OUTLINE
In recent years, Japan has been hit by frequent heavy rains and earthquakes. As a result, various phenomena such as floods, landslides, and tsunamis have occurred in combination, leading to a tendency for widespread damage caused by natural disasters.
When natural disasters occur, they not only cause damage to human life and physical damage to civil engineering facilities and buildings, but also affect the production infrastructure through water shortages, power outages, and transportation disruptions, resulting in economic damage to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
In Hokkaido, large-scale composite disasters occurred due to the heavy rains in August 2016 and the Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake in August 2018. In Hokkaido, there are concerns about the decline in disaster response capabilities due to depopulation. However, Hokkaido is a major food production base in Japan, and its vulnerability to disasters has a significant impact on Japan’s socio-economic structure.
In light of this situation, Hokkaido University established the Center for Natural Hazards Research (CNHR) on April 1, 2019, to conduct education and research that will contribute to disaster mitigation.
The center conducts research on disaster mitigation and damage prediction for natural disasters, taking into account regional characteristics and human activities, rather than focusing on specific phenomena.
Additionally, the center utilizes research outcomes to provide recurrent education for graduate students, government officials, and corporate engineers, while also cultivating leaders for local communities.
During the first phase (fiscal years 2019–2023), the center was primarily funded by donations. However, in the second phase (fiscal year 2024 onwards), it is operated through a hybrid funding model combining grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and donations.
In the second phase, the center is further strengthening social collaboration and continuing education initiatives while working toward the creation of a new academic field, “Wide-Area Composite Disaster Mitigation Science.”