Special feature article A Retrospective and Prospective View on the Technologies Safeguarding Railway Trains Against Natural Hazards Makoto Shimamura Director-General Innovation Center for Meteorological Disaster Mitigation, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience 1 Changes in the Concept of Disaster Resilience When thinking of “disaster resilience”, a saying by RIKEN researcher Torahiko Terada in the early 20th century that “natural disasters strike when forgotten about” may come to mind for many people in Japan. Those words cannot be found in the works Terada has left behind; they are thought to have been paraphrased by his student and famous glaciology researcher Ukichiro Nakaya from Terada’s “Natural Disaster and National Defense” published in 1934. The increased frequency of natural disasters recently may make us want to say that that “natural Profile disasters strike when forgotten about”, but it is worth mention 1978 Graduated from the Department of Forest Science, Faculty that the term “disaster resilience” does not actually appear at all of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo / Joined Japanese in Terada’s works. National Railways “Disaster resilience” probably came to be the commonly seen 2006 Director, Disaster Prevention Research Laboratory, Research and Development Center of JR-East Group term it is today when Disaster Prevention Day was established 2013 Project professor, Department of Civil Engineering, The in Japan in 1960 following the devastation of Typhoon University of Tokyo (JR East endowed course) Vera the previous year and the promulgation of the Disaster 2016-present Director-General, Innovation Center for Countermeasures Basic Act in 1961. Meteorological Disaster Mitigation, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster The term “disaster prevention” used up until recently literally Resilience means to take on nature with brute force to prevent disasters from occurring or to complete countermeasures by the time a disaster strikes, giving the term a nuance of inferring “protection”. has actually made it fragile. Reflecting on this, the important Prevent, the verb form of the word “prevention” is formed from of resilience (enhancement of ability to minimize damage and the Latin prefix “prae” (before) and the verb veniō (to come). quickly recover to life as usual, in other words, to “adapt” to In other words, the meaning of prevention is assumed to have disasters) has come to be recognized more in recent years. shifted from “coming first” to “standing in the way”. From this Such change in disaster resilience concerns is reflected directly perspective, prevention can also be obstruction. in the way of thinking of national agencies and in R&D related The Japanese economy grew in the approximately 30 years to disaster resilience. For example, the National Research after the establishment of the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) Act, and that period saw a lull in natural disasters (Fig. 1). where I am presently employed has advocated being an all- “Protective” disaster resilience exemplified by assertive public encompassing central organization for research and development works investment and earthquake prediction research could on earth science and disaster resilience science and technology be driven forward, and sufficient results were thought to have since its establishment in 1963 as a national testing and research been achieved then. However, the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji organ of the former Science and Technology Agency. This year, Earthquake poured cold water on that belief, and the 2011 Great it replaced “Prevention” with “Resilience” in its name and shifted East Japan Earthquake was an even greater shock. Subsequent its pivot from basic research in investigating the mechanism of unanticipated disasters also have seemed to occur almost every disaster geomorphic agents. The new pivot includes enhancing year, resulting in major damage. Those include landslides on Izu NIED’s function as a hub for creating disaster resilience services Oshima Island in 2013 and in Hiroshima City in 2014, heavy that are a benefit to society by R&D and coordination with snowfall in 2014 in Yamanashi Prefecture and other areas of that diverse stakeholders with an aim of raising individual citizens’ do not usually seen much snowfall, flooding of Kinugawa River adaptability to disasters by sharing information in real time using in 2015, and the Kumamoto Earthquake and a string of typhoons ICT. in 2016. In this way, the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake gives an impression of having entering an active period of global-scale cataclysms, and reliance on physical disaster resilience measures such as levies and dams by society exposed to those disasters JR EAST Technical Review-No.35 1 Special feature article (Persons) 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake 18,559 7,000 Number of Fatalities and Missing Persons due to Natural Disaster (1945-2012) 1958 1945 Mikawa Earthquake 2,306 Typhoon Ida 1,269 Year Persons Year Persons Year Persons 1945 Typhoon Makurazaki 3,756 1959 1945 6,062 1968 259 1991 190 1995 Typhoon Vera 5,098 1946 1,504 1969 183 1992 19 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake 6,437 6,000 1947 1,950 1970 163 1993 437 1946 Nankai Earthquake 1,443 1948 4,897 1971 350 1994 39 1947 Typhoon Catherine 1,930 1949 975 1972 587 1995 6,482 1950 1,210 1973 85 1996 84 1948 Fukui Earthquake 3,769 1951 1,291 1974 324 1997 71 5,000 1952 449 1975 213 1998 109 1953 Kyushu torrential rains 1,013 1953 3,212 1976 273 1999 141 1953 1954 2,926 1977 174 2000 78 Nanki torrential rains 1,124 1955 727 1978 153 2001 90 4,000 1956 765 1979 208 2002 48 1954 1957 1,515 1980 148 2003 62 Typhoon 1958 2,120 1981 232 2004 327 Touyamaru 1,761 1959 5,868 1982 524 2005 153 1960 528 1983 301 2006 177 3,000 1961 902 1984 199 2007 39 1962 381 1985 199 2008 100 1963 575 1986 148 2009 115 1964 307 1987 69 2010 89 1965 367 1988 93 2011 18,822 2,000 1966 578 1989 96 2012 144 1967 607 1990 123 1961 Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act established 1,000 1962 Central Disaster Prevention Council set up 1963 National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention established 0 (Year) 1945 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 Fig. 1 Trends in Number of Fatalities and Missing Persons due to Natural Disaster (Compiled from White Paper on Disaster Management1)) One example is Shiraito River Bridge (Fig. 2) near Nebukawa Characteristics of and Transitions in Technologies 2 Safeguarding Railways from Disasters Station, located near the sea shore in geography where it is close the mountains and the ocean. That bridge’s red-painted Reflecting on disaster resilience for railways, we find that its form against a background of the sea and sky makes it a technical elements can probably be broken down roughly into popular photo subject for railway fans. The greatest reason the following three types. for the bridge to have been erected in that location was that i) Constructing track in locations not easily susceptible to the line could not run inland through a large tunnel. While disasters that was considered the best choice of a location at the time ii) Enhancing and maintaining yield strength of track in relation it was built, the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake struck with a to disasters seismic intensity of about seven on the Japan Meteorological iii) Detecting or predicting hazards and stopping trains Agency seismic intensity scale, creating a debris flow from the Restricting people from residing in or developing locations hillside failure upstream on the Shiraito River. That brought with high risk of disaster can be called the most basic rule of a large volume of earth rushing down the valley, severing the disaster resilience for society in general, and response to this by piers and sending bridge girders to the bottom of the sea. railways is selection of track location in Type i, above. Even today, The entire yard of Nebukawa Station too was washed into the it is a very important judgment criterion in constructing new sea due to a landslide just as a train came in, with the train track. However, the current JR conventional line network was falling down the cliff into the sea resulting in many passenger pretty much completed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fatalities. and constraints in selection of track location were much greater The bridge is also located in an area susceptible to strong than today in that age when the country was not as prosperous winds, so even today it is a vulnerable location in terms of as today and technologies were still in their infancy. The shortest disaster resilience, requiring additional countermeasures against distance and fastest route between two points is a straight line, strong winds, such as windbreak fences and stricter operation but the greatest reason why this was not always possible with control than ordinary areas. Conversely, the Tokaido Shikansen railways was the need to avoid long tunnels. That was not only constructed after constraints against long tunnels were overcome because they were technically impossible to construct; rather, the runs in almost a straight line nearby, emerging above ground in fact that passengers and crew would suffocate if the train stopped the short section between tunnels upstream of Shiraito River in the middle of a long tunnel in the age of steam locomotives. Bridge. Fig. 2 Wind Observation by Doppler Lidar near Shiraito River Bridge on Tokaido Main Line 2 JR EAST Technical Review-No.35 Special feature article Structure planning, design, construction, maintenance, changes was by low-tech means with disaster resilience technology and more are included in Type ii technical elements, with for safely running trains (stopping trains when dangerous) particularly large effects achieved by disaster resilience relying on the abilities of many people.