King Felipe VI of Spain awards Engineer Shigeo Takahashi for his work against Tsunamis

Screenshot courtesy of elpais

The King Felipe VI honors the Engineer Shigeo Takahashi with the award for Civil Engineering for his outstanding professional career and work against the Tsunamis.

The expert Engineer was recognized by the jury as "international benchmark". 

The King Felipe VI honors the Engineer Shigeo Takahashi with the award for Civil Engineering for his outstanding professional career and work against the tsunamis, this Tuesday, March 14 at the Escuela Técnica de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, in Madrid. The event corresponds to the IV edition of the José Entrecanales Ibarra Awards.

Takahashi has contributed with his valuable work and research to forecast coastal disasters. The expert Engineer was recognized by the jury as "international benchmark" for his almost 50 years of experience in the prevention of Tsunamis.

The King has highlighted it as "one of the most important worldwide recognitions in civil engineering". Takahashi thanked him for his award with an emotional speech explaining that the key lesson the Japanese have learned from catastrophes is that they must be prepared for disaster.

Takahashi chairs the Coastal Development Institute of Technology, a research center dedicated to predicting and preventing tsunamis. In his speech, the Engineer said that a "correct and orderly" evacuation is the best way to prevent the threat of a Tsunami. The Engineer reminded those present the Tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011 that left more than 15,000 fatalities. 

After the tsunami of 2011 was evident "the demand to improve coastal defensive structures." The security measures taken at that time were overcome by the tsunami: The breakwater against tsunami in the industrial port of Kamaishi, the levees that protected the international airport of Sendai and the wall that protected the nuclear power station of Fukushima, causing "disastrous consequences".

Takahashi has said that the defenses of the nuclear power plants "were renewed after the catastrophe" and that some of them are inactive, resulting in a rise in the price of electricity. In response "it was assumed naturally by the population, who prefers to pay more than assume the effects of this type of disaster."

Before a tsunami Shigeo Takahashi, the doctor in engineering by the University of Tokyo explained that, once given the alarm. Citizens will have an average time of 30 minutes to go to an elevated terrain that will allow them to be safe, "considering a building between 15 and 20 meters as a minimum security height."

"We cannot predict exactly when an earthquake will occur," said Takahashi to efeverde. However, thanks to "GPS monitoring and pressure sensors on the seabed, we are better prepared for such a calamity." In this context, also he affirmed that for an earthquake to cause a "serious" threat of tsunami, he must indicate a minimum of 7 degrees on the Richter scale.

The expert also pointed: According to studies of this natural phenomenon; “This type of seismic movements occur cyclically every 100 or 300 years.” Japan has one of the most advanced systems in the world to defend its coastline against the threat of tsunamis.

Tsunami is a natural phenomenon caused by submarine earthquakes and originates along the so-called Ring of Fire an area of volcanoes of important seismic activity of about 35,000 km in length that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

About the writer:

Luznery Vera studies Social Marketing in Coursera