How AI will help us better understand tsunami risks

By Magdalena Osumi

Drawing lessons from one of the worst disasters in the nation’s history, a team of Japanese researchers is developing an artificial intelligence-based tsunami-forecasting system set for release in fiscal 2020 that could help limit loss of life and property in future calamities.

[...]

The team, made up of researchers from risk management consultancy Tokio Marine & Nichido Risk Consulting Co. and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience are working on the nation’s first system for predicting the likelihood of tsunami based on location, as well as the scope of damage in areas expected to be hit.

[...]

[Tokio Marine & Nichido Risk Consulting] said the system will use AI to analyze data compiled in the government’s earthquake-prediction database, topographic data and the height of seawalls built along coastal areas. The system will calculate the projected heights of waves and expected immersion depth.

[...]