Lectures

Summer semester 2008 EALAI / ASNET
“Asia's natural disasters and the ways human deal with them"

Schedule

April 14, 2008 (Monday): KATO Teruyuki (Earthquake Research Institute): Outline: Characteristics of natural disasters in Asia and outline of the lecture

April 21, 2008 (Monday): TSUKUDA Tameshige (Earthquake Research Institute): The mechanisms of earthquakes and earthquakes in Asia

April 28, 2008 (Monday): KABEYASAWA Toshimi (Earthquake Research Institute): Damage to buildings caused by earthquakes in Asia and earthquake-resistant construction

May 12, 2008 (Monday):. TSUJI Yoshinobu (Earthquake Research Institute): Tsunami-generating mechanisms and the Asian tsunami

May 19, 2008 (Monday): NAKADA Setsuya (Earthquake Research Institute): The mechanisms of volcanic eruption and volcanoes in Asia

May 26, 2008 (Monday): HARUYAMA Shigeko (Mie University): Floods and agriculture

June 2, 2008 (Monday): KANAE Shinjiro (Institute of Industrial Science): Global warming and floods

June 9, 2008 (Monday): SEKIYA Naoya (Toyo University): Disaster psychology

June 16, 2008 (Monday): TAKANO Kiyoshi (Informatics): Disasters and Information

June 23, 2008 (Monday): NISHI Yoshimi (School of Arts and Sciences): Social issues related to Indonesia's earthquake and tsunami

June 30, 2008 (Monday): NAKANISHI Hisae (Nagoya University): Disasters and gender issues

July 7 2008 (Monday): SUZUKI Koji (ADRC): Natural disasters in Asia and international contributions

July 14, 2008 (Monday): SHIRAHAMA Tatsuoki (NPO International Emergency Medicine and Health Support) Natural disasters and health care

Lecture summary

There exist various kinds natural disasters, but particularly in Asia there are many types of disasters, they occur frequently and continue to put a great burden on human society. Asia’s population density is high and rapid economic development continues at a rapid pace, which makes Asia an very special region among whole of mankind. Therefore, how to “deal” with these disasters is a very important challenge for the humans living in Asia and Asian societies, including Japan, and also for the whole of mankind. In Asia, not only has Japan a great wealth of experience with natural disasters, but Japan’s level of academic research and disaster prevention technology is high. Therefore Asian countries are eager to introduce Japan’s academic research and disaster prevention technology.

The lecture will begin with a general survey, followed by a discussion of causation mechanisms and case studies of different kinds of natural disasters. At the same time the relationship between human society and disasters will be covered, such as the various aspects of these disasters and the problems surrounding disaster recovery, as well as disaster prevention technology. The lecture will be taught as an omnibus lecture with different professors giving lectures on topics that are related to their research. Professors from the humanities and the natural sciences, from a variety of fields, will take part in this combined humanities and science lecture. Through this series of classes on natural disasters in Asia we not only would like to deepen our understanding of natural disasters, but also to think about disaster prevention and disaster reconstruction issues in order to create a society that is resistant to natural disasters. Finally, we would like to think about what kind of contribution we can make ourselves towards disaster prevention and disaster reconstruction.