The Great Wall of Japan

[Taro Toporific]

Alien_Tetrapods_Attack1.jpg

The Great Wall of Japan
---Tsunami protection--or a boondoggle for builders?---
The The Economist | 2014 June 14
...Three years ago, an earthquake under the Pacific Ocean triggered towering waves that carried away over 18,000 people and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power station...
...Japan’s government wasted little time announcing a favourite solution: pouring concrete. A few months after the disaster it pledged to build hundreds of seawalls and breakers in the three worst-hit prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate. The total cost will be up to ¥1 trillion ($9.8 billion). More walls are planned. A report by the ministries of agriculture and land said 14,000km of Japan’s 35,000km coastline requires tsunami protection.
Seawalls are controversial. They look hideous and the evidence for their effectiveness is flimsy...in the city of Kamaishi a $1.6 billion breakwater, listed in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the world’s largest, crumbled on impact. Nearly 90% of existing seawalls along the northeast coast suffered a similar fate. Critics say they even resulted in greater damage being caused elsewhere. “There is simply no guarantee that seawalls will stop every single tsunami,” says Nobuo Shuto, an engineer at Tohoku University.
More...

[Coligny]

Any word on nukaplant operator health, safety and common sense boot camp ?

Would be good ...

[matsuki]

I thought they gave up on sea walls? The fuck?

[Taro Toporific]

Any word on nukaplant operator health, safety and common sense boot camp ?

I would be all for a "Reeducation Camp" for TEPCO management.

Camp-TEPCO.jpg

[yanpa]

There was documentary the other week on NHK (can't find any link to it) about rebuilding the seawalls, one interesting thing they came up with was a leaflet from the 50's when some place's seawall was first built (while memories of the 1933 tsunami were still fresh), which stated explicitly that the seawall's purpose was not to provide absolute tsunami protection, but to provide extra time for people to escape to higher ground - something which had been forgotten in the half-century since. IIRC the plan was to rebuild the wall somewhat higher, but on the same principle, i.e. it isn't technically or financially feasible to provide a wall high and strong enough to withstand the once-in-1000 year tsunamis, but enough to give everyone behind it a decent chance of surviving.

[Yokohammer]

I thought they gave up on sea walls? The fuck?

Nope. I was just down there the other day, and the brand new eyesore wall looms large.
I'll take some pics when I get a chance to wander down there again.

[yanpa]

There was documentary the other week on NHK (can't find any link to it)

this one

[Taro Toporific]

I thought they gave up on sea walls? The fuck?

Nope. I was just down there the other day, and the brand new eyesore wall looms large.
I'll take some pics when I get a chance to wander down there again.

Wacko seawalls and tetrapods cause all the sand on beaches to erode away over time and destroying the coast habitat by creating a concrete dead zone.
The Japanese fishing industry is so stupid they don’t realize that by destroying the coastal habitat they are further reducing the number of fish in their already ridiculously over-fished waters, arrrg.

[Coligny]

I thought they gave up on sea walls? The fuck?

Nope. I was just down there the other day, and the brand new eyesore wall looms large.
I'll take some pics when I get a chance to wander down there again.

Wacko seawalls and tetrapods cause all the sand on beaches to erode away over time and destroying the coast habitat by creating a concrete dead zone.
The Japanese fishing industry is so stupid they don’t realize that by destroying the coastal habitat they are further reducing the number of fish in their already ridiculously over-fished waters, arrrg.

1128697-charles-darwin.jpg_1396593169.png

Good...

[6810]

Alien_Tetrapods_Attack1.jpg

The Great Wall of Japan
---Tsunami protection--or a boondoggle for builders?---
The The Economist | 2014 June 14
...Three years ago, an earthquake under the Pacific Ocean triggered towering waves that carried away over 18,000 people and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power station...
...Japan’s government wasted little time announcing a favourite solution: pouring concrete. A few months after the disaster it pledged to build hundreds of seawalls and breakers in the three worst-hit prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate. The total cost will be up to ¥1 trillion ($9.8 billion). More walls are planned. A report by the ministries of agriculture and land said 14,000km of Japan’s 35,000km coastline requires tsunami protection.
Seawalls are controversial. They look hideous and the evidence for their effectiveness is flimsy...in the city of Kamaishi a $1.6 billion breakwater, listed in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the world’s largest, crumbled on impact. Nearly 90% of existing seawalls along the northeast coast suffered a similar fate. Critics say they even resulted in greater damage being caused elsewhere. “There is simply no guarantee that seawalls will stop every single tsunami,” says Nobuo Shuto, an engineer at Tohoku University.
More...

Dogs, demons, whatevs... Alex Kerr called and wants his book back...

[yanpa]

Tsunami-proof 'Great Wall of Japan' divides villagers
Government wants to build 440 walls along coastline, but some residents believe a concrete fortress is not the answer

When Masahito Abe looks out at the sea that killed 40 of his neighbours just over three years ago, he is certain of one thing: at some point, perhaps long after he is gone, the ocean will again unleash a terrifying wave on his village.

Like dozens of other communities along the north-east coast of Japan struck by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Koizumi is now a wasteland. Grass and weeds grow where homes once stood. On the beach, a man digs for shellfish near the remains of a solitary gutted building.

No one will return to live in the low-lying neighbourhood of Koizumi in Miyagi prefecture, home to 60% of the 19,000 people who died in the disaster. But if the government gets its way, this abandoned strip of land will be made tsunami-proof as part of a £5bn plan to defend 230 miles of coastline with hundreds of towering concrete walls.

The scale of the project, referred to by detractors as the Great Wall of Japan, is staggering even by the standards of a country where much of the coastline is already protected against storms and erosion by concrete walls.

Under government plans, hatched months after the disaster, 440 walls are to be built in the worst-hit prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate. But while Japan's construction industry relishes the prospect of a huge payday courtesy of its allies in the governing Liberal Democratic party, opposition among residents is gathering momentum.

...concrete boondoggle continues...

[wagyl]

the low-lying neighbourhood of Koizumi in Miyagi prefecture, home to 60% of the 19,000 people who died in the disaster.

The type of clause which you can only parse correctly if you already know what it is trying to say. Did 11,400 people die in Koizumi, or in Miyagi? I know the answer, but does the typical "Guardian reader?"

Yes, I know, careful reading reveals Koizumi is a village, and that 60 neighbours of the person named for human interest purposes alone died, but most people will not be careful readers, they will be casual readers. After all, it is about a tragedy in a land far far away, which does not even share an ocean with the readership. Just enough for them to express a tut-tut of mild outrage over their morning Shredded Wheat.

[matsuki]

For faaar less than that money, they could be building Tsunami towers or something of the like, to evacuate to in the case of tsunami. Load the towers with solar panels, wind power generators, supplies, and a heli-pad and suddenly you have a solution that's useful even when there aren't tsunami. There are soo many better solutions than just dumping concrete jax off shore (which has already proven pretty useless)

[Coligny]

Ships hitting head on might survive, submarines would not even notice, anything anchored to the ground and in it path... Pretty much fucked... If not by the oncoming wave, the retreating water loaded with everything from trains to full houses will do...

Tower with their reverse pedulum properties might not fare well... Going that way, a huge concrete bunker with a corner facing the ocean shaped like a reverse boat prow... And no windows...
Even better... Concrete pyramids... This stuff can last forever and you can hide stargates under...

[matsuki]

Ships hitting head on might survive, submarines would not even notice, anything anchored to the ground and in it path... Pretty much fucked... If not by the oncoming wave, the retreating water loaded with everything from trains to full houses will do...

Tower with their reverse pedulum properties might not fare well... Going that way, a huge concrete bunker with a corner facing the ocean shaped like a reverse boat prow... And no windows...
Even better... Concrete pyramids... This stuff can last forever and you can hide stargates under...

Seemed like a few towers and large buildings survived from the pics but yeah, Pyramids, cones, so many more possibilities than "conklete fikkusu ebeting!"

[yanpa]

For faaar less than that money, they could be building Tsunami towers or something of the like, to evacuate to in the case of tsunami.

Like these?

[Coligny]

Ok, so tower survive tsoonamiz...

Which, judging by the number of phone videos of the tsunami taken from overhead pedestrian bridges (by people who survived) should have been a little more evident to me...

Still like the idea of pyramids though... However impractical that may be...

(There was also these video from the airport 2 story parking and another from a supermarket....)

[matsuki]

For faaar less than that money, they could be building Tsunami towers or something of the like, to evacuate to in the case of tsunami.

Like these?

Yes, but with actual shelter on top (nothing like braving the tsunami atop a steel scaffold, exposed to the elements) that could store supplies and shit. Speaking of which, such buildings require some serious anti-rust maintenance. My j-cousin is some kind of welding pro and was telling me last week that he got sent up some sort of tower like that recently....rungs on the maintenance ladder, along with many of the support braces, literally crumbled to rust upon being touched....when he was near the top. He carefully scrambled down and told them to get fucked.

[yanpa]

For faaar less than that money, they could be building Tsunami towers or something of the like, to evacuate to in the case of tsunami.

Like these?

Yes, but with actual shelter on top (nothing like braving the tsunami atop a steel scaffold, exposed to the elements) that could store supplies and shit. Speaking of which, such buildings require some serious anti-rust maintenance. My j-cousin is some kind of welding pro and was telling me last week that he got sent up some sort of tower like that recently....rungs on the maintenance ladder, along with many of the support braces, literally crumbled to rust upon being touched....when he was near the top. He carefully scrambled down and told them to get fucked.

Somehow that fails to surprise me...

[Coligny]

Yup, should take picture of the metal structure on the roof hiding the water towers and holding the name sign, more dust than iron on most parts... Always surprised than it survive typhoons.

For the minibunker it's the panel door for the electric meters that rusted away...

Same with the laundry poles... Nothing survive outside... Plastic is killed by UV, iron rust, wood rot... Only concrete seems to hold a bit better...

[matsuki]

In which case, your pyramid idea doesn't sound so bad. (and might bring tourists?)

[Taro Toporific]

Great Wall of Japan? Locals balk at tsunami-protection plan.
---Concrete walls could ultimately stretch 140 miles along Japan's tsunami-damaged northeast coast. The project's breathtaking scale and cost – as well as doubts about its effectiveness – are drawing ire.---
csmonitor.com | July 15, 2014
...

Japan-Detail-of-earthquake_full_600.png

More...

[matsuki]

Koizumi resident Abe, meanwhile, says the indiscriminate construction of sea walls will only strengthen Japan’s international image as a “concrete fortress.”

“The tsunami was a force of nature, so I can forgive it for the destruction and misery it caused,” he says. “But for humans to ruin their own environment.… I can never forgive that.”

They got the wrong Abe in office

[Yokohammer]

I promised a photo of our brand new seawall when I managed to get down to the coast again, and here it is.

This is a large, long, and imposing thing (insert lewd humour here __________). Before 3/11 there used to be a beautiful pine forest windbreak all up and down this part of the coast, but it all got ripped out by the tsunami anyway so I guess a pile of concrete is a viable replacement.

Seawall.jpg

[matsuki]

Meanwhile I'm at the mercy of nature here in California

today.jpg

[wagyl]

Barbra says "get off my lawn!" http://www.californiacoastline.org/stre ... wsuit.html

[matsuki]

bwahahahahahaha, I took that in Laguna though....less people, clean sand/water....and no cement or tetrapods!

[Greji]

our brand new seawall

I think it is very wise of them to build such a long and strong three foot tall sea wall! It will certainly do wonders in stopping those 20-30 foot tsunami waves. Everyone can finally get some good sleep with the government planning in action! Since one of these major splashes occur every twenty to thirty years, it's good to see the government in quick decisive action!

[Yokohammer]

our brand new seawall

I think it is very wise of them to build such a long and strong three foot tall sea wall! It will certainly do wonders in stopping those 20-30 foot tsunami waves. Everyone can finally get some good sleep with the government planning in action! Since one of these major splashes occur every twenty to thirty years, it's good to see the government in quick decisive action!

Ha ... close enough for jazz.

It's actually about 7.2 meters, which is a towering 23.6 feet. Well, maybe not so towering. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be there when another tsunami the same size as the last one comes rolling along.

But yeah, my first though after climbing to the top of what is already an eyesore was: "um, this isn't high enough."

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

Sorry for my own stoopid, 7.2 flat drop to sea level or a wheel chair friendly slope?