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Major Factors Controlling Earthquake Casualties as Revealed via a Diversified Questionnaire Survey in Ojiya City for the 2004 Mid-Niigata Earthquake

2010; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-90-481-9455-1_14

2213-6959

Motomichi Koyama, Shigeyuki Okada, Yutaka Ohta,

Seismology and Earthquake Studies

An extensive questionnaire survey on various seismic effects for inhabitants, dwellings, and social settings was conducted in an area of Ojiya city affected by the 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake. The investigation takes into consideration repeated aftershock effects; however, in this report we focus on injuries during the main shock event, which injured most victims. To obtain details about the causes of injuries, the relationships of the injuries were investigated using the following four dimensions: (1) the scale of dwelling damage grade by seismic intensity; (2) the dangers of weapons such as furniture overturned and/or fallen debris; (3) what type of injury is incurred and which body part is injured; and (4) variation of injury rate by household structure. Traditional injury mitigation strategies focusing on building damage are restated as anti-death strategies on the basis of these results. However, injury mitigation strategies are also important problems from a QOL (quality of life) point of view. Through this survey, various cross sections of the injury process become clear. The results indicate that a total risk control strategy including lifestyle is required for the life-loss reduction strategy. A continuous examination of this research would lead to the construction of a numerical estimation model for individual injury.