On February 15, 2015 a disaster prevention drill was conducted at Daido Junior High School in Yokohama. About 250 residents participated. As a part of this drill, we used the evacuation shelter information visualization application, Sherepo 2 and conducted an information gathering drill utilizing ICT.
This application has been created by a group of developers from several companies and universities. When an individual accesses this application using a smartphone from any evacuation shelter, he/she can easily report on the status of food, drinking water, supplies, and health status. Once the report is inputted, the system conducts information aggregation, and the report is displayed on the map, making it possible to have a rapid grasp of the conditions. Associate Professor Kamihara of University of Kochi has been part of developing this application. The University has been mainly in charge of the development and implementation of the method for verification and testing.
Kanazawa Ward in Yokohama City has many residential areas facing the sea, so it has a risk of damages from tsunami. It is estimated that among the 18 wards in Yokohama, this ward will suffer the maximum damages if an earthquake occurs in southern Kanto. Therefore, damage scenarios were created visualizing isolated areas from assumed tsunami, using the framework developed by the research team of this university.
On the day of the drill, based on the preparations by the ward officials, the Chief of Kanazawa Ward, members of the Daido Junior High School Regional Disaster Prevention Center Steering Committee, and Daido Junior High School teachers participated. The planners, engineers, and researchers from the Sherepo 2 development team also joined the drill. First, participants listened to the overview of the Kanazawa Ward disaster situation. Then, potential leaders of actual evacuation shelters were asked to provide responses in regard to the conditions of an evacuation shelter in each area, followed by dummy input and reports. In this way, iinformation about a total of 13 wards’ disaster countermeasures was accumulated. Finally, the event closed with a discussion on what kind of support would be necessary after sharing the information at the Ward office.
Results indicated many challenges arose from this information drill for both the input person and the recipient.In addition, utilization of the accumulated information (for example, which perspective should be taken, chronological order, as a whole, per evacuation shelter, or per item, etc.) was also listed as one of the challenges. In regard to the actions to be taken later, issues such as “how to integrate information and utilize it,” “what would happen if one moved in the sub-acute phase” were examined from a broad perspective and these results will be examined in the future.Based on the contents of the discussion, we will soon make improvements in the application and examine how to share information with the residents of Kanazawa Ward.
