Tsunami Inundation Map and Its Application on Evacuation Planning in Taiwan

Abstract

The casualty and impact induced by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami event and the earthquake in Japan drew considerable attention of Taiwanese government and civilian to review what we have accomplished for tsunami disaster prevention. However, at that time, there was no applicable tsunami potential data for local governments in Taiwan to draw the tsunami evacuation plans. Therefore, the simulation result is adopted in this study to produce the first version of tsunami inundation maps for coastal cities/counties in Taiwan. Furthermore, a planning guideline including analytical procedure and methodology is proposed to help local governments make tsunami evacuation plans using tsunami inundation maps. Examples are given in each analytical step to illustrate typical outcomes and suggestions on planning based on local conditions. This guideline and tsunami inundation maps have been submitted to central and local governments for evacuation planning. The application in one county is chosen as an example to demonstrate the practical achievement of this study. A thorough tsunami evacuation planning associated with education and training is crucial to disaster prevention of tsunami.