Response of Port Structures to Tsunami Impacts: A Study of Governing Flow Characteristics in Influencing Port Damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami
Abstract
The study of building damage caused by tsunami impacts has steadily gained momentum since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. However, a review of literature shows that most damage studies are focused on commercial and residential building damage. Yet, our understanding of the impacts of tsunami on critical infrastructure such as ports and airports are still limited. In this study, we aim to quantify damage to port industries by developing damage fragility functions based on observations from the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami. To develop damage fragility functions suitable for port industries, a new damage classification is proposed. Damage is then quantified through spatial analysis and photograph interpretations of the event. Typically, observed flow depth is used as an indicator of damage, and this is largely because flow depth values are easily obtained through empirical studies. However, flow depth on its own is not enough to explain the damage observed as it is just one of the few tsunami flow characteristics. In this present study, we also consider other tsunami flow characteristics such as velocity and drag force as explanatory variables of tsunami damage. The fragility functions are developed in hopes of providing better understanding of factors influencing tsunami damage to ports, as well as estimating potential damage to port industries along coasts vulnerable to tsunami impacts.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMNH43F1003C
- Keywords:
-
- 4315 Monitoring;
- forecasting;
- prediction;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4333 Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4341 Early warning systems;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL