[pp.149-158]

‹Research Report›An Urgent Survey of Which Coastal Forests and Species Survived the Tohoku Tsunami

Kazue FUJIWARA, Daisaku MIYAUCHI and Atsuko HARADA （Yokohama City University）

Abstract:
An unprecedented earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred off northeastern Japan (Tohoku) on March 11, 2011, generating a tsunami that hit the Pacific coast and killed and missed around 20,000 people. Urgent coastal surveys have been done to assess tsunami damage, inundation, runoff, and the loss of the coastal protection wall and pine forests, which were expected to provide some protection. Remnants of these coastal forests were surveyed phytosociologically in Miyagi (August 2011) and northern Fukushima Prefectures (April and August 2011); the vitality of woody plants was surveyed in August 2011, i.e. six months after the tsunami. Forest remnants involved surviving understorey and other woody species. Old pine thickets on sand dunes survived the tsunami, but managed park forests and forests in mixed-use areas with newer plantations and park areas were completely destroyed and washed away. All the protective pine forests on reclaimed land were washed out in Soma and Minami-Soma. The construction of hard, dune-like topographies, with several rows, as hard as the Sendai East Highway (that stopped the tsunami), has been recommended. Species for this construction should include mixtures of tolerant species chosen based on the vitality of surviving woody plants in the survey data.

Key Word:
coastal pine forests, line-transect survey, surviving trees, tsunami protection forest, Tohoku Tsunami, post-tsunami tree vitality

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