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5 3D Hazard Map of Kyoto Using Digital Diorama
As an extension of the previous landscape simulation, we can also see the impact of
disasters like floods or earthquakes by overlaying thematic layers of hazard risks over
the digital diorama of the city. We have created and distributed another version of the
web-based digital diorama of Virtual Kyoto, 'the Safety and Security 3D Map of the
Historical City Kyoto' combined with the hazard map and crime statistics of the city.
This can be found at http://www3.rits-coe.jp/ritsumei_kyoto/.
Hazard maps are maps that show information regarding evacuation facilities/spaces
and the degrees of hazard risks, to help prepare for future disasters. The Kyoto Fire
Department created an award-wining hazard map (a city-wide map was prepared in
2004; maps of each ward were published in booklet form in 2005) showing disaster-
related facilities such as hospitals, and various hazard risks from landslides, floods
and earthquakes. It combines a voluminous amount of geographical data in a GIS. We
use this information for our 3D hazard map system.
As in the case of the previously shown web-based Virtual Kyoto, the 3D map is an
interactive map displaying realistic landscapes in which we may freely fly through the
virtual scenery. Most hazard maps have two-dimensional views of broad areas but a
3D map permits movement within the map, allows exploration of the distribution of
various risks at different scales and angles so that a user can explore and understand
the hazard risks related to their own spheres of activity. Using the relational database
engine with spatial index, the system has a function to search locations of facilities
such as police stations, hospitals, and evacuation shelters with their attributes (such as
capacity of shelters) as well as cultural heritages and national treasure architectures
around the current view point.
Kyoto hosts a large number of historical buildings such as temples, shrines,
machiya (traditional wooden townhouses), and western-style buildings of the pre-war
period. Particularly, a great number of world heritage and national treasure
architectures are accumulated in Kyoto. These architectural heritages significantly
contribute to Kyoto's historical urban landscape. It is estimated that if a serious
disaster hit Kyoto, a large number of heritage sites would be lost and their restoration
would be extremely expensive. Thus, establishing a policy to mitigate possible
damages of historical sites by future disasters is important to sustain the historical
landscapes in Kyoto [15,16].
Currently our system includes only cultural heritages and national treasure
architectures but in the future it would include other types of historical buildings, such
as machiya. Machiya in Kyoto is specifically called kyo-machiya for its distinctive
character and there remain about 48,000 kyo-machiya in various conditions across the
historical parts of the city . We have constructed a GIS-based monitoring system for
kyo-machiya with the aim of supporting the government's step towards preserving
this traditional architectural style [17,18]. The system is based on the 'Kyo-machiya
Community-building Survey', on which the Kyoto City, Ritsumeikan University,
volunteer architects and citizens have been working together since October 2008. In
this field survey, we have used the Mobile GIS (ArcPad) in PDA to extract the exact
geospatial information on houses and buildings in addition to their photographs. The
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