Shiro Watanabe

• Doctor of Engineering
• Senior Researcher at Building Research Institute, Japan

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between flood damage and methods of repairing detached houses. The authors examined what repair works for each building part and element were performed in 11 surveyed houses flooded above the floor level, based on the field survey in Hiroshima Pref., an area heavily affected by a flood event in 2018 which...

This paper aims to clarify the restoration of detached houses after flood events in terms of construction works and costs. We conducted field research in the six regions affected by the floods which included technical surveys asking the builders and the residents what restoration works they performed in 22 houses flooded above the floor. After conf...

In this study, the authors conducted research of the repairing cases of flooded detached houses, aiming to clarify the relationship between flood damage and repairing method that were carried out subsequently of flooded houses. The authors made technical interviews with a regional building contractor who repaired flooded detached houses in Mihara C...

Recent flood damages in urban areas have increased the need for urban planning and building measures to respond to inundation risks. In this article, in order to obtain suggestions for building and land use management based on inundation risks, floodproofing plans are examined for a two-story wooden detached house located in an urban area. Then, th...

Despite the increase in vacant houses in Japan, existing owner-occupied vacant houses are not sufficiently converted into rental housing due to homeowners’ anxieties in legal and economic matters. In this study, we explore cases of the housing projects introducing sublease partnerships of owner-occupied houses; the projects by the municipality as a...

Some municipalities carry out the housing projects where they rent vacant private houses from homeowners, renovate them and sublease to migrating people as a part of policies for promoting the migration. While families migrating into rural areas usually want to rent a house rather than purchase, private rental housing stock and realtors are usually...

Recently in Japan, a large number of emergency temporary housing (ETH) units have been supplied as great disasters occurred. In general, victims cannot use supplied ETH units for more than 2 years, as specified in the Disaster Relief Act. Nonetheless, some victims have used ETH for over 7 years, particularly after the Great East Japan earthquake (2...

Over two millions of public houses are managed by local governments in Japan, and more than half of the total stock requires updating and improvement because of their physical deterioration and mismatching of current housing standards. Actually, they increasingly implemented renovation projects for existing public houses with financial support from...

Kagurasakaue is a dense district of wooden houses where recently commercial use increased by renovating existing houses. It formulates a vital neighborhood maintaining the human scale appearing. The aim of this study is to clarify an agglomeration effect of renovation by analyzing area characteristics of building structure, use, and age. We found t...

FSB construction system was introduced to the damaged areas in Iwate Prefecture as a new building technology for wooden housing after the great East Japan earthquake. This case study clarifies how the new building technology was improved and established by design document surveys and hearing investigations. FSB construction system was adopted by lo...

After Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami 2011, with the view to compensate for the production capacity of prefabricated major manufacturers and contribute to economic rehabilitation, several builders located in affected prefectures undertook contracts to construct temporary houses. Based on detailed interviews with the 12 builders in Iwate Prefecture wh...

The greater earthquake occurred in Tohoku area, northern Japan, March 11, 2011, called Tohoku earthquake (March 11, 2011). This induced not only big quake over eastern Japan, but also gigantic tsunami attacking on the Pacific coast of Tohoku area, where it was caused considerable damages. Over the disaster area, we start various activities for rest...

After Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami 2011, local builders participated in building and supplying temporary houses although JPA (Japan Prefabricated Construction Suppliers and Manufacturers Association) had been responsible for supplying them for several decades. However local builders are considered to have less production capacity than major prefab...

In recent years more and more houses of the low- and middle-income group in Indonesia have reportedly been affected by earthquakes. These houses are mostly non-engineered because most of them are designed and constructed without the involvement of professional engineers or architects. Clarifying the construction process of these non-engineered hous...