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| Regional seismic preparedness |
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| Tokyo Tech professor promotes new approaches
to mitigating risk posed by earthquakes
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| "Keeping buildings from collapsing is only part of the
story in safeguarding against earthquakes," warns Tokyo Tech's
Kohji Tokimatsu. "What do you do when the elevators stop,
when the plumbing stops, when the trains stop? We need to
put in place urban and regional systems for coping with seismic
risk. And we need to educate the citizens to know what to
do when a serious earthquake strikes." |
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Tokimatsu, a professor in the Department of Architecture
and Building Engineering in Tokyo Tech's Graduate School
of Science and Engineering, heads the university's International
Urban Earthquake Engineering Center for Mitigating Seismic
Mega Risk. That center is one of 11 research programs at
Tokyo Tech supported by the Japanese government as "centers
of excellence."
Characterizing Tokimatsu's work is a long-standing commitment
to field research. He has focused on geotechnical earthquake
engineering, especially in regard to soil liquefaction.
And he has conducted extensive on-site geophysical exploration,
using surface waves—including microtremors—for
site characterization. That commitment to field research
has meant journeying repeatedly to sites worldwide to
examine the aftermath of destructive earthquakes and
to conduct geophysical surveys.
Tokimatsu's name figures prominently in the global discourse
about the best ways to safeguard structural foundations
from seismic stress. His research findings have contributed
greatly, for example, to elucidating the interaction among
(1) soil; (2) piles,the vertical foundational supports
on which buildings rest; and (3) buildings. And his growing
insight into primary preparedness—safer buildings—has
stimulated his interest in secondary and tertiary preparedness—regional
systems and citizen education. |
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| East Asians long regarded catfish
behavior as a means of predicting earthquakes. Tokimatsu
uses this ukiyo-e portrayal of people attacking a catfish
to outline his center of excellence's multifaceted approach
to mitigating seismic risk. |
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International perspective...
"Japan and the United States," observes Tokimatsu, "are
the industrialized nations that have the most experience
with earthquakes. So our two nations have emerged as leaders
in evaluating seismic risk and in developing ways to mitigate
that risk. We at Tokyo Tech work closely with colleagues
at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER),
based at the University of California, Berkeley, and at
other institutions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Two
representatives of PEER serve as international members
of our center of excellence: professors Jack Moehle of
U.C. Berkeley and Ross Boulanger of U.C. Davis."
Tokimatsu is well qualified to coordinate international
collaboration, having served as a visiting scholar at U.C.
Berkeley for two years in the early 1980s and as a visiting
professor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1996.
His work at Tokyo Tech's International Urban Earthquake
Engineering Center for Mitigating Seismic Mega Risk also
includes coordinating a highly multidisciplinary approach. |
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...and multidisciplinary approach
"Our center of excellence occupies space in the Department
of Architecture and Building Engineering," Tokimatsu explains. "But
our members include professors and researchers from diverse
disciplines, including civil engineering, urban planning,
and even psychology."
The international and multidisciplinary orientation of
Tokyo Tech's International Urban Earthquake Engineering
Center for Mitigating Seismic Mega Risk is readily evident
in the center's core emphasis: education. A newly established
doctoral program brings together diverse resources to foster
international specialists in mitigating the "mega risks" posed
by earthquakes. That program operates in conjunction with
Tokyo Tech's International Graduate Program, which provides
full scholarships for outstanding international students.
It also furnishes financial support to encourage doctoral
students and postdoctoral researchers to participate in
international conferences, take part in multinational research
initiatives, and engage in other cross-border activity.
Although curricula under the center of excellence are
only for doctoral students, Tokimatsu emphasizes that undergraduate
and master's students also enjoy access to research and
educational opportunities through the center. "This center
is a platform for contributing to better preparedness through
every relevant discipline and at every level." |
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