TPT/15/SC/CT/PEG/6
Discussion Paper
Theme 6: Natural Disasters and Damage Prevention Measures
*APEC Guidelines (draft)
*Summary of Questionnaire
Japan
Port Experts Group
APEC 15th TPT-WG
April, 1999
APEC - Guidelines on
earthquake disaster countermeasures in ports and harbors (draft)
- Objective
By proposing guidelines on earthquake disaster countermeasures in ports and harbors, we
hope to make marine container trunk line networks in APEC region resistant to the effects
of earthquakes.
- Current Japanese Guidelines
To start things off, we
would like to use the current Japanese guideline, which is called the basic policy on
construction and reinforcement of facilities to cope with large-scale earthquakes in ports
and harbors as a springboard for proposing guidelines that can apply to all APEC
economies.
The Japanese guideline
has the following three fundamental points. But in this paper, we do not refer to
the detail of point (1) and (3), because they are not for container shipping. If members
have interest in them, we will introduce them on another occasion.
- Anti-earthquake reinforcement of
facilities which are integral to maintaining the marine transport of emergency supplies
and evacuees just after disasters.
Land transportation such
as railways or railroads,and roads etc. can not function when even partly damaged. On the
other hand, sea transportation is available if wharves are not damaged. In addition, many
ports and harbors in Japan are close to downtown areas. In past earthquake disasters in
Japan, sea transportation has been utilized for carrying in emergency supplies.
- Maintaining
the function of trunk line cargo transportation which has great impacts on social and
economic activities.
In the Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake which struck the south part of Hyogo prefecture in 1995, over 6,000 people
died. The 24 ports and harbors in Hyogo, Osaka and Tokushima Prefectures were badly
damaged. Most of the wharves in the port of Kobe, one of Japans major container ports,
suffered serious damage with the exception of earthquake-resistant berths. It became
almost impossible to handle international marine container cargoes. Therefore, those
cargoes were forced to shift to other ports in Japan, and ports in neighboring countries.
In this context, this earthquake had serious impacts on economic and social activities not
only in the Hanshin-Awaji area, but throughout Japan and overseas as well. Accordingly, it
is important to maintain the function of trunk line cargo transportation. In Japan, a
certain number of container terminals in 4 gate-way ports and 8 subsidiary gate-way ports
are scheduled to be made earthquake-resistant.
-
Securing shelter bases and open space for refuge
While restoration works
in the stricken areas were taking place, open spaces in the port areas were utilized for
multi-purposes such as temporary housing sites, bases of repair works and temporary stock
yard or disposal site. Nevertheless, available open spaces were not sufficient to meet the
demand in scale and function. Therefore, efforts are being made to secure more open space
to serve as shelter bases in the event of disasters.
-
APEC Guidelines on earthquake disaster countermeasures in ports and
harbors (Gist)
- Arrangement
- Target area
Japan is located near the
point of contact of ocean plates, and the range of active faults extends nation-wide.
- [In the region of APEC]: Pan Pacific
Coastal Area; Japan, the Philippines, west coast of North America and west coast of South
America.
- Target
ports and harbors
- [Japan]: 4 gate-way ports (Tokyo-Yokohama,
Nagoya, Kobe-Osaka and Kitakyushu-Hakata area) which each handle large volumes of
container cargo, and 8 subsidiary gate-way ports which are next to gate-way ports in
container handling.
- [In the region of APEC]: ports which have
large volumes of cargo handling, or hub ports and other main ports on the trunk line route
of container cargoes. Feeder berths in hub ports are also included.
-
Facilities to be built
- Anti-earthquake reinforced wharves
- Dock roads
- Yards, parking lots
-
Securing the necessary number of facilities
A certain percentage of
facilities need to remain functional to support trunk line transport of cargoes in the
event of a strong earthquake. The necessary number of facilities is set based on container
handling capacity in neighboring ports which would be substitutes for damaged ports, size
of economic hinterlands and recovery periods for damaged berths. For reference, in case of
major container ports in Japan, approximately 30% of all facilities in each area should be
secured as earthquake-resistant, on the assumption that it will take 2 years for complete
restoration.
-
Design
-
Criteria
The seismic resistivity
of a facility is to be designed based on the assumed cases in plans* for local
disaster mitigation. Such plans consider the largest earthquakes experienced in the area
and earthquakes with vertical shocks. In designing, the aim is to be able to restore
facilities damaged by large-scale earthquakes as quickly and as easily as possible.
*[Plan for local disaster
mitigation]
Under the Disaster
Countermeasures Basic Act, prefectural governments have responsibilities of settling on
plans for local disaster mitigation to secure the citizen?s lives and property from
natural disasters. The plan includes building or reinforcement of facilities and equipment
for countermeasures against disasters, preventing measures such as drills and
enlightenment, issuing warnings and transmissions, emergency policies against natural
disasters and disaster restoration.
Concretely, our goal is
to correspond to level 1and 2 of earthquake ground motion.
- Level 1:to secure soundness of facilities
for earthquakes (Level 1 earthquake ground motion) which have a strong likelihood of
coming (return period: 75 years) during lifetime period (50 years) of the facility. In the
event of such an earthquake, facilities will not be seriously damaged, at least on a
structural mechanics basis.
- Level 2: to secure the expected function
of facilities for large-scale earthquakes (Level 2 earthquake ground motion) which have a
low probability (return period: hundreds of years) of occurring. In the event of such an
earthquake, damaged facilities can be promptly and easily restored.
- Necessary
scale
a) Anti-earthquake
reinforced wharves
Each economy has its own methods.
b) Dock roads
In the event of a strong
earthquake, traffic capacity must be sufficient to support trunk line transport of cargoes
until the restoration is complete.
- Dock roads are designed to connect with
trunk line road networks which will remain functional even after earthquake disasters.
- As for the planning, each economy has its
own methods.
- Earthquake-resisting capacity of bridge
girders are strengthened.
-
Answers to the
Questionnaire (Details)-
Word Document Download
Resultes of the Questionnaires -
Word Document Download
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