Socioeconomic, Policy, and Planning Aspects of the 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu Earthquake

Abstract

The Niigata Ken Chuetsu earthquake struck a mostly rural and mountainous part of Niigata prefecture in Japan. Forty-eight people died, and 551 were severely injured. Over 100,000 people required emergency shelter, and nearly 3,500 households are living in temporary housing. The prefecture government has estimated earthquake damages at 3 trillion yen (about $30 billion), and at least 1,000 workers lost their jobs. The primary issues involve lack of access to rural settlements because of landslides, effects on elderly populations, and the long-term effects on the agricultural economy and lifestyle of the region. Because of extensive landsliding, many communities will also have to face difficult decisions regarding possible relocation or abandonment of their village sites. Based on the experiences of other earthquakes, it is clear that this process will take many years to resolve, and that much of the region will be permanently changed by this earthquake.

An interdisciplinary system dynamics model for post-disaster housing recovery

“…For example, the 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu earthquake occurred in the early evening followed by many landslides and aftershocks and 13 hours of darkness. Because of the time of the earthquake, emergency response was limited, and the extent of the damage was unknown until daylight (Olshansky, Nakabayashi, & Ohnishi, 2006). After the extent of the impact is known, a state or federal disaster declaration may be made which can then be used as an indicator of the progress along the timeline of recovery, and an indicator of the severity of the impact (Rossetto et al, 2014).…”

“…The level of damage to each residential building (Comerio, 2006 and others 5 ), the completion of the damage assessments (Olshansky et al, 2006), the resulting cost of repairs (Kamel, 2012), and the amount of time required for repairs (Comerio, 2006;Francisco, 2015;Wu & Lindell, 2004) are indicators of the progress of housing recovery. Oftentimes before reconstruction can begin, debris must be removed, and thus the extent of debris removal can be used as an initial indicator of recovery progress (Green et al, 2007 and others 6 ).…”

Driving Forces for the Spatial Reconstruction of Rural Settlements in Mountainous Areas Based on Structural Equation Models: A Case Study in Western China

“…The spatial reconstruction of rural settlements is accomplished under the collaborative promotion of internal and external driving forces [11]. These include place attachment, historical culture, environment fitness, housing condition and quality, natural disasters, economic levels, infrastructure, government policies, and peasants [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The government has been the primary driver of rural reconstruction [23][24][25].…”

A Framework for Modeling Interdependencies in Japan’s Critical Infrastructures

“…The shutdown cost the parent company 50 billion yen in direct losses and 37 billion yen in indirect losses. The Nihon Seiki automobile parts plant was unable to resume its motorcycle speedometer assembly line, which caused Honda Motor Company to halt production at four plants elsewhere in Japan; Yamaha Motor Company was also affected [8]. Table 2 shows the changes in operational level (as a percentage of operations before the earthquake) for 217 manufacturing plants in the region at three different times after the earthquake.…”