To introduce a system that can remotely control river water gate to reduce human damage at tsunami

ByHeiwa 4126

In the Great East Japan Earthquake, many victims came out to firefighters who had closed the water gate to prevent the damage of the tsunami. In response to this, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism decided to introduce a system that can remotely control all flood gates, targeting first class rivers in the Pacific side.

Tsunami, remote control of water gate ... prevent sacrifice of firefighters: politics: YOMIURI ONLINE (Yomiuri Shimbun)


There are 188 water gates in the 1st class river in the Pacific side, but 62 of them can be opened and closed by remote control, and for the remaining 126 units someone actually needs to go to the work site to work .

Water gates partitioning Arakawa and Sumidagawa "Iwakabu Lake". This red flood gate was used until 1982 when the new flood gate was completed, and it is now preserved as a recommended industrial heritage · Tokyo selection historical building.

By Jmho

This is a new flood gate. From the color, the old gate is called "red water gate", while it is called "blue water gate". In normal times the water gate is open and water is flowing from the Arakawa to the Sumida river, but it is closed at the time of water rise and the flow to the Sumida river is stopped. It is an important important point protecting the capital city from floods, and it is one of the flood gates where remote control systems are introduced.

By Jmho

At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, fire fighting members who closed the water gate to prevent the damage of the tsunami occurred in several places where the tsunami got lost their lives or became missing. There were 253 people in Iwate prefecture, Miyagi prefecture and Fukushima prefecture, including firefighters' fatalities and missing persons in this earthquake, 72 of them were involved in work such as closing of floodgates.

72 people with death / unknown firefighting members: society: YOMIURI ONLINE (Yomiuri Shimbun)


The tsunami runs up the river unless water gate closure is done. At the Okawa Elementary School at Ishinomaki Municipal Okawa Elementary School, the tsunami that went up the Kitakami River caused a major damage, and 70% of all school children died and became missing. Actually, even in Chiba it was impossible to close the flood gate, causing flooding damage, but the cause was that it was difficult for the people to contact the person in charge immediately after the disaster, and the arrival of the personnel in charge was delayed due to traffic congestion.

Traffic can not be closed due to traffic jams Tsunami Tokyo Bay in Chiba City, flooding also - 47 NEWS (Yona no News)


The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has conceived that it is possible to remotely operate all the flood gates in order to break down this situation that there is a possibility that the fire fighters will be sacrificed to close the floodgate and that if they do not close it will be sacrificed somewhere else. It was the introduction of a system to make it.

For now, this remote control system has been introduced in class 1 rivers less than half, but because it costs tens of millions of yen per unit. At this time, the Ministry of MITI posted about 7.7 billion yen for this system construction cost and river tsunami countermeasure in the budget proposal. First of all, we will start maintenance from the big cities in the Pacific Ocean where damage is expected due to a massive earthquake such as the Tokai earthquake, Tonankai earthquake and Nankai earthquake and aim to complete maintenance within a few years.

Fortunately for Japan in 2010 the Chilean earthquake did not result in major damage, but we were wary of the tsunami and closing work of the water gate and the tide bank was done along the coast. Operation will be easier if the remote control system is installed not only in the first grade river, but also in the main gate's water gate and tidal bank.

Quanzhou news - Quanzhou dot com - tsunami flood gate, tide door closed up chased


The diamond · online article "Firefighters who closed the floodgates with a live danger before closing Tsunami 253 people who produced victims too heavy "contradiction of social structure""According to the water seawater gate in Kamaishi City, it seems that opening and closing the floodgates by remote control during annual disaster training and annual water gate inspection twice a year. However, at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, it was impossible to remotely operate, he said that he actually had to go to the water gate and work. In addition to the system to switch to the standby power supply, at the end, thinking about the possibility that human beings must be in charge, it is necessary not to neglect the training of the water gate operation.