Thank you for visiting the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EDM) of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). This center was created by the Government of Japan for "Frontier Research on Earthquake Disaster Mitigation for Urban Regions".
The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake of January 1995 dramatically unveiled the huge seismic vulnerability of Japan’s urban regions. Since then, the country has strengthened buildings and public works, and has developed a variety of systems for prevention and emergency response like urban search and rescue, recovery, reconstruction and preparedness arrangements. Recently, the importance of Japan in post-disaster aid services overseas is being increasingly recognized.
The EDM was born in January 1998 in response to the Kobe disaster under the framework of the “Strategic Research Program/Frontier Research System” at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. The EDM was originally located in the city of Miki, which is northwest of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. In April 2001, the EDM was transferred to the NIED and was moved in 2003 from Miki City to the Eastern New Downtown of Kobe, where the Hyogo Prefecture had prepared buildings and invited internationally-working, disaster related public organizations. The EDM has sought opportunities to cooperate with these other organizations. In 2006, a new five year mid-term research plan was implemented. This plan has three research goals: 1) to enhance the safety and resiliency of the medical system, 2) to develop IT-based tools for disaster mitigation, and 3) to build an international disaster-related knowledge dissemination system.
| 1. | Current medical systems are increasingly sophisticated and are consequently becoming more vulnerable to earthquakes. A solution to this problem requires every element like human factors, buildings, utilities, equipments, information systems, and management practices to be examined. Another issue is logistics, which provide prompt delivery of disaster medical services: dispatch of medical staffs; transportation of victims and mass quantities of medicine and equipment; concerted cooperation of local governments, police, fire department, military, commercial and other private contributions. |
| 2. | Japan’s rapidly aging society along with a deeply declining birth rate is feared to hinder its disaster resiliency. But, at the same time, numerous disaster mitigation resources have been developed since the Kobe disaster. Local governments are primarily responsible for navigating this situation. In order to help them grow this capacity, we have provided high performance spatial temporal GIS software, which we created amid the Kobe’s post-disaster struggle. We support local governments to help them master the system, to improve their daily business, to reduce cost, to ensure that the system works in times of disasters, to enhance the capacity of officials, and to create new services for disaster susceptible cohorts. |
| 3. | The EDM has long practiced government-sponsored multinational research collaboration programs for disaster reduction. The outcomes of these programs were submitted to United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction, which held in Kobe in 2005, under the name of “Implementation Strategies for Application of Research and Development on Disaster Reduction”. These strategies were endorsed in a resolution, Hyogo Framework for Action. The EDM has been implementing this resolution by devising a brand-new, international knowledge sharing mechanism about disaster reduction practices. |
Fighting disasters and protecting lives and wealth require a multidisciplinary collaboration. The EDM has a flexible hiring mechanism and its members represent a wide range of disciplines. Your participation is heartily welcome.
1. Coordinated promotion of advanced research
Research programs of the EDM are promoted by three research teams. These programs are coordinated in such a way that the research results can be mutually utilized.
2. Flexible organization with multi-disciplinary collaboration
The EDM promotes the research collaboration of various fields, such as earthquake engineering, seismology, social science, and information technology by its flexible organization. Joint and cooperative research programs are carried out with outside organizations in order to cope with advanced and inter-disciplinary research topics.
3. Fundamental research with practical application
The research topics of the EDM are selected with a view to bridging the gap between fundamental research by universities and practice-oriented research by disaster management agencies.
4. Contribution to society
The research results of the EDM are disseminated in Japan and overseas through various media, including the Internet, symposia, and research reports promoting earthquake disaster mitigation research.
5. International research collaboration
The EDM aims to become the foremost center for earthquake disaster mitigation research in the Asia-Pacific region by exchanging information and personnel with domestic and overseas organizations.
6. Research evaluation by external experts
The research activities and plans of the EDM will be evaluated by external experts at regular intervals. These results will be utilized when making future research plans.
| 1995. 01 | Occurrence of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster | |
| 1996. 03 | The inquiry No.24 “On the ideal way of effective preparation of earthquake disaster mitigation research Bases” was done to Council for Aeronautics, Electronics and other Advanced Technologies (CAEAT) of Science and Technology Agency (STA), and Subcommittee of Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Bases (Chief: Professor Tsuneo Okada, Shibaura Institute of Technology) was established in CAEAT. | |
| 1996 (during the fiscal year) | The plan on the establishment of Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Program was discussed between CAEAT and the Institute of Physical and Chemical research (RIKEN), as a part of “Earthquake Frontier Research Program”. | |
| 1997. 03 | National budget approved including “Earthquake Disaster Mitigation research” under the mechanism of the Strategic Research Program at RIKEN. | |
| 1997. 09 | The Section Meeting made the report based on the result of the discussion about research subject, measurement, and system between 1996 to 1997, to the Ministry of STA at CAEAT. | |
| 1998. 01 | Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center (EDM), RIKEN was established in Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture on January 27th. | |
| 2001. 04 | Independent Administrative Institution, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) established, and EDM-RIKEN transferred to EDM-NIED due to the change of the jurisdiction over EDM from RIKEN to NIED. | |
| 2002. 10 | EDM Kawasaki Laboratory (EDM-KAWASAKI Lab) was established in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa prefecture. | |
| 2003. 04 | The office is transferred to Human Renovation Museum of Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture) on April 21th. | |
| 2006. 04 | Research organization was reorganized to “Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center, Disaster Prevention System Research Center, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (EDM-NIED)”. | |
| 2007. 03 | Kawasaki Laboratory was closed due to the termination of the project. |
Our institution was founded in 1963 as the National Research Center for Disaster Prevention. The movement of its activities to the Tsukuba-Science City in Ibaraki Prefecture began in 1970. This move was completed in 1978. In 1990 the name was changed to the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, and finally in 2001 it became as “Independent Administrative Institution”. This agency now engages in research aimed at protecting people from disasters and continuing to use the lessons of disasters to build societies with a high level of disaster preparedness and mitigation capability.
