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The Nankai Trough Earthquake, which is estimated to have a 70%–80% probability of occurring within the next 30 years, necessitates considering various scenarios due to the extensive seismic source region and call for advancing disaster preparedness measures. Assessing direct damage caused by earthquakes is considered particularly challenging compared to assessing human and physical damage due to its intricate composition. However, the existing research in model analysis aimed at real-time estimation has yielded results, namely, the ability to promptly calculate direct damage from earthquakes using seismic motion and stock quantities as inputs. This study aimed to leverage the research outcomes of real-time estimation to approximate the direct damage costs that would be caused by the Nankai Trough Earthquake. Three hazard assessment cases were selected, based on damage estimations to be attempted. The results indicated that a damage estimation approach based on a common foundation dataset and model analysis considering different occurrence scenarios is more suitable for evaluating results and assessing the importance of mitigation measures than conventional scenario-based damage estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a wide-area disaster causing enormous damage has occurred almost every year in Japan. The authors have been involved in the management of disaster volunteer centers in various places and have realized the difficulty in coordinating the actual number of activities in disaster-stricken areas and the required number of disaster volunteers. The number of disaster volunteers required varies greatly on a daily basis. The number of volunteer activities often depends on the quantity of disaster waste created from damaged houses. Accordingly, if the quantity of waste was grasped immediately on the spot, the number of disaster volunteers required in the short term could be estimated. In this study, the actual conditions in Hitoyoshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, at the time of the Heavy Rainfall in July 2020 are considered as an example, and the method is considered to immediately grasp the quantity of waste to be disposed of and the number of people required for this task. We compared the amount of waste disposal work estimated from the in-vehicle camera image with the number of active residents and volunteers. As a result, it was estimated that 40–50% of the work was carried out by volunteers at the peak of volunteer activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]