Organization

Disaster Humanities and Social Science Division
International Strategy for Disaster Mitigation Lab
Professor
Doctor of Engineering
Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage Lab (Concurrent)

Concurrent: Graduate School of Engineering
Research Subject(s)
International Strategy for Disaster Mitigation Laboratory (ISDM), one of the research fields of Regional and Urban Reconstruction Research Division at IRIDeS, aims to provide more practical international strategies for disaster mitigation/post-disaster recovery and to develop international frameworks that enable us to realize the strategies based on field surveys and data analysis. In order to clarify existing problems and make recommendations to the world for future disaster reduction, ISDM is researching on the relationship between disaster management and urban/regional space inside and outside of the country, through case studies of vulnerable areas including disaster-experienced cities.
【Main Research Subjects】
●Urban vulnerability evaluation
●Monitoring urban recovery and quantitative evaluation of recovery process
●Architecture and urban design for disaster risk reduction
Key Words
Architecture and urban design / disaster management / Post-disaster recovery process / urban vulnerability evaluation / Urban safety planning and design
Website
Research Activities

【Urban vulnerability evaluation】
One of our significant researches is urban vulnerability evaluation. Using the actual building damage data due to the 1995 Great Kobe Earthquake, Prof. Murao clarified the relationship between seismic ground motion and building damage. As a result, he constructed building vulnerability functions and proposed a method of building collapse risk evaluation for Tokyo. Outside the country, Prof. Murao constructed the building vulnerability functions and prepared the hazard map for Yangon city of Myanmar.

【Monitoring urban recovery and quantitative evaluation of recovery process】
Monitoring urban recovery of areas affected by the disasters in the world, ISDM quantitatively evaluates the urban recovery processes for planning future disaster risk reduction strategies. To date, our overseas research fields have been in Taiwan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Peru, China, Hawaii, New York, and Myanmar. In addition, Kobe, Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Sanriku Coastal Areas affected by 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami have been significant research objectives for us in Japan.

【Architecture and urban design for disaster risk reduction】
A research on the relationship between architectural/urban design and disaster management is respectively established. Our current concern is to combine these fields and develop a new field of architectural/urban planning for disaster risk reduction. Our challenge aims to establish a systematic framework of the architectural/urban planning for disaster risk reduction.

Selected Works

Murao, O. (2020) . Recovery Curves for Housing Reconstruction from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Comparison with Other Post-disaster Recovery Processes, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Vol.45, 101467-1-101467-15, doi: org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101467

Murao, O., Tanaka, T., Meguro, K., and Shwe, T. (2020). Earthquake Building Collapse Risk Estimation for 2040 in Yangon, Myanmar, Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.15, No.3, 387-406, doi: 10.20965/jdr.2020.p0387

Murao, O., Usuda, T., Gokon, H., Meguro, K., Takeuchi, W., Sugiyasu, K., and Yu, K. T. (2018). Understanding Regional Building Characteristics in Yangon Based on Digital Building Model, Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.13, No.1, 125-137, doi: 10.20965/jdr.2018.p0125

Murao, O., and Sakaba, H. (2016). Quantitative Text Analysis of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030,  Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.11, No.3, 459-469, doi: 10.20965/jdr.2016.p0459

Murao, O. (2013). Architecture, Space, and Disaster,” Series of Risk Engineering, 10, 172, Corona Publishing  (in Japanese)

Selected Memberships
  • Architectural Institute of Japan
  • Institute of Social Safety Science
  • The City Planning Institute of Japan
  • Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering
  • Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Selected Awards
  • The Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan 2020 (Award for Excellent Educational Contribution)(2020)
  • The Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan 2014 (Research Theses Division)(2014)
  • Silver Prize of Community Design for Children's future, The 2011 International Competition for the Disaster Recovery Plan after the Great East Japan Earthquake by Place in Memory and Dream Crystal Project -Seven Stories for the Victims and Children-(2011)