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SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko

Risk Assessment and design of Prevention Structures fOr enhanced tsunami DIsaster resilience

Awarded: NOK 1.2 mill.

The 2011 Tohoku tsunami showed the potential for massive destruction of buildings, infrastructure, and coastal protection by tsunamis. Moreover, a huge amount of data was collected during and after the event, allowing a retrospective analysis. The CONCERT-Japan RAPSODI (Risk Assessment and design of Prevention Structures fOr enhanced tsunami DIsaster resilience) project (http://www.ngi.no/en/Project-pages/RAPSODI/) is a project coordinated by NGI (Norway) with the partnership of PARI (Japan), TU Braunschweig (Germany), and METU (Turkey) aiming to use these data to develop a framework for quantitative tsunami risk analysis and to design tsunami mitigation structures to improve resilience against tsunami impacts. To achieve the objectives of the project, coastal structures and mitigation strategies against tsunamis in Europe and Japan were compared. A matrix presenting different failure mechanisms of coastal protection structures exposed to tsunamis was produced based on field data and experiments by various research groups. This matrix also presents the knowledge gaps on failure modes of different structures under different tsunami loading conditions and is believed to be the first of its kind for tsunami damage on coastal structures. The project further focused on analysis of loads on structures, post-tsunami field surveys of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, and numerical modelling of tsunamis in harbours and shallow waters. For the tsunami mortality risk analysis, high-resolution digital elevation data were applied for the inundation modelling. The hazard was represented by the maximum tsunami flow depth (with a corresponding likelihood), the exposure was described by the location of the population at a given time, and the mortality was a function of flow depth and building vulnerability. A thorough search for available and appropriate data on the 2011 Tohoku tsunami was carried out. The results of the mortality hindcast for the 2011 Tohoku tsunami substantiate that the tsunami mortality risk model can help to identify high-mortality risk areas, and to identify the main risk drivers. The results of the tsunami wave-flume laboratory experiments were used to assess structure resilience against tsunami impact and to establish guidelines for tsunami-safe structures. The RAPSODI project will establish the partners as a stronger consortium for future joint Euro-Japan research. A strong focus has been put on cooperation between the partners, networking and exchange of knowledge by small-scale joint scientific events, publication of journal papers, dissemination for end-users (both researchers and practitioners), and utilization of complementary expertise between Japan and the European partners. RAPSODI has been presented at international symposiums and assemblies of other projects, at the November 2014 final joint workshop for the five CONCERT-Japan Disaster Resilience projects in Tokyo, and will also be presented at the 2015 AGU Fall meeting (abstract submitted). A RAPSODI field trip to the fjords in western Norway exposed to rockslide tsunamis was arranged in September 2014.

RAPSODI Risk Assessment and design of Prevention Structures fOr enhanced tsunami DIsaster resilience The overall aims of the project are to develop a framework for quantitative tsunami risk assessment and to design tsunami mitigation structures to impro ve resilience against tsunami impacts. The project focuses on the quantitative assessment of vulnerability and on the analysis of loads on structures. Laboratory studies of tsunami impacts on buildings, structures, and coastal protection for various found ations and design will be performed in order to establish a matrix for various types of structures and buildings with their potential failure modes. Numerical tsunami models will be applied to analyze current velocities and fluxes around structures and in complex topographies, and further to assist in design of prevention structures and in quantitative risk assessment. The Tohoku tsunami 2011 event clearly showed the potential for massive destruction of buildings, infrastructure, and coastal protection b y tsunami waves. A huge amount of data has been collected during and after the event, allowing a retrospective analysis. The project will include a thorough investigation of the vulnerability criteria as well as failure mechanisms of buildings and coastal protection structures in order to improve infrastructure, coastal protection, and the overall preparedness of coastal communities exposed to tsunamis. Field data and the experience gained from the 2011 event will be used for understanding the performance of selected coastal structures, for the validation of models, and for evaluating the functionality of the deliverables of the project. A strong focus is put on cooperation between the four partners NGI (Norway), PARI (Japan), TU Braunschweig (Germany) and METU (Turkey), networking and exchange of knowledge by small scale joint scientific events, dissemination of scientific results, and utilization of complementary expertise between Japan and the European partners. The project will establish the partner s as a stronger consortium for future joint Euro-Japan research.

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SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko