A Broad Survey on Expected Depth of Flood Inundation at Designated Hospitals for Infectious Diseases in Japan Using Flood Hazard Maps

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a broad survey on expected depth of inundation by large-scale floods at designated hospitals for infectious diseases in Japan based on open flood hazard maps. The results showed that inundation was expected at approximately a quarter of all target hospitals by floods of the designed level for river planning, while it was expected at about one-third of them by floods of the probable maximum level. Flood inundation deeper than 10 meters was expected at some hospitals, where self-protection measures such as evacuation to the upper stories or installation of the emergency power system to the upper level may no longer be effective. Close coordination with river management, crisis management and public health authorities is therefore considered to be important for those hospitals to enlarge their capability of crisis management under a complex disaster that consists of the epidemic of severe infectious diseases and large-scale floods.