at the central part of Is...

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 caused enormous damage in Japan, and various studies have been conducted on the actual damage and its reduction. Hypothermia in cold weather disaster is discussed as a new issue to be considered in tsunami disaster. In this study, the hypothermia based on the location of the bodies in the zip code a...

Tsunami source estimation is important for low-frequency giant tsunami risk assessment in the field of paleo-tsunami. There are many attempts in reconstructing inland inundation conditions using the layer thickness, grain size distribution and distribution of tsunami deposits as constraints so as to estimate the tsunami sources that satisfy the rec...

This paper presents the results of an assessment of the My-TimeLine seminar to a voluntary disaster prevention organization and a flood defense party on their knowledge and thoughts and their evacuation behavior intentions about flood by a questionnaire survey. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1) Making My-TimeLine significantly...

On 22 December 2018, a volcanic eruption occurred at Anak Krakatau, Sunda Strait, Indonesia, which induced a tsunami. At the coastal area in the Sunda Strait, the destructive tsunami destroyed many structures and killed more than 400 people approximately 30 to 40 min after the eruption. In this event, it has been reported that many residents start...