Prediction of Strong Ground Motion and Building Damage in Urban Areas and Development of a Disaster Mitigation Strategy Paper: Prediction of Strong Ground Motion and Building Damage in Urban Areas and Development of a Disaster Mitigation Strategy

Considering the increased population and functional-ity of urban areas, we have studied the prediction of damages to and disaster mitigation strategies for ur-ban areas which may be devastated when large disas-ter strikes. We have developed high-precision, high-resolution subsurface soil structure models in Chukyo Area including Nagoya city, by which strong ground motions are first predicted for every site of the area using a pseudo-empirical Green’s function method. Next, major damages are predicted based on earth-quake response analyses of various structures such as energy facilities in reclaimed areas, industrial plants in alluvial plains, and high-rise buildings and ordi-nary school buildings in urban areas. We then have attempted to quantify disaster response capabilities of urban areas to set the target level for disaster mitiga-tion countermeasures. Moreover, we have explained newly developed simulation tools for guiding individ-ual residents to take disaster mitigation precautions by themselves