The Earthquake Disaster Risk in Japan and Iran and the Necessity of Dynamic Learning from Large Earthquake Disasters over Time

Abstract

This book chapter targets how learning from large earthquakes disasters occurred and developed in Japan and Iran in the last 100 years. As research case studies, large earthquake disasters in Japan and Iran were investigated and analyzed. Normal distribution was found to be a good estimate of the magnitude distribution for earthquakes, in both the countries. In Japan, there is almost a linear correlation between magnitude of earth- quakes and number of dead people. However, such correlation is not present for Iran. This lack of correlation in Iran and existence of linear correlation in Japan highlights that the magnitude of earthquakes directly affects the number of fatalities and extent of destruction in Japan, while in Iran, there is an increased complexity with regard to the fac- tors affecting earthquake consequences. A correlation is suggested between earthquake culture and learning from large earthquake disasters in both Japan and Iran. Learning from large earthquake disasters is impacted by a multitude of factors, but the rhythm of learning in Japan is much higher if compared with Iran. For both Japan and Iran, a reac- tive learning approach based on past earthquake disasters needs to be constantly backed up by a proactive approach and dynamic learning.