August 21, 2021
Japanese Cities: Critical infrastructure design for extreme resilience
HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS CASE STUDY: First, please refer to the Teacher's Guide using the yellow "View Materials" button on the left pane. The teacher's guide outlines the purpose, contents, approach, case structure, and technical information of this case study. This case study was curated from other independently published open educational resources and from existing materials on this platform. These resources are also organized by domain. At the bottom of each resource's page, you can see both the city case study and SURF Resilience domain to which it belongs. Click on the case study or the domain name to navigate to the case study homepage or SURF Resilience collection, respectively. OVERVIEW: This set contains a teaching guide, seven thematic foci, and gaming simulations. In this set, you will discover the challenges and opportunities provided by the concept of urban resilience on mitigating and preventing flooding. Examples of design considerations of hydraulic structures and spillways will show you how resilience can be integrated into urban planning and management. Then, you will dive into the topic of large waves, typhoons, storm surges, and tsunamis. You will see how one natural disaster can pose potential downstream risks for society, as exhibited by the 2011 tsunami and the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant failure. Moreover, you will see how tsunamis impact multiple urban subsystems such as transportation, buildings, sanitation, and environment. You will have the opportunity to think about solution strategies and their ethical considerations. Then, you will look into the process of post-disaster reconstruction after a disaster has uprooted existing systems. Lastly, you will see how man-made climate change has created alternative urban climates. You will also look into how to design for a better, more comfortable urban microclimate. End by playing related resilience games.