What is the role of universities in disaster response, recovery, and rehabilitation? Focusing on our disaster victim identification project

Author

Aoki, Toyohiro ; Ito, Kei

Author_Institution

Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan

Volume

52

Issue

3

fYear

2014

fDate

Mar-14

Firstpage

30

Lastpage

37

Abstract

A university provides diverse knowledge and expertise that can be mobilized readily in response to community needs in the event of a disaster. Due to its comprehensive capability, a university can contribute significantly in all phases of disaster cycles: pre-disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery. It is this comprehensive strength that makes universities such an important part of our society, even in a disaster situation. This article summarizes Tohoku University´s strength displayed in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. As a case study of response-phase contributions, this article also focuses on the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) project, in which authors have been involved for nearly three years.

Keywords

disasters; earthquakes; educational institutions; emergency management; tsunami; DVI project; Great East Japan Earthquake; Great East Japan Tsunami; Tohoku University strength; comprehensive capability; disaster cycles; disaster recovery; disaster rehabilitation; disaster response; disaster victim identification project; predisaster preparedness; response-phase contribution; Buildings; Communities; Disasters; Earthquakes; Educational institutions; Emergency services; Mobile robots; Tsunami;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Communications Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0163-6804

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MCOM.2014.6766081

Filename

6766081