U.N. report cites ‘synchronous failure’ in March 11 disaster
May 26, 2011
A killer tsunami that hit coastal areas of northeastern Japan following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11 and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdowns revealed the fragility of Japan's infrastructure, according to a recent U.N. report on natural disasters.
The U.N. report described Japan as a country whose infrastructure collapsed in a way more closely associated with less developed countries and from which lessons can be drawn.
''The earthquake, its aftershocks, the tsunami and the nuclear emergency illustrate what a synchronous failure looks like: a multi-sectoral system's collapse,'' according to the 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.
It also described how the disaster disrupted ''critical sections'' of Japan's power grid, including the power supply needed to cool the spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and how backup systems were disabled thereby resulting in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
''The full consequence of the trauma and costs will not be known for years to come,'' the report said. ''However, in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, it became evident that even in this highly sophisticated and well-prepared society, the impact of physical hazards on infrastructure can quickly lead to outcomes normally associated with poorer countries: large scale food and water shortages, shelter crises and logistical collapse.''
The 2011 floods in Australia, the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this year and Japan's latest disaster serve as a ''reminder that developed countries are also very exposed,'' the report said.
The March 11 disaster in Japan additionally highlighted the fact that there are ''emerging risks and new vulnerabilities associated with the complexity and interdependency of the technological systems on which modern societies depend,'' it said.
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake claimed more than 6,000 lives in Japan in 1995. As 80 percent of the deaths were found to have occurred in collapsed houses, efforts have been underway to make new buildings earthquake resistant.
In 2003, a major retrofitting initiative was launched to reduce the vulnerable housing stock by 10 percent by 2013, with two-thirds of the cost of evaluating and 23 percent of the retrofitting costs for buildings constructed before 1981 subsidized by the government, the report said.
Despite the offers since 2009 only 31,000 homes and 15,000 other buildings had been retrofitted -- far less than the 50,000-60,000 homes retrofitted before the program began.
''So despite a well-targeted and generous set of policy measures and subsidies, and a high awareness of disaster risk, persuading households to invest in disaster risk reduction remains a challenge,'' it said.
Despite Japan's level of preparedness, which undoubtedly saved many lives, the report said governments are ''rarely adequately prepared'' through contingent planning or insurance to ''cover the probable maximum losses from a low-probability intensive event.''
While the mortality rates from disasters have been going down, disaster-related losses are increasing across all regions. They are critically threatening low and middle income economies and even outstripping the wealth creation among richer countries.
Although the chances of being killed in a cyclone or floods in East Asia, for example, is much lower than it was two decades ago, the risk of economic loss due to the floods has increased by over 160 percent and to tropical cyclones by 262 percent since 1980 in the high income countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
''As the March 2011 nuclear crisis in Japan shows, governments should also invest time and resources in anticipating emerging risks,'' the report said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 25, 2011)
The U.N. report described Japan as a country whose infrastructure collapsed in a way more closely associated with less developed countries and from which lessons can be drawn.
''The earthquake, its aftershocks, the tsunami and the nuclear emergency illustrate what a synchronous failure looks like: a multi-sectoral system's collapse,'' according to the 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.
It also described how the disaster disrupted ''critical sections'' of Japan's power grid, including the power supply needed to cool the spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and how backup systems were disabled thereby resulting in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
''The full consequence of the trauma and costs will not be known for years to come,'' the report said. ''However, in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, it became evident that even in this highly sophisticated and well-prepared society, the impact of physical hazards on infrastructure can quickly lead to outcomes normally associated with poorer countries: large scale food and water shortages, shelter crises and logistical collapse.''
The 2011 floods in Australia, the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this year and Japan's latest disaster serve as a ''reminder that developed countries are also very exposed,'' the report said.
The March 11 disaster in Japan additionally highlighted the fact that there are ''emerging risks and new vulnerabilities associated with the complexity and interdependency of the technological systems on which modern societies depend,'' it said.
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake claimed more than 6,000 lives in Japan in 1995. As 80 percent of the deaths were found to have occurred in collapsed houses, efforts have been underway to make new buildings earthquake resistant.
In 2003, a major retrofitting initiative was launched to reduce the vulnerable housing stock by 10 percent by 2013, with two-thirds of the cost of evaluating and 23 percent of the retrofitting costs for buildings constructed before 1981 subsidized by the government, the report said.
Despite the offers since 2009 only 31,000 homes and 15,000 other buildings had been retrofitted -- far less than the 50,000-60,000 homes retrofitted before the program began.
''So despite a well-targeted and generous set of policy measures and subsidies, and a high awareness of disaster risk, persuading households to invest in disaster risk reduction remains a challenge,'' it said.
Despite Japan's level of preparedness, which undoubtedly saved many lives, the report said governments are ''rarely adequately prepared'' through contingent planning or insurance to ''cover the probable maximum losses from a low-probability intensive event.''
While the mortality rates from disasters have been going down, disaster-related losses are increasing across all regions. They are critically threatening low and middle income economies and even outstripping the wealth creation among richer countries.
Although the chances of being killed in a cyclone or floods in East Asia, for example, is much lower than it was two decades ago, the risk of economic loss due to the floods has increased by over 160 percent and to tropical cyclones by 262 percent since 1980 in the high income countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
''As the March 2011 nuclear crisis in Japan shows, governments should also invest time and resources in anticipating emerging risks,'' the report said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 25, 2011)
