This document discusses how 3D geospatial data and data science can help mitigate the effects of natural disasters in Japan. It outlines Japan's PLATEAU initiative, which has created 3D models of over 50 Japanese cities that can be used for disaster simulation and response. Examples are given of how the 3D models can be used to simulate evacuations and flooding, and identify safe evacuation structures. The document argues that 3D data should be further integrated into disaster education and urban planning to promote data-driven decision making and response.

1. World Development Report 2021
Data for better lives
Final project
Open data, 3-D geospatial data, and its
applications in disaster response
November 2021
K Ono, Ph.D.
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2. Japan is a high income country at an advanced stage of
demographic and epidemiological transitions. Today, its infant,
child, and maternal mortalities are among the lowest in the
world.

3. Sustainable Development Goals (2015-) are relevant to
all countries regardless of income and development levels
Source: United Nations

4. This data visualization, a sunburst chart, shows each
country’s progress toward meeting health-related SDGs
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Source: Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation
The height of the
bar indicates
achievement of
the goals.
Though Japan
has nearly 100%
achievement of
goals related to
maternal health,
access to water
and others, there
remains
challenges.

5. Natural disasters: one of Japan’s largest safety/ public
health concerns
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Death rate due to exposure to forces
of nature. Index value (per 100,000).
Estimate: 0.04. The comparable
figure for the United States is 0.03
and for Canada, 0.01. It is 0 in UK.
Source: Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation
Other challenges (short
bars) include intimate
partner violence,
occupational risks,
deaths due to self harm.

6. Natural disasters
What can data science do to mitigate the effects?
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Tsunami
Earthquake
Climate change
Flooding
Volcano
eruption
Landslide
Torrential
rain
Avalanche
Heat
wave
Heavy
snow

7. What can data science do to mitigate the effects of
natural disasters?
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Open data
Geospatial data
3-D data
In World Bank’s “Data Driven Development”
(2018), geospatial data is identified as one of
the five types of data that governments
should make open for development purposes.
In Japan and most high-income countries,
basic geospatial boundary data have been
available online for some time.

8. The frontier in geospatial data: Three dimensional
(3-D) geospatial data
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“When smart cities need to make planning, infrastructure,
and services decisions, they increasingly turn to 3D
modeling to create virtual cityscapes to model scenarios
and understand impacts.”
Source: Kewly (2020)

9. PLATEAU
https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/
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Japanese government’s 3-D geospatial data initiative. First
released in 2020. Covers 50+ cities in Japan

10. City’s “digital twin” will facilitate visualization and
simulation
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Source: Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism

11. Application examples in disaster management
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The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. Plateau.
Disaster
evacuation
simulation.
Buildings can be
color coded
according to
height or building
use.

12. Application examples in disaster management
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The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. Plateau.
Visualizing
structures that
can serve as
“vertical” shelter
in an event of
flooding

13. Application examples in disaster management
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The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. Plateau.
3-D visualization
of inundation
simulation

14. PLATEAU VIEW allows users to preview the data on
the browser
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15. Promoting culture of data using 3-D geospatial
data especially in disaster management and
response
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Height, altitude, elevation, slope all play a key role in
a natural disaster and our response to it
3-D models should be integrated into disaster
education in schools and the community
3-D models should be integrated into all other aspects of
public administration (e.g. urban planning, environmental
conservation) which in turn will stimulate greater interest
in the use of 3-D data

16. References
• Kewly K. 2020. Global cities innovate with 3-
D modeling.
https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/blog/gl
obal-cities-innovate-with-3d-modeling/
• Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation.
Health-related SDGs.
https://vizhub.healthdata.org/sdg/
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transportation and Tourism (Japan).
PLATEAU. https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/
• United Nations. Sustainable Development
Goals.
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/su
stainable-development-goals/
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