Challenges in dealing with catastrophic natural disasters: tsunami, typhoon and storm surge
Dr Anawat Suppasri
This event will take place from 2 pm - 3.30 pm. No booking required.
Abstract
This lecture consists of three parts: (1) introduction of current research activities at IRIDeS, Tohoku University; (2) disaster impact of the typhoon Haiyan; and (3) re-evaluation of 1607 Bristol flooding. In the first part, the talk presents integrated research on practical disaster mitigation science at IRIDeS by highlighting linkage between disaster research in the UK and Japan. For example, a research on the “1611 Keicho-Oshu earthquake and tsunami project” that brought three different research fields on tsunami engineering, geological science, and historical science to estimate the location and magnitude of the earthquake and impact of the tsunami that occurred 400 years ago. In addition, IRIDeS is also supporting local governments to conduct tsunami evacuation drill, reconstruction plan, and disaster mitigation education; these are the key to implement scientific knowledge into practice. The second part will be about the typhoon Haiyan that caused more than 6,000 casualties in the Philippines. This disaster provides critical insight on the importance and major challenges related to disaster warning, evacuation, recovery, and reconstruction, in comparison to the 2011 tsunami in Japan. For the last part, similar to the disaster in 1611 in Japan and based on IRIDeS’s knowledge on both two recent major disasters, we re-evaluate the possible cause and impact of the 1607 Bristol flooding, making use of international research collaboration on tsunami, storm surge and flood modeling, geological survey of sand deposits and historical science for historical accounts and documents.
Synopsis
Dr. Anawat Suppasri was born in 1983 in Bangkok, Thailand. He completed his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Chulalongkorn University in 2005 and Master degree in Water Resource Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology in 2007. He came to Japan and obtained PhD in Tsunami Engineering from Tohoku University in 2010. After that, he received research grant under the Willis Research Network to continue his research of tsunami risk assessment in Tohoku University. After the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, Tohoku University established the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) in April 2012. He became Associate Professor at a new research division “Earthquake-induced tsunami risk evaluation” from a donation of the Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd. After the 2011 Tohoku tsunami, he took many of visitors and professors from both Japan and overseas to tsunami affected areas. At present, his research focuses on tsunami numerical simulation, tsunami fragility analysis, tsunami evacuation and disaster mitigation education. He is one of the leading experts on these topics and his publications are highly cited. More information can be found at http://www.tsunami.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/hokusai3/J/people/member/anawatto.html .
Dr Anawat Suppasri