HOW CAN WE TRANSFER SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO CITIZENS FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION? : CASE STUDIES FROM MEGA-EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI MONITORING RESEARCHES

On March 11, 2011, huge earthquake and tsunamis took place coastal regions of Northeast Japan. Coastal infrastructure collapsed due to reciprocal high waves of tsunamis. Coastal marine ecosystems were also strongly disturbed by the earthquakes and tsunamis. TEAMS (Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences) Project that is supported by the Japanese Government has started for monitoring both disturbance and recovery of marine ecosystems. The project will be continued for ten years. First five years are mainly monitored recovery process, then we should transfer our knowledge to fishermen and citizens for restoration of fishery and social systems during later five years. But, how can we actually transfer our knowledge from science community to citizens? This is new experience for most of scientists.

Socio-technology designs a “high quality risk communication” model how scientific knowledge or technologies transfer from scientific communities to citizens. They are progressing as follows, “observation, measurements and data”, --> “modeling and synthesis” --> “information process” --> “delivery to society” --> “ take action in society”. These series of steps show detailed transition from inter-disciplinarity to trans-disciplinarity in science and technology.

In our presentation, we will show several case studies from TEAMS Project that are going forward scientific knowledge from science community to society for getting better restoration of lives and fisheries than before the disasterous event.