Revitalization of Tohoku 3.11, Japan - Mitigation of social andphysical vulnerabilities towards holistic sustainability

This research is a development of a coastal town model in Tohoku region of Japan from social and physical sustainability perspectives. The social and physical challenges due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (hereinafter refer to as Tohoku 3.11) on 11^th March 2011 were studied in various coastal cities including Kamaishi, Rikuzentakata, and Minamisanriku. Super-aging society Japan has about 23% of its population above 65 years, and an attempt was made to empower the people and communities. The aim is to design a resilient master plan, architecture, and landscape where everyone wants to live and has vitality and freedom to contribute to the environment, society, and economy. In vulnerable lowland areas with deeply indented coastline bordered by sea and mountains, Tohoku 3.11 destroyed homes and livelihoods. Based on surveys of the social and physical vulnerabilities and future city initiatives of clean and renewable energy, a resilient urban design, architecture and landscape were proposed. The urban design encompasses memorial landscape at the seafront to mitigate tsunami, detached houses on high ground, and physically resilient collective housing between the highland and lowland areas. The lowland area was designated as a commercial area to maintain the liveliness of the city while ensuring an emergency evacuation system and the city hall was plannedas a revitalization center. Spaces for everyone was propose in the designs to strengthen social ties and bond. The present contemporary reconstruction works in 2021 has a paradigm shift in coastal protection policies to ‘preparedness and mitigation level 2’, to protect lives and reduce losses with comprehensive disaster management measures includingcoastal protection, urban planning, evacuation, and public education for the largest-possible tsunami level of more than 150 years recurrence interval, such as the Tohoku 3.11.