Itinerary and Structures Observed - Tohoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 - page 34

2.2 Types of Coastal Areas Visited
Generally, the northeastern coast of Japan comprises two different regions — the
Sanriku coast where mountains rise immediately inland of the sea, with settlements
located primarily along the coast within steep stream and river valleys and the Sendai
plain with its flat terrain, formed of broad river deltas and wide plains. These
topographic differences contribute to very different development and land use
patterns in these two areas.
The Sanriku coast has limited flatland, mostly found along the river valleys. As such,
towns and cities have developed along the river valleys. Due to the convergence of
coastal currents along the Sanriku coast, fishery abounds and almost every
community has a port that supports an active fishing industry. The main activities
comprise fishing, agriculture, and tourism with small pockets of industry and
manufacturing. Table 8 provides general information about several of the
communities visited by the COPRI team. Many of the Sanriku communities (from
Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture south to Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture) have
populations less than 10,000 (Hachinohe and Miyako are exceptions). Most of the
people reside in the limited low-lying areas close to the coast. As a result of these
development patterns, a large percentage of each community lived or worked within
the inundation zone. Although the inundation areas were relatively small, ranging
from 0.5 to 15 square kilometers, the tsunami took an enormous toll on these
communities.
The Sendai coast, by comparison, has little topographic relief and contains large
expanses of flat land. The coast supports large areas of agriculture as well as
commercial ports and industrial development. Several large ports in Ishinomaki and
Sendai serve as regional transportation hubs for shipping goods throughout the
country and overseas. Inundation areas for Ishinomaki, Sendai, and Natori were much
larger than the areas that were inundated in the Sanriku communities. A large
percentage of the population of Ishinomaki, for example, resided within the
inundation zone. So even though a relatively small percentage of the Sendai area
population felt the brunt of the tsunami, total losses far exceeded losses in Sanriku
because many more people live on the Sendai coastal plain.