Open AccessEarthquake Early Warning System Application for School Disaster Prevention
Author(s) -
Masato Motosaka,
Makoto Homma
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of disaster research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.332
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1883-8030
pISSN - 1881-2473
DOI - 10.20965/jdr.2009.x0557
Subject(s) - earthquake warning system , emergency management , warning system , test (biology) , earthquake casualty estimation , government (linguistics) , forensic engineering , seismology , urban seismic risk , computer science , engineering , civil engineering , geology , political science , seismic hazard , telecommunications , law , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy
Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) based on nationwide earthquake observation networks in Japan are applied to earthquake damage mitigation in many fields. The authors have developed a real-time earthquake information (RTEI) application for school disaster prevention. This paper describes, first an EEWS demonstration test at an elementary school in Sendai and extended demonstration tests for three other elementary schools and a junior high school. Then, the transmission of RTEI using an intranet connecting schools is described, together with demonstration test using the Schools in Wide Area Networks in Miyagi Prefecture (Miyagi-SWAN), Japan. These demonstration tests were conducted as part of a government project. This paper also addresses a questionnaire investigation on EEWS applications in schools which was also conducted in the project. The experience of a real earthquake, the June 14, 2008, Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake (M7.2), is then described. Lessons learned from the demonstration tests in schools are summarized.