Effective disaster prevention map creation using road network analysis

As a disaster prevention measures based on self-help and mutual assistance, workshops have been conducted nationwide in Japan in which local disaster prevention maps are created by collecting information while walking around an area. The creation of disaster prevention maps in this way has attracted attention as an effective measure that can be done in advance for local disaster prevention and disaster mitigation. Although many support systems have been developed for creating disaster prevention maps, no system has been proposed that can handle all the steps of collecting information while walking around, elucidating disaster factors, and performing simulations of evacuation routes during a disaster. This research therefore proposes a disaster prevention map creation support system that focuses on the relationship between the road network and disaster factors with the potential to cause damage during a disaster and that can perform evacuation route simulations. To verify the usefulness of the proposed support system, a validation experiment was performed using a three-phase process up to the completion of the disaster prevention map, and the results confirmed that disaster prevention map creation using this system makes a useful contribution to disaster prevention measures.