Advances in coastal disasters risk management: Lessons from the 2011 Tohoku tsunami

The earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 led to death and destruction in coastal areas in Japan. A seminar was held in June 2012 for Japanese and Dutch coastal researchers to discuss lessons for the management of the risks in coastal areas associated with tsunamis, typhoons and storm surges. The seminar has highlighted important practical and theoretical issues in coastal protection, risk and emergency management, and climate change and sea level rise research that are of importance for the Netherlands and Japan and other coastal regions. The performance of the system during historical events gives important lessons for the (re)design of resilient coastal protection systems in the future. It has also been discussed how risk assessments can be utilized to determine how an effective combination of prevention, land use planning and emergency management can be implemented to minimize future risks in the coastal zone