Chapter 4 Future tasks in the earthquake preparation.

1. Constructing a Solid Foundation for Disaster Prevention

The Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster involved large-scale damage such as the collapse of buildings and outbreaks of fire in areas crowded with wooden structures, fragmentation of the traffic network and disruption of vital services; and we must learn lessons from this disaster in order to make our cities safe and able to withstand earthquakes.

Of especial urgency is the need to be able to withstand an earthquake shock; it is essential that we make safe against earthquakes the communal and public service facilities, public schools and welfare facilities that will serve as bases for anti-disaster measures, the public facilities that will be used as refuge points, roads and bridges, and vital services such as communications and the water supply.

It is necessary to consolidate a disaster prevention base in the form of heliports and disaster-prevention information communication facilities, which will be important in a large-scale disaster; to set up disaster-prevention bases which in ordinary times may be used for disaster prevention study or as recreation facilities for local residents, and in times of disaster as a base for disaster prevention activities; and to work to improve regional disaster-prevention capability.

In addition, it is important to promote city planning which takes account of disaster-prevention from a variety of viewpoints, such as the building of roads improvement so as to prevent the spread of fire, and the planting of roadside trees of varieties that do not easily burn.

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